1. Introduction
AOpen
CRW1632 IDE CDR-W - Page
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- Introduction:
is
a company that ships products for the entire PC platform, including optical
storage devices. AOpen products may not be the leaders of the CD-authoring race
but are surely popular among the users for their good performance and nice price.
Recently, AOpen entered the 16x writing race with the "CRW1632" model.
Can the new proposal from AOpen compete and win the already known Plextor, LiteOn
and Teac recorders? Let's find out...
- Features:
The drive supports 16x writing (CLV) max speed among with "JustLink"
and "JustSpeed" technologies. The exact writing speeds are 2x, 4x,
8x, 12x, 16x (CLV) and re-writing speeds 2x, 4x, 10 (CLV). The drive also includes
2MB of buffer and supports all available writing modes (TAO, SAO, DAO, Multisession
and Packet Writing).
- The New features:
The
Ricoh MP7200A was the first recorder that supported "Just Speed" technology.
The AOpen CRW1632 also supports "JustSpeed" which ensures that a high
speed burning suitability check -of the CD medium- is made, when the CD is loaded
into the device. If the check is successful, the burner automatically adjusts
the medium's optimal burning speed between 12x and 16x for the high-speed process.
The Just Speed technology avoids disc errors and slow writing speeds. The mechanism
controls the maximum writing speed by:
(1)
using the ATIP information (maker name, model number, etc. pre-recorded on disc),
(2) performing test writing to the OPC area at the inner circumference of
the disc. This write test defines the basic speed information for the burning
operation.
(3) making another test that makes sure that the blank CD has no manufacturing
flaws. This test decides if the whole CD can be written at the speed selected
in step 2 or if further adjustment is needed.
After running these 3 tests in the background, the AOpen CRW1632 starts burning
automatically at optimal speed.
- The package:
The
package supplied was the retail European version. This included: The drive itself,
a printed manual in 6 languages, 1 piece (16x certified) of AOpen 74min CD-R
blank (actual manufacturer Ritek), 1 piece of AOpen 74min 4-10x High-Speed RW
Blank (actual manufacturer Plasmon Data), audio cable and mounting screws. The
software supplied with the drive was Nero Burning ROM v5.5.3.0 OEM and Ahead
InCD v2.2.3 (for packet writing use). There is also an Mp3 encoder/player ["Gamut
2000" v1.20], which some users, may find useful.
The front of the drive is what we can call "generic". The drive
doesn't have the AOpen logo printed on it. It does include though, the "High-Speed
RW", "JustLink" logos. User will understand directly the drive's
specs from the "16x10x32x" logo. You will also find only one led,
the eject button (the smallest we ever saw in recorder) and the headphone input
jack/volume selector:
At the backside of the drive we will find the usual connectors (IDE interface,
power), the jumpers for making the drive Master/Slave, the SPDIF output connector,
the analog/digital output connectors and 3 jumpers which are used to setup the
drive's working mode, PIOMode4 (default) or UDMA33. For setting up the UDMA33
mode you just have to remove the middle jumper:
- Installation:
The
AOpen 1632 was installed as a Master in the secondary IDE BUS. The drive worked
in UDMA33 mode and after booting, identified itself as the "AOpen CD-RW
CRW1632". We unchecked the Auto Insert notification, checked DMA and
rebooted.
The drive was a July 2001 model with firmware revision v1.03 installed. We
used the Nero (5.5.3.5), InCD (2.26), CloneCD (3.0.5.1) and Padus DJ (3.50.799)
for the recording tests.
- Test Machine:
WinMe
OS
Soyo 7VCA
Celeron II 566 over clocked to 850 MHz
128MB SDRAM PC 133
WD 18GB UDMA 66
Quantum Fireball EX 6.4 GB UDMA 33
DAWI 2975 - PCI (ULTRA) SCSI Host Adapter
ATI AIW 128
AOpen CRW1632 firmware v1.03
PleXWriter PX-W1610A firmware v1.03
TEAC CD-516EB firmware v1.0A
Lite-On LTR-16101B firmware vTS0N
2. Data Tests
AOpen
CRW1632 IDE CDR-W - Page
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Data Tests
Test Method:
- SCSI Mechanic v3.0x: This was used to compare the drive's
I/O performance against other various CDR-W drives (see charts). We used a pressed
CD containing PlexTools v1.08 for all of the tests.
- Nero CD Speed v0.83b was also used to check the drive's performance
with pressed CDs. For that test, we also used the PlexTools v1.08 pressed CD.
- SCSI Mechanic v3.0x results:
The AOpen 1632 cannot really compare to the rest of drives since it supports
only 32x max reading speed. However the fact that its writing/re-writing capabilities
are the same with the competition, made it comparable....
- Nero CD Speed v0.83 results: (click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
Using Nero CD Speed 0.83b, we can see that the drive's average reading speed
is around 24.84X.
In the "Seek Times" test, the AOpen CRW1632 performed very good.
Its average random seek times are at the same levels with LiteOn LTR-16101B
but its numbers are higher than what Teac 516EB gives.
- PSX Pressed Media:
In order to fulfil user requests, we have included a test with mixed mode CDs
(mainly PSX). For this test we used the PSX game 'NBA Jam Extreme' and we ripped
the image to HD with CloneCD. We measured the reading times and the AOpen 1632
is not the best solution for someone who wants to have fast PSX images ripped
into his HD, since it's the slower among the four tested drives:
- CDR Media: (click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
With CDR media, the AOpen CRW1632 has around 25.12X average reading speed.
3. RW reading tests
AOpen
CRW1632 IDE CDR-W - Page
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RW reading tests
- Nero CD Speed v0.83b Test: (Click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
For the RW tests, we used TDK's HS-RW media. The AOpen CRW1632 drive gave back
the same performance level as the PleXWriter PX-W1610A:
CloneCD Reading
Tests
- Procedure:
We used CloneCD (v3.0.5.1) and 5 original CDs - Euro 2000 (SafeDisc 1),
No One Lives For Ever (SafeDisc 2), Rally Masters (LaserLock 1), Desperados
(LaserLock 2) and V-Rally 2 Expert (SecuROM 2) - in order to test the reading
performance of AOpen CRW1632. We also tested the reading performance with backups
of the original CDs, since the reading speed varies between original and backup
media. For comparison reasons we added the results of the already tested PleXWriter
PX-W1610A, Teac CD-W516EB and LiteOn LTR-16101B. The following picture shows
the AOpen CRW1632 reading/writing capabilities:
- SafeDisc 1/2 Results:
The AOpen CRW1632 gave back a great performance when it came to the reading
of protected SafeDisc v1 CDs. Its performance was the second best behind PleXWriter
PX-W1610A.
With SafeDisc v2.0 protected CDs, the AOpen CRW1632 is a stable
reader and gives back a pretty good number, which even though, cannot reach
the high performance of PleXWriter PX-W1610A.
LaserLock 1/2 Results:
In the LaserLock protected CDs test, the AOpen CRW1632 gave back the best
reading time with the original CDs and the second best time with the backup
media.
Again with LaserLock 2 LaserLock 2 protected CDs, AOpen reads them faster
than competition, with original CD. With the backup CD, PleXWriter leads the
race.
SecuROM Results:
The AOpen CRW1632 can read SubChannel data from Data/Audio tracks very fast!
The competition simply cannot follow...
4. DAE Tests
AOpen
CRW1632 IDE CDR-W - Page
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DAE Tests
- Test Method:
We used CD DAE 99 v0.21 beta and EAC v0.9 prebeta 11 software in order to
check the DAE performance of the AOpen CRW1632 with various AudioCDs (both pressed
and CDR). The posted DAE results are the average of both applications, but the
CPU usage was only taken from CD DAE 99, since EAC occupies the system a lot
more. As a last note, we used the "BURST" reading mode of EAC. We
made a full CD Rip starting from the first to the last track of the CD. The
Average DAE reported speed along with the CPU Usage is displayed in the test
graphs.
- DAE features:
As the program reported, the drive doesn't "Caching" data, supports
"Accurate Stream" and doesn't support "C2 Error info".
- Pressed AudioCD results: (click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
The AOpen supports up to 32x DAE with both pressed and CDR media. The drive
uses full CAV as the main reading technology. However compared to the other
competitors, AOpen CRW1632A is slower:
The drive has an average of 23.3x, staying far away from the
top performer PX-W1610A. The LiteOn LTR-16101B comes second and Teac 516EB third.
- CDR AudioCD Results: (click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
The drive performs quite well with CDR media. The average DAE was around
23.5X:
- EAC Secure Extract Ripping mode
After many viewer-requests we have added the EAC's secure extract ripping
mode results, which ensures maximum produced WAV quality. Notice that for each
drive we used the build-in detection function:
|
Tested Drives
|
Average DAE Speed (X)
|
|
Pressed
|
CDR
|
|
LiteOn LTR-16101B
|
10.08
|
7.5
|
|
Teac 516EB
|
1.7
|
1.7
|
|
PleXWriter PX-W1610A
|
8.4
|
8.9
|
|
AOpen CRW1632
|
17
|
16.5
|
- Advanced DAE Quality
The AOpen CRW1632 performed excellently at the Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE
quality test. The drive produced 0 data/sync errors and got a perfect score
(100). LiteOn didn't perform as you might expect in the CD Speed 99 Advanced
DAE test. The drive produced 58750 data errors, and got 98.1 score out of 100
(perfect). The drive cannot read "CD-Text" enabled AudioCDs and can
read "SubChannel Data" (from audio tracks):
- Bad CDR Media results
Despite the fact that Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test stretches drive's mechanism
to the max, we decided to do real life tests with a scratched disc. The disc
was dirty, and with some light scratches, enough in order cause problems to
most of the tested drives. We used CD DAE 99 software to rip the whole disc
(756539616 sectors) and the results were very interesting:
|
|
Average Speed (X)
|
Errors
|
Errors Of Total Disc (%)
|
|
LiteOn LTR-16101B
|
26
|
155252
|
0,02
|
|
Teac 516EB
|
26,8
|
0
|
0
|
|
PleXWriter PX-W1610A
|
29.3
|
5069
|
almost 0
|
|
AOpen CRW1632
|
8.7
|
671353896
|
88,74%
|
As the tests showed, the only drive that managed to read the disc without
reporting any error was the Teac 516EB! The Plextor drive came second with only
5069 errors. The LiteOn drive reported 155252 errors and as for the AOpen drive,
performed very bad since almost 88.74% of the read data weren't correct.
- Ripping 90 and 99min CDs:
>> 
As we can see from the above graphs, the AOpen CRW1632 doesn't have any problem
ripping both 90min and 99min CDs.
5. CDR Tests
AOpen
CRW1632 IDE CDR-W - Page
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CDR Tests
The
AOpen CRW1632 supports up to 16x (CLV) writing speed. We used Nero CD Speed
build-in writing test in order to test the drive's writing performance. The
drive's average writing speed is 16.04X as Nero CD Speed revealed.
The
drive also supports JustSpeed, which automatically will reduce the writing speed
in case an un-certified 16x CD is inserted and the drive detects that cannot
be written safely at the maximum writing (16X) speed.
- Procedure:
We
tested the AOpen CRW1632 with Nero v5.5.3.5, CloneCD v3.0.5.1 and Padus DJ v3.50.799
software.
For the CDR tests we used: Verbatim 74min (16x) & 80min (16x), Taiyo Yuden
74 & 80min (24x), Mitsui 74min (24 & 16x) and Ricoh/Verbatim/TDK 74min
HS-RW media. We did notice that the drive didn't like at all Creation 74min
12x (made from Plasmon) media and we had "Medium Speed Error" all
times we tried (both with JustSpeed on/off).
- CD-R Tests:
We created a "DataCD" with an amount of data slightly higher than
74mins (74:03:65). We burned the same data amount with all 4 CDR-W drives:
The AOpen CRW1632 stays very close to the competition and needs 407 secs to
finish the task, 2 more than PleXWriter PX-W1610A and one more than LiteOn drive.
The CPU Usage is slightly higher than the competition.
The drive's performance at 16x (with JustSpeed disabled) was very good and
it actually got the second place behind PleXWriter. The difference with JustSpeed
On/Off and certified 16x media is very small (around 3-4secs). But for safety
reasons, AOpen suggests to have "JustSpeed" always on.
- 80min CDs:
As with the previous test, we created a DataCD (80:01:47) and used the same
media for all burns:
Again in the 80min CD task, the AOpen CRW1632 needs 6more seconds than PleXWriter
and 3 more than the LiteOn drive. Of course those small differences can be reduced/increased
after de-activate/activate "JustSpeed" and use different CDR media.
With 80min CDs at the 16x writing speed, AOpen CRW1632 has the second best
writing time, behind PleXWriter PX-W1610A. The LiteOn needs 4 more seconds and
as for Teac, it needs around 22secs more to finish the task.
- Overburning Tests:
The AOpen CRW1632 supports overburning up to 99minutes!
- CD-Text Results:
We created several AudioCDs with CD-Text enabled. The AOpen can write/read
CD-Text Audio CDs.
- CloneCD Tests:
The
CloneCD v3.0.5.1 reports that the drive supports the DAO-RAW writing feature.
The drive also supports JustLink. From our tests results DAO-RAW writing works
without any problem for the SafeDisc 1, LaserLock 1/2 and SecuROM 2 protections.
- SD2 Support:
For the SD2 tests we used the "No One Lives For Ever" and "Emperor
Battle for Dune" CD titles. We used the AOpen CRW1632 both as reader/writer.
The produced backup didn't play using the same drive or any drive we tested.
Therefore the AOpen CRW1632 cannot produce SD2 working backups.
- 8cm mini CDs:
The AOpen does support 8cm CDs and/or business cards. We did a burn with
a business card CD which was successful, despite the loud noise while writing/reading.
- Buffer Underrun tests:
The AOpen CRW1632 supports the "JustLink" anti-buffer underrun
technology that has been developed by Ricoh. The drive worked without any problems
when buffer underrun caused from our side.
6. RW Writing Tests
AOpen
CRW1632 IDE CDR-W - Page
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RW Writing Tests
We used Nero 5.5.3.5 for writing CDs in maximum RW writing speed for all the
tested drives in 10x HS-RW media. All drives support fully the HS-RW writing
standard:
The AOpen CRW1632 leads this test with the lowest time! The other drives need
from 4, up to 9 more secs to finish the task. The CPU Usage is slightly increased
while the erase time is considered good (48secs).
- Packet Writing
Tests:
We used Ahead InCD v2.26 for all Packet Writing tests. We used TDK
HS-RW media and we formatted it. The formatted disc revealed 530mbs of free
space. We copied a 403 MB file (403.147 kbs) from a Hard Disk (on the same PC
as the writers) to the formatted RW media-using explorer (we dragged and dropped)
we completed the test twice to eliminate possible time measurement faults and
user errors:
The results showed that the AOpen CRW1632 had the best packet writing performance
and the second best (16.36X) when reading packet formatted discs.
7. Conclusion
AOpen
CRW1632 IDE CDR-W - Page
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Conclusion
|
Positive (+):
|
Negative (-):
|
|
- Supports 16x writing (CLV) speed
- "JustLink" anti-coaster technology
- "JustSpeed" media quality detection system
- Very Good data reading performance
- Very Good Seek times
- Very good packet writing performance!
- Supports HS-RW standard (10x re-write)
- Supports DAO-RAW
- Very Good CloneCD reading performance
- Supports reading/writing of SubChannel Data
- Supports CD-Text (reading/writing)
- Supports Overburning (up to 99mins)
- Supports Ultra-DMA 33 connection interface
- Retail package includes Nero 5.5
- Looowww price (91$<=)
|
- Supports only 32x reading speed, which
makes the drive not direct comparable to the competition...
- Fair DAE ripping performance (with CDR media)
- DAE quality is not perfect...
- Failed to backup SD2 protected CDs
- Very small eject button
|
AOpen's latest CD-RW drive proposal comes at a very strange timing...The 16x
writing speed has been around from January of 2001 and already 20x and 24x recorders
have already hit the market. The only change for AOpen was to ship a low priced
recorder with good features that will attract the non-power user's eye. The
drive supports 16x writing speed among with "JustLink" and "JustSpeed"
technologies. The drive's overall performance was very good with various CDR
media, and for getting the maximum speed you will have to disable "JustSpeed"
sacrifice the quality for the less recording time.
The drive biggest disadvantage is the 32x maximum reading speed, since automatically
cannot compete to the other 16x recorders. The DAE quality also needs improvement
the lack of SD2 support will not make users happy.
Let's see if the drive can compete it's rivals at the area that is supposed
to: "Price". A quick look over Pricewatch shows that LiteOn 16x lowest
price is 91$, Teac 516EB 115$ and PleXWriter PX-W1610A 162$. As we said the
drive estimated to cost around 91$ which makes it very attractive for users
who wish to enter the recording area, with a stable and 'fairly priced' recorder.