- CD Format

The BenQ DW1625A DL supports up to 40X reading speed.

The BenQ drive performed well in all three reading transfer tests. The Waitec drive was the fastest reading pressed and CDR media, due to its 48X max supported reading speed as opposed to 40X for both the other drives. The BenQ drive was fastest reading 24X USRW media with a small difference from the LG drive and a significant difference from the Waitec which only supports a max 32X max reading speed.

-DVD Format

The DW1625A can read PTP Single Layer DVD-ROM discs at 16X CAV. All drives reported the same speeds more or less, with the LG the fastest.

With a PTP DVD-ROM disc, the starting point for both layers is at the inner part of the disc. The drive reads from the beginning of each layer (inner part) progressing towards the outer part of the disc. Again, all drives reported similar speeds, with negligible speed differences between them.

With an OTP Dual Layer disc, the first layer structure is the same as the first layer on a PTP disc. The drive reads the first layer exactly the same way as PTP discs, and at the same speed. The starting point of the second layer of an OTP disc however, is located at the outer part of the disc. The reported average speed was 6.00X (3~8CAV)

With DVD±R the LG drive reported the highest speeds, while with DVD+RW all drives reported similar speeds. With DVD-RW media, the BenQ drive was twice as fast as the LG and Waitec drives. The strange thing here is that the BenQ drive is very consistent at around 6.2X and with -RW, it has suddenly produced 12X reading speed.

The DW1625 reported an average of 8929 kB/s which is a very good performance although not one of the fastest, but still a good, fast ripper.

-Appendix