detail information

The specifications of the ASUS DRW-1608P state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 40x. 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-1608P by burning a data disc in CD-DVD Speed:

We can see that the ASUS DRW-1608P uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write CD-R at 40x. This gives an average write speed of 30.26x. Let us compare this to a few other drives;

The NEC ND-3540A writer uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write CD-R at 48x. This gives an average speed of 36.43x. The dips in the graph illustrate points at which the drive performs calibration to ensure superior burn quality.

The Toshiba SD-R5372 DVD writer uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write CD-R at 48x. This gives an average speed of 35.33x.

As you can see from the above writing graphs, the ASUS DRW-1608P is slower than some of the competitor drives due to the 40x maximum CD-R writing speed limitation.

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-1608P used 3 minutes and 22 seconds to write the disc at 40x. For comparison we present the following table:

Here we can see that the ASUS DRW-1608P 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:

This is high quality Verbatim CD-R media. The Average C1 value is very good and there are no C2 errors.

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

Good results on Memorex CD-R, manufactured by CMC Magnetics. The previous ASUS model (1604P) had trouble on these same discs. Good improvement!

This is the best result we have ever seen on this CD-R type. Great job ASUS!

Excellent results for this lower quality Lead Data CD-R! Many drives only support these discs at 16x maximum and produce much worse results on this media.

Acceptable results here also. Much better than the previous ASUS model (1604P).

These results are ok, the average C1 value is good.

These results are good.

 CD-RW Writing performance:

The specifications of the ASUS DRW-1608P 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 22.36x. Let's compare this to some other drives.

The NEC ND-3540A uses 4 zones with its 32x Z-CLV technique. This gives an average speed of 29.75x.

The Toshiba uses 4 zones with its 24x Z-CLV technique. The Average speed is 20.23x.

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.

Total write time was 3 minutes and 45 seconds using Nero Burning ROM.

For a better overview we present the following comparison table:

*74min CD-RW used.

The ASUS DRW-1608P 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 much better results with this media on other drives.

No C2 errors and the disc is fully readable on the Lite-On CD-RW drive.

Again we see no C2 error being reported and the disc is fully readable.

CD-R/RW performance Summary:
The CD-R writing performance of the ASUS DRW-1608P is good and shows improvement over the previous ASUS DVD burner (the DRW-1604P).

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