Back in the old days, Amiga
owners didn't have much choice over what
hardware and software to use to write
CDs. The HP4020i was the only affordable
writer that worked -- and it was �850 --
and MasterISO was the only CD writing
software you could use and remain
relatively sane. These days there are
quite a few packages you can use to burn
CDs on the Amiga, from MakeCD and Burn It
to thankfully updated versions of
MasterISO. If you really want to suffer,
you can even use the original Commodore
ISOBuild software. A new version of
MasterISO is due "real soon
now", which should hopefully add
features like a Disk-At-Once mode.
But, the reason we are all here is to
find out about the latest generation of
CD-ROM writers. They're still not cheap,
but you can pick one up now for as little
as �300. Most of the reason for the
price drop is the widespread use of these
devices. They are no longer restricted to
mastering audio CDs or games for console
systems, but for more mundane things like
presentations, transporting everyday data
and making system backups. The technology
has also become more advanced, which
always helps, and now even quad speed
writers are within the budget of some
home users and most small businesses.
The factors you should consider if
you are thinking about buying a drive are
really all tied up with what you want to
do with it. You should find out what
software supports it, whether it can
support CDDA (direct audio through the
SCSI port) and whether this will be your
only drive, or in addition to your normal
CD-ROM drive. In the case of the former,
you may want one with a faster read time.
There are a number of drives that work
fine but cause problems with certain SCSI
configurations (the A3000 seems to crop
up on this list a lot), so it's best to
find out before you get the drive.
