Until recently backing up data to a CD-R or CD-RW and playing DVD movies on your PC required two separate drives. With Hewlett-Packard's 9900ci, a 12x (CD-R) by 10x (CD-RW) by 32x (CD read) by 8x (DVD read) drive, you get all the features of a CD-RW and a DVD-ROM drive in one inexpensive and easy-to-install unit. Whether showing its muscle by burning over 600M of data to CD-R in less than seven minutes or playing back perfect DVD video, the 9900ci is ultimately an impressive piece of hardware.
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Installing the 9900ci is a breeze. Simply set the drive as either a master or slave, slide it into a free bay and attach the power, data, and audio cables. No special drivers are required. Install the supplied software and you're ready to burn.
The 9900ci is not the fastest CD-RW we've benched, its scores are comparable to Ricoh's similar MP9120A combo drive. On our test machine, a Dell Dimension XPS B800r with an 800MHz Pentium III processor and 128M RAM running Microsoft Windows 98 SE (with the test-before-copying and verify-after copying settings turned off), the 9900ci averaged 2,634K per second on our read tests. On our CD-R write and CD-RW tests, it averaged 1,564K and 1,176K per second respectively.
In addition too solid benchmark scores the 9900ci has an inspiring software bundle anchored by HP's own MyCD mastering software. It's not nearly as robust as the current version of the Adaptec's Easy CD Creator found with many other CD-R drives, but MyCD is much more user-friendly and should satisfy all but the most hardcore disc burners. For CD-RW packet-writing support, HP includes Adaptec's DirectCD, which lets you drag-and-drop files onto your CD-RW discs, allowing the disc to be seen and treated as just another drive. Additional software includes ArcSoft's PhotoStudio and Video Impressions (a very basic video editor), Sonic Foundry's Acid Xpress (a music generation program), MusicMatch Jukebox (an MP3 ripper), and Cyberlink's PowerDVD (a DVD movie player).
For those of you who want a more professional or creative look to your CD-Rs, HP has included, for a limited time (according to the company's Web site), CD-Labeler II, which lets you print adhesive-backed labels that stick to the top of your discs. The drive comes with a few blank, letter-size sticker sheets that can be fed through any laser or bubble jet printer; there's even a gadget for evenly applying the sticker to the disc.
Probably the worst thing we can say about the 9900ci is that it's ugly. The faceplate of the drive has been NASCAR-ised, with a HP logo, a MultiRead logo, a CD-R logo, a CD-RW logo, and a descriptive nameplate crammed into the tiny space. Admittedly, we're being petty here.
Basically, the HP 9900ci delivers the goods and then some. We have no problem recommending this drive to anyone looking for CD-R/CD-RW and DVD playback capabilities for their current system.
HP 9000ci CD-RW DVD-R Combo
Company:Hewlett-Packard
Price:AU$1149
Phone:13 13 47
