Various PCE system reliability questions

[DragonmasterDan]

As those who have followed my botched HOP-M3 install have learned, I'm thinking about picking up a new Duo, or possibly a PCE Duo or Duo R or RX. Does anyone have any recommendations on what's more reliable. I don't need US HuCard support so I don't need a domestic Duo, I'm thinking about getting a PCE Duo or Duo R based on the cost but my mind can be changed.

[termis]

People here have said that Duo-R and the RX seem to be more reliable on the sound department.

My regular old' Black duo (both Turbo and PCE versions) seem to be chugging along, though...

[DragonmasterDan]

People here have said that Duo-R and the RX seem to be more reliable on the sound department.

My regular old' Black duo (both Turbo and PCE versions) seem to be chugging along, though...

Thanks, does anyone else have any experiences with different PCE/Turbo systems to share? I plan to make a purchase in the next week or two.

[vestcoat]

I only have experience with a Turbo Duo and a Super CD attachment.  Both work fine but I am a little dissappointed that the SCD is not as fast as my Turbo Duo.  Nod has proven this to be the case with all CD attachments being slower than Duo's.

After speed, you considerations are price and reliability.  I've heard lots of strong endorsements for the TG16 CD player and the Duo-R/Duo-RX both being real troopers (The R and RX are basically identical).
Many people with Turbo Duo's and PCE Duo's never have any problems, but D-lite or someone did find hard evidence of the heat sinks in these units having the potential to cause sound problems.  Someone also made the argument that the  CD technology at the time was so primitive that you're best off getting the most recent system possible, which again, would be the R/RX.

Speed, reliability and price would lead me to buy a Dou-R if I needed another system.  On the downside, they're not black and the plastic tends to yellow over time, like a NES or SNES.

[FM-77]

Avoid RX. Same as R but more expensive.

[2X4]

I think the TG-CD speed is as fast as a duo if you have the corresponding system card, the Arcade Card Pro.  This would of course mean you would need to mod your TurboGrafx.  But I know some people say that the TG-CD is the way to go if you want to play backups without ruining your system.

[FM-77]

The CD speed is the same on ALL PCE/TG units. Period.

[Black Tiger]

The CD speed is the same on ALL PCE/TG units. Period.

At least one person around here has mentioned that their Super CD-ROM searches slower than their Duo or something. Even though the 'speed' is the same. I believe that someone else posted an explanation why(drive speed isn't the only factor in search times).

[Keranu]

Yeah nod has posted before that Duos have faster "seek time" or something, but they all have a 1x CD drive. It sounds reasonable to me since my Duo seems to load faster than my PCE CD.

[2X4]

I think the duo is faster because of the increased ram, I'm not sure but I believe there was a significant increase in speed due to the way ram is loaded with the later system, so if you have an arcade card, it should be the same.  But I've been wrong before.

[DragonmasterDan]

I'm used to using a Duo, so I wouldn't expect anything to be slower. I was wondering more if anyone has had Duo R or RX's break down or problems with them in comparison to the regular Turbo/PCE Duo.

[Black Tiger]

I'm used to using a Duo, so I wouldn't expect anything to be slower. I was wondering more if anyone has had Duo R or RX's break down or problems with them in comparison to the regular Turbo/PCE Duo.

Unfortunately, most people haven't purchased multiple Duo variants brand new and can't account for whatever abuse they may have suffered at the hands of prior users.

The Duo I bought at launch is still running fine, even though I've been pretty rough with it. I had to replace the lens of my second hand Duo RX, which had minor issues from the get go.

Although I've banged up my Duo pretty bad, I've kept the drive pretty clean and don't smoke.

[DragonmasterDan]

I'm used to using a Duo, so I wouldn't expect anything to be slower. I was wondering more if anyone has had Duo R or RX's break down or problems with them in comparison to the regular Turbo/PCE Duo.

Unfortunately, most people haven't purchased multiple Duo variants brand new and can't account for whatever abuse they may have suffered at the hands of prior users.

The Duo I bought at launch is still running fine, even though I've been pretty rough with it. I had to replace the lens of my second hand Duo RX, which had minor issues from the get go.

Although I've banged up my Duo pretty bad, I've kept the drive pretty clean and don't smoke.

Yeah, that's a lot of the problem. Since Duo R or RX's are newer I've thought about just doing that instead. I'm not in a super rush to buy a new PCE or Turbo but I have tax refund money and I've been needing to replace my Duo which no longer reads CDs for a while since repair isn't really an option with such an old system.