CD Read Tests

In our CD read tests, I will be comparing transfer rates, seek times and media compatibility.  Let's start off with read transfer rates.

Read Transfer Rates

In our pressed CD tests, we can see Lite-On's drive with the best overall results, having a slight edge over the NEC-3500A.  This is mainly due to the high 48x speed capabilities.  Although the Pioneer DVR-108 only supports 32x CDR writing, it is able to read discs at 40x and slightly outperforms the LG GSA-4160B.

We see fairly the same results with CDR media.  The Lite-On obviously taking the lead once again and the LG drive once again showing the lowest transfer rates.

Now, the results with CDRW media were a completely different story.  I've found that a majority of drives tend to struggle with this format, however, the LG GSA-4160B obtained the best transfer rates I've seen, taking a strong lead above all others.  The drive from NEC takes second place and Lite-On's drive came in last.

The next set of tests are the CD seek times of each of these popular drives.  Let's see which show the lowest.

Seek Times

The LG drive takes a strong lead in our pressed CD tests and the Pioneer DVR-108 shows the highest and most unimpressive seek times. 

In our CDR media tests, the LG once again show the lowest seek times but we see some rather mixed results with the other three competitors.  Overall, the performance from NEC's drive appears to be the least impressive.

While the LG drive continues to show the lowest seek times, it was the Lite-On that failed to impress with CDRW media.

CPU Usage

Now that we have compared transfer rates and seek times, let's find out which drive had the lowest CPU Usage. 

Both the Pioneer and NEC drives offer the lowest CPU usage.  The only odd thing about the LG GSA-4160B is the usage rates at 8x are substantially higher.  Have not seen this before with any drive but rates at all other speeds were on par with the leaders of the bunch. 

We see similar results with CDR media and again see the high usage at 8x with the LG drive.

Same goes for CDRW media, the Pioneer and NEC drives showing the overall lowest utilization.

DAE - Advanced Quality Tests

The final CD read tests were to compare the results of our advanced digital audio extraction tests.  A pass or fail was given to those drives that did not pass on-the-fly copying tests at all speeds.  We see that both the Lite-On and NEC drives were unable to obtain a perfect score.  The NEC failed at 16x and the Lite-On, for some odd reason, failed at only 8x.  The fastest drive was the Lite-On but the overall winner here is the LG GSA-4160B.

Next: DVD Read Tests