Best know for its Mac peripherals, LaCie has joined the handful of companies (Panasonic, Toshiba, and a few others) that are offering drives based on DVD-RAM format.

The LaCie SCSI DVD-RAM is an external drive that works with both PCs and Macs, but as the name implies requires a SCSI interface. Putting aside the current limitations of the DVD-RAM format itself, the LaCie DVD-RAM drive still has some significant weaknesses.

The DVD-RAM format lets you write and rewrite data to double-sided discs that can store up to a whopping 9.4G. Unlike other DVD formats, DVD-RAM uses discs enclosed in a cartridge. While it is technically possible to write discs that can be popped out of the cartridge and played in some DVD drives and players, for practical purposes the DVD-RAM format is much better suited for archival purposes than for distribution of audio and video (DVD-R).

Pros and Cons Pros Massive rewritable storage Front headphone jack and volume control Cons Slow read times Noisy fan No included DVD movie software No included backup software

At one time, the LaCie DVD-RAM drive's SCSI interface was the technology of choice for high-bandwidth applications, but it has been equalled and surpassed by ATAPI, USB 2.0, and IEEE-1394 (FireWire). Besides requiring a special SCSI card (not included with the LaCie DVD-RAM drive), SCSI presents its own set of challenges, including termination hassles and chaining considerations.

The SCSI interface allows the LaCie DVD-RAM drive to be used with machines from the Macintosh platform, although not many Macs ship with SCSI support these days. The drive is also available with an IEEE-1394 (FireWire) interface as well, but that model only works with the Macintosh platform.

The hardest thing about using the LaCie DVD-RAM drive is trying to get excited about its performance. Transfer rates during writes are comparable to the speeds we've seen in Toshiba's SD-W2002 (the LaCie scored 1,260K per second for large files and 721K per second with smaller files in our tests); where the LaCie drive stumbles is with read time. Reading small files from DVD-RAM, the LaCie drive manages only 805K per second, compared with the 1,925K per second transfer rates posted by Toshiba's SD-2002 DVD-RAM drive in our tests. Read times on larger files were more in line, although still some 10 percent slower at 2,636K per second. All in all, it's pretty lethargic for an interface that's able to handle up to 10M per second transfer rates.

With read times as slow as write times with small files, copying a typical backup cartridge of documents and email logs to the hard drive would be arduous task reminiscent of ancient tape backups. Inexpensive CD-R media and drives would be a much faster solution, albeit with capacity limitations.

Besides speed, a lot of essential software is also missing from LaCie's DVD-RAM drive. There's no backup software bundled and, though the drive can playback DVD movies, there's no playback software included. Other drives we've seen include all this and frequently other multimedia software. The LaCie ships relatively barren, with only Software Architects' WriteDVD. This Universal Disk Format (UDF) software lets you format media and assign drive letters, in addition to providing diagnostic and repair utilities.

LaCie doesn't make the actual drive inside the case--that honour goes to Panasonic's Matsushita, whose LF-D291 drive sits under the LaCie hood--but the company did stick it in a noisy box, put the LaCie name on it, and are selling it. But that doesn't mean you have to buy it.

LaCie DVD-RAM drive
Company:LaCie
Price:AU$1,599
Phone:(02) 9669 6900

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