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CD Read Tests
Before we start testing performance, let's
first have a detailed look at the test system specs...
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Test System Specifications |
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CPU: |
Core 2 Quad Q6600 (G0 Stepping) @ 3.95GHz |
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Motherboard: |
Abit IP35 Pro |
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Memory: |
Corsair Dominator PC2-8500 (2GB) |
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Hard Drives: |
2 WD 250GB (Raid 0); 1 WD 250GB (16MB Cache) |
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Optical Drives: |
BenQ DW1640 & Samsung SH-S203N |
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Video Card: |
1 x HIS HD 2600XT (512MB) |
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Sound Card: |
Creative X-Fi
XtremeMusic |
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Power Supply: |
Silverstone OP1000 (1,000Watt) |
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CPU Cooling: |
CoolIT Freezone |
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Additional
Cooling: |
3 x
Silverstone
120mm
fans (1200 rpm) |
As mentioned previously, this drive will be
primarily tested on a Windows Vista Ultimate machine with the latest Nero 8
release. However, after extensive testing, I had to go back and re-run
every test due to the highly buggy and unreliable DiscSpeed utility Nero 8
sports. With that said, CD-DVD Speed was used for most the bench test
but Nero 8 was used for all actual write tests. Also note that this system is configured for optimal overall
performance and the results you'll find throughout this review may be quite
different that what many may come up with. It was built and tweaked in
order to capture the
best overall performance from this drive.
1. CD-DVD Speed - Pressed CD
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Test
Results |
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Transfer
Speed
Average:
35.52x
Start:
20.07x
End:
47.09x |
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Seek
Times
Random:
102ms
1/3:
105ms
Full:
181ms |
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CPU Usage
1X: 0%
2X: 1%
4X: 2%
8X: 4% |
The start of testing was impressive to say the
least. With our pressed CD, this drive was just barely able to reach
its maximum read speed and both the seek times and CPU usage were highly
impressive. Compared to some of their other drives, this drive
resulted in the lowest seek times and CPU usage.
2. CD-DVD Speed - CD-R Media
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Test
Results |
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Transfer
Speed
Average:
30.99x
Start:
17.99x
End:
40.92x |
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Seek
Times
Random:
198ms
1/3:
104ms
Full:
179ms |
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CPU Usage
1X: 0%
2X: 1%
4X: 2%
8X: 5% |
What many should note is that Samsung drives
usually read recordable CD media at 40x and not 48x. The same applies
to this new drive. Like the results from our pressed CD, they were
just as impressive, particularly when it came down to CPU usage.
3. DAE - Advanced Quality Tests
Results here were as expected. This
drive performs just like all their previous models. However, unlike
the rest, it was able to read CD Text and the average speed was just
slightly higher in comparison when using certain brands of media for these
tests.
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