The SECOND most versatile laptop drive

Author's Rating:

Pros: Fast, quiet, smooth, extremely versatile

Cons: No RPC-1 firmware available

The Bottom Line: 
An excellent drive.

Author's Review
RPC is the standard for controlling the region codes in DVD drives, with RPC1 for unlocked, and RPC2 for region locked. Why am I starting a review with a discussion of RPC codes? Well, I travel frequently between the United States and South Korea, and enjoy DVD movies from both countries. The problem is, the Unites States is Region 1 and South Korea is Region 3, and all new or recent laptop DVD drives only allow changing the region setting 4 or 5 times.

They allow 4 or 5 settings, that is, unless one updates the firmware. I've had a number of laptops and drives with DVD playback ability, and have also had a few laptop CDRW players, and one combo drive. Until now, all of my DVD or combo drives have had available RPC1 firmware updates, but the LG/Hitachi mechanism in the IBM Combo III does not.

Does this reduce my appreciation for this drive? Well, it added $40 to the price as I had to purchase a software region-free solution (which works VERY well). Its not IBM's fault, and is only an issue if you run more than one region of DVDs and aren't willing to buy the software (www.dvdidle.com). Be careful if you need more than one region, as there are a few drives that the software won't support, and there are numerous drives for which there is no firmware update. Make sure you can do one or the other BEFORE you buy.

Okay, so with multiple region capabilities added by software, how do I like hte IBM DVD/CDRW Combo III? Very much, thank you. My last combo drive came with a Toshiba Portege 4000, and was a 24X Read, 8X Write, 4X ReWrite and 6X DVD. that mechanism was quiet and reliable with all CDR media, but a bit flakey with Memorex CDRW disks (it wrote fine to the 8X-rated media, but destroyed the 4X-rated disks). Despite having to carefully choose compatible media, I really enjoyed the convenience of this drive, as I used to always be plugging and unplugging my USB external CDRW, and lugging it with me whenever I traveled.

When I sold the Portege and bought an IBM ThinkPad T20 (used), I ordered a selectbay CDRW drive (4X Write/4X ReWrite) to supplement the 6X DVD ROM drive that came with the laptop. While I missed the convenience of the combo drive, the Ultrabay CDRW was a much more convenient solution than the external USB drive.

After one time too many of having the wrong drive installed and not bringing-along the right drive, I ordered the IBM Combo III. So how does it compare with the combo drive in my Portege or the separate Ultrabay DVD and CDRW drives from the T20? Easy, it smokes them all. The Combo III is faster than any laptop drive I've ever owned, writing to CDR at 16X and to CDRW at 10X (the newer combo IV writes to both types at 24X).

The drive is also smoother and quieter than other drives I've owned. Neither the 6X DVD drive that came with the T20 and the 8X drive that came with the T23 were annoying or noisey, but the Combo III really sets a new standard when used in the T23 (I never tried the other drives in the T23, so it could be better insulation in this computer than in the largely identical T20). I've also had no problems writing to any media I've tried to use, including some leftover Memorex 4X CDRW disks that failed in the Portege and only worked at 2X in the T20. Despite their 4X rating, I wrote data at 10X without any errors on these disks.

Actually, writing or reading disks on the Combo III is even quieter than on the Verbatim CDRW in my DESKTOP computer.