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The specifications of the ASUS DRW-1604P state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 32x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

CD-R Writing perfomance:

First, let us examine the CD-R writing technology used by the ASUS DRW-1604P by burning a data disc in CD-DVD Speed:

We can see that the ASUS DRW-1604P uses Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write CD-R at 32x. This gives an average write speed of 24.92x. Let us compare this to a few other drives;

The Mad Dog MD-16XDVD9 writer uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write CD-R at 48x. This gives an average speed of 36.38x. The dips in the graph illustrate points at which the drive performs calibration to ensure superior burn quality.

The Memorex F16 DVD writer uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write CD-R at 48x. This gives an average speed of 37.23x.

As you can see from the above writing graphs, the ASUS DRW-1604P is slower than some of the competitor drives due to the 32x maximum speed limitation and Z-CLV writing technique.

We also wrote a disc with 700Mb of data using Nero Burning ROM software. Writing method used is DAO (Disc At Once), and the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc with 'finalize disc" enabled.

The ASUS DRW-1604P used 4 minutes and 5 seconds to write the disc at 32x. For comparison we present the following table:

Here we can see that the ASUS DRW-1604P is slower at CD-R writing compared to most of the competing drives on the market. But what about the CD-R write quality?  We'll find out now!

CD-R Write Quality:

Here we will test with a variety of different CD-R discs to measure speed and write quality. To really measure the write speed, we used the 'create data CD" function in Nero CD-DVD Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test we used K-Probe 2, which is a tool developed by a Lite-On Employee. Kprobe runs on Windows and functions with drives made by Lite-On. Please note that different drives as well as different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the discs. Here we used a Lite-On LTR-32123S drive with firmware XS0Z and scanned the discs at 40X speed (Actual speed is approximately 43X CAV on 80 minute CD-Rs).

A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors; C1 errors are easily corrected by the drives' error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2. C2 errors can also be corrected by most drives' error correction capabilities, but they are not wanted on a good quality disc. A good disc should not contain any C2 errors, and preferably have an average C1 error amount of below 2.0 for the best discs, or at least below a 10.0 C1 average for good quality discs. After C2 errors there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

We now present you with our results:

These results are not the best that we have seen with these discs. The Average C1 value is acceptable and there are no C2 errors, which is good.

The C1 error average looks good in this test. We can consider these good discs.

Results here are not so good on this "Cool Colors CD-R". The C1 levels are way too high on the last third of the disc, but at least there are no C2 errors. Some writers have trouble with these discs. 

We also tested with an Imation branded CMC CD-R disc. We do not like the high C1 error spiking reported near the end of the graph. ASUS needs to improve the support on CMC CD-Rs.

These 24x certified discs were written at 32x. As you can see from the long Write time, the drive had to slow down at some points during the burn to preserve quality.  The results are good and ASUS did a great job supporting these discs.

This is a pretty good result for these low quality discs. The Average C1 error value is low and there are no C2 errors.

These results are not so hot. We have seen much better quality discs produced when other drives write to these discs.

Good results with a 4.10 value for the C1 error average.

These results are questionable. We've seen better results with these discs on other writers.

 Writing data CD-RW discs:

The specifications of the ASUS DRW-1604P state that the drive is able to write CD-RW discs at 24x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality. First, let us examine the CD-RW writing technique used by the Asus.

The drive writes CD-RW Ultra Speed discs at 24x using Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity). Three zones are used to produce an average speed of 22.46x. Let's compare this to some other drives.

The Mad Dog MD-16XDVD9 uses only 2 zones with its Z-CLV technique. This gives an average speed of 23.68x.

The Plextor PX-708A uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) to achieve a write speed of 24x. The Average speed is 23.77x.

We also wrote a disc with 650Mb of data using Nero Burning ROM software. Writing method used is DAO (Disc At Once), and the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc with 'finalize disc" enabled.

For a better overview we present the following comparison table:

*74min CD-RW used.

The ASUS DRW-1604P has about average CD-RW writing speed compared to the competition. It can't compete with the Samsung TS-H552B, which can write CD-RW at 32x. Now we will examine the CD-RW writing quality.

The C1 errors are very high, but at least there are no C2 errors and the disc is fully readable.  We've seen better results with these discs on other drives.

Results here are not good. There are some very high C1 errors and the dreaded C2 errors also make an appearance. This could be due to either poor quality discs or the ASUS writing strategy.

Results here are just fine for a CD-RW disc. No C2 errors and the disc is fully readable on the Lite-On drive.

The ASUS DRW-1604P did fine with these discs. This is an ok result for CD-RW media.

CD-R/RW performance Summary:
The CD-R writing performance is ok, but it could use some improvements with CMC and Ritek CD-Rs. CD-RW performance is also ok except for the Infodisc made 24x CD-RW disc.

But after all, it's a DVD-Writer, so head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing performance and DVD media compatibility…