First post, by retro games 100
- Rank
- l33t
I just got this CD-ROM drive from the USA. It was well packaged. It's made by NEC and is a bit unusual because it's only 2x speed, but it does not have a propriatory interface. Instead, it uses the later IDE interface. It was shipped to me in the "slave" configuration, but before testing I altered this to "master", and connected it to the IDE2 port on the socket 7 mobo. When I powered on the mobo, the CD-ROM drive was lifeless. Also, the autoexec/config ATAPI driver did not "see" the CD-ROM drive. So, I removed it from the IDE2 mobo port, and slaved it off the HDD instead. That worked. I tested it by installing Dark Forces. It's noticeably slower than a 4x CD-ROM drive (especially when copying over the large "textures.gob" file from the Dark Forces CD), but definitely quieter. Also, there are no "sharp" sounding seek access noises. It also has a quick "spin down" time too - no more than about 30 seconds. I think this unit would be ideal for an early DOS machine, but perhaps not suitable for a mid 90s DOS machine, where you have those games that have FMV spooled from a CD.
