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Follow UsWhich optical drive are you looking for? The market's flooded with basic CD-writers, combo drives and simple DVD-ROM drives. Here, we've reviewed each type from different vendors, which may help you with your decision. All the drives were tested on a P4 3.0 GHz machine with 256 MB RAM and 18 GB HDD. The software used for testing was Nero 6.0 and InCD, and the media was Samsung 52X CD-R. Most drives claim 24X and 32X CD-RW speeds, but the market, currently, doesn't have such high-speed media. We, therefore, tested all of them using 10X CD-RW media. To test DVD-ROM drive, we used the Nero CD-DVD speed tests. Overall, there was no major difference in results. All DVD-ROM speed tests averaged around 11-13X read speed as against the rated 16X.
GO-R5232A CD-ReWriter
This IDE drive has rated speeds of 52X write, 32X rewrite and 52X read. It has 2 MB data buffer, and comes bundled with Nero Express 5.5. To directly burn 650 MB of data from a hard drive to the CD-R media, it took 2 mins and 32 secs, and CD-CD copying took 3 mins and 05 secs. While to burn a 73 mins audio CD it took 2 mins and 35 secs, CD-CD (audio) copying took around 5 mins. The time taken to create a 650 MB ISO Image was 3 mins and 06 secs. The results were quite similar to other drives of this speed, except the CD-CD audio copy speed, which took a bit longer.
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On the CD-RW front, it took 60.5 secs to format a 700 MB media, and the bulk copy time for 538 MB mix data, using InCD, was 19 mins and 29
secs.
GO-B5232A 52X-COMBO drive
This IDE combo drive has speeds similar to those of the CD Writer. It comes with a 2 MB data buffer, a 16X DVD ROM and is shipped with Nero Express 5.5 and Power DVD 5. To directly burn 650 MB data from a hard drive to a 52X CD-R media it took 2 mins and 30 secs, and CD-CD copying took 3 mins and 09 secs. While to burn a 73 mins audio CD it took 2 mins and 33 secs, and CD-CD (audio) copying took around 5 mins. The time taken to create a 650 MB ISO Image was 3 mins and 05 secs. The CD-RW tests were an improvement over the CD writer. It took 42.5 secs to format a 700 MB media. The bulk copy time for 538 MB mix data, using InCD, was 11mins and 15 secs. We used Nero CD-DVD speed test for the DVD ROM and a 4.33 GB data DVD for tests. The average transfer rate came to 12.05X though it mentions a 16X speed.
| Tests/Model | GO-R5232A CD-ReWriter |
GO—B5232A 52X-COMBO drive |
GO—D1600B 16X DVD-ROM |
NU 52X Combi DBW-521 |
| CD-R TEST |
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| 650 MB Data copy |
2min32sec | 2min30sec | NA | 3min10sec |
| CD-CD Copy (data) |
3min05sec | 3min09sec | NA | 3min50sec |
| 73 min Audio copy |
2min35sec | 2min33sec | NA | 3min40sec |
| CD-CD copy (audio) |
5min | 5min | NA | 5min40sec |
| Time to create 650 MB |
||||
| ISO Image |
3min06sec | 3min05sec | NA | 3min24sec |
| CD-RW TEST |
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| Time to format |
60.5sec | 42.5sec | NA | 57.5 sec |
| Max capacity |
538MB | 538MB | NA | 538MB |
| Data transfer time (secs) |
19min29sec | 11min15sec | NA | - |
| DVD SPEED TEST |
||||
| average transfer rate |
NA | 12.05X | 11.98X | 11.17X |
| start transfer rate |
NA | 6.55X | 6.65X | 6.72X |
| end transfer rate |
NA | 16.12X | 15.98X | 14.15X |
| random seek time |
NA | 92ms | 118ms | 141ms |
| 1/3 seek time |
NA | 107ms | 107ms | 119ms |
| total seek time |
NA | 174ms | 210ms | 203ms |
| 1X CPU utilization |
NA | 6% | 7% | 5% |
| 2X CPU utilization |
NA | 12% | 12% | 20% |
| 4X CPU utilization |
NA | 24% | 22% | 18% |
| 8X CPU utilization |
NA | 57% | 44% | 33% |
| burst rate |
NA | 24MB/s | 25MB/s | 37MB/s |
| spin up time |
NA | 1.22s | 2s | 1.92 s |
| spin down time |
NA | 2.86s | 3.41s | 2.37 s |
| load time |
NA | 1.64s | 1.22s | 1.49 s |
| eject time |
NA | 1.31s | 4.24s | 1.73 s |
| recognition time |
NA | 5.75s | 7.73s | 4.46 s |
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The random seek time was
92 ms, burst rate was 24 MB/s and 1X CPU utilization was 6%.
The drive shows good performance and the speed tests are quite satisfactory.
GO-D1600B 16X DVD-ROM
This drive also comes bundled with power DVD 4 and 5. We used Nero CD-DVD speed test and a 4.33 GB data DVD for the tests. The average transfer rate was found to be 11.98X. We also tested the drive for seek time, where it took 118 ms for doing a random seek, 107 ms for a 1/3 seek and 210 ms for doing a full seek. Another thing that we noticed was that the drive showed a 1X CPU utilization of 7% and a burst rate of 25 MB/s, which are competitive results. Its spin up and spin down times are 2.00 secs and 3.41 secs respectively. Lastly, the disc-load, eject and recognition times were 1.22 sec, 4.24 sec and 7.73 sec respectively.
Sudarshana Mishra