When it comes to CD-RW drives, both the Sony models in the Labs this month represent top quality and performance. This internal model, the Sony CRX175MC1, turned out to be the fastest drive among the 24x drives submitted to the Labs. It was only pipped from being the fastest drive in the roundup by the outstanding TDK model with 32x write. Despite the lower specification, it was still able to take the top spot in a couple of the benchmark tests.The CD-RW write test saw the Sony internal model clock in fastest, at an impressive 355 seconds - or just under six minutes - and also both the read tests came in quick, with it finishing in 155 and 105 seconds for the PQI/TGA read test, and 104 seconds in the CD-RW read test.

The Sony internal drive is a trayloading device, and includes a 2MB buffer, which is supported by Power Burn in order to prevent the needless creation of coasters through buffer underruns. Unlike most drives that come supplied with a variation on Adaptec EasyCD or Nero Burning ROM, the Sony models this month were supplied with B's Recorder Gold for authoring your CD media, plus a few extras thrown in to round out a very solid package.