As you can see, this drive is a bit more expensive than the Plextor unit, and the main reason for this is the type of interface used. Where the Plextor uses IDE, this Mirai unit has a SCSI connector at the rear, which is more suitable for use in professional systems. Previously, SCSI was the interface of choice partly because it offered better data transfer and fewer buffer under-runs. That might not be true now, but serious users still tend to gravitate to this interface.

Installation was easy for us, as we already had a SCSI adapter installed in our test machine. Almost inevitably, new users without SCSI adapters will find the process tricky and not much fun, but the likely target audience for this drive is probably not going to be too troubled.

After installation of the drive and the Nero CD authoring software (which we rather like, if only for the implications of its name), we were up and running. Copying and CD creation was easy, even on a PC connected to a network and even while simultaneously browsing the Web. This technology really works.

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Record and re-write speed are not specified for this drive, but we'd estimate they are around 10x, as copying a CD took 11 minutes with this unit compared to 9 with the Plextor. Read speed is 'up to 32x'; as with the Plextor, the likely average is around 20-speed, which is quite enough, thank you. The drive package includes a PCI SCSI card, one each of CD-R and CD-RW media, cables, software and even a pen for writing on the finished CDs.