Introduction

Iomega have always been one of the forefront leaders in the optical storage drive market. They aren't usually trend-setters in this segment, but you can always count on them to keep up with the competitions by delivering new CD-RW drives for the masses. So with CD-RW drives already a standard component in a system, and the 52x24x52x terminology being the "latest" fad in optical storage drives, it was really just a matter of time before Iomega launched their own 52x24x52x series.

The Iomega 52x24x52x, like its previous 48x24x48x predecessor, comes with the standard plethora of accessories including a user manual, an IDE cable, an audio cable, screws and the Nero Burning ROM software. Our biggest complaint about Iomega drives have always been the lack of any media included. That still speaks true for the new 52x24x52x, where you won't find any CD-R nor any CD-RW media in the retail package.

The front tray should be familiar to every hardcore CD-RW users.

Not much different here. Vendors don't put fans at the back like they use to now.

The 52x24x52x drive also comes with the SMART-BURN feature. For those new to CD-RWs, SMART-BURN (or Smart Monitoring & Adapting Recording Technology for BURNing) is a technology that prevents buffer-underrun errors. This means that the Iomega drive is intelligent enough to know how to resume from the point it stopped burning due to buffer under-running. In addition to that, SMART-X (Smart Monitoring & Adjusting Read-speed Technology for Extraction) is an optimum write speed control feature that checks the media's highest speed capability before deciding what speed it should write on the media, so as to produce the maximum quality result. As with all drives that uses SMART-BURN, there is no way to turn off SMART-X.