52x CDRW Roundup - Page 3

Data CD Tests

- Pressed CD results

(74min and 80min CDSpeed graphs for Plextor Premium)
(74min and 80min CDSpeed graphs for Optorite CW5201)

Both Optorite and Plextor drives support s 52x CAV (24-52x) CD reading speed. In our test, the drives overcame the 52x by the end of the disc, resulting to an increased average speed of 39.86x and 39.65x, respectively. NNotice that the Plextor drive started reading at a lower speed according to the CDSpeed graph, but accelerated very fast to give the expected results.

According to the specifications Premium, the drive has very low seek times (>65msec). However, CDSpeed gave a higher seek time for the Random seek mode. In the 1/3 and full seeks modes the performance is high. The Optorite drive gave 97msec for the Random test, which is very close to the drive's specifications (85msec).

- CDR Media results

(74min and 80min CDSpeed graphs for Plextor Premium)
(74min and 80min CDSpeed graphs for Optorite CW5201)

Both drives behaved the same way with in the CD-R reading tests. Their average reading speed reached the 39.55x.

In the same test, the Plextor drive gave very low seeks times. Optorite CW5201 also improved its performance over the test with the pressed disc, and follows closely.

- RW media

CDSpeed graph for Plextor Premium)
CDSpeed graph for Optorite CW5201)

For the RW reading tests we used the Mitsubishi Chemicals 24X/32X US-RW. The Premium drive could not recognize the 32X US-RW disc either blank or written. On the other hand, although the Optorite CW5201 could easily recognize, it gave a read error by the end of the CDSpeed test. The reading speeds in the below table are the results with 24X US-RW media.

With SpeadRead feature enabled, the Plextor drive read the USRW disc at the maximum speed. In other case, the average reading speed is around 31X. The Optorite CW5201 supports 40x CAV reading for US-RW media. The drive read the disc at 18.68-41.78X CAV and the average performance is 31.73X.