detail information

The specifications of ASUS DRW-1608P2 state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 48x with Turbo Boost activated (see page 2). Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

For our data writing tests, we simply set up a new compilation of about 700Mb 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 screenshot below shows how long it takes to write a disc at the highest speed (48x):

The drive took 3 minutes and 24 seconds to write the disc at 40x. Let us see how this compares to other drives:

Few seconds behind most other 48x writers due to walking OPC feature however it's quite fast compared to other 40x writers.

We will test CD-R discs from a total of 4 different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the 'create data disc" 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. It runs under Windows and works with drives made by Lite-On. Also note that different drives and different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the discs. We used a Lite-On LTR-40125S drive with firmware ZS0R and scanned the discs at 48X speed.

A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors; C1 errors are easily corrected by the drive's error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2 errors could also be corrected by most drive's error correction capabilities; 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 quality discs, or at least below 10.0 C1 average for good quality discs. After C2 errors, there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

In short, our analysis will be based on these guideline to determine the quality of the burned disc:

CD-R/RW quality scan guideline

And below are the obtained results:

Verbatim DataLifePlus CD-R media with its average C1 errors of 1.86 goes in the 'best quality discs" category. Recommended!

Verbatim media - manufactured by CMC Magnetics Corporation with its average C1 errors of 3.94 goes in the 'good quality discs" category. Also recommended.

Media made by Taiyo Yuden have always had a good reputation and with the average C1 errors of 1.03 it goes into the group 'best quality discs" category. Highly recommended!

Sony media - This was not a good result: C1 errors are quite high although there are no C2 errors.

Writing Quality With CD-RW Discs:

---

In this section, we will add two write quality tests with re-writable media. Settings and testing procedures is the same as used earlier in this review, so you may want to go back and read them if you are unsure. All discs used for these tests are new and have not been written to before.

Brand:	Verbatim - Thanks to Verbatim USA for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	97m34s25f
Disc Type:	Ultra Speed CD-RW 32x
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	74:43.00 (656.40MB)
Certified Speed:	32x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	3m:51s
C1 Average/Sec:	1829.00
C2 Average/Sec:	239.40

The result is not good with this Verbatim CD+RW media.

---

Brand:	Memorex
Manufacturer:	Infodisc Technology Co., Ltd.
Code:	97m25s30f
Disc Type:	High Speed CD-RW 12x
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	79:59.73 (702.83MB)
Certified Speed:	12x
Write Speed:	10x
Write Time:	8m:39s
C1 Average/Sec:	838.50
C2 Average/Sec:	2.81

There are elevated C1 with some C2 at the end of the disc. Again, the result is not good.

---

Summary:

CD-R Brand	MID	Certified Speed	Write Speed	C1 Avg./s	C2 Avg./s	Write Quality
Verbatim	Mitsubishi	52x	40x	1.86	0.00	Best
Verbatim	CMC Mag.	52x	40x	3.94	0.00	Good
Fujifilm	Taiyo Yuden	48x	40x	1.03	0.00	Best
Sony	Sony Corp.	48x	40x	27.10	0.00	Average
CD-RW Brand	MID	Certified Speed	Write Speed	C1 Avg./s	C2 Avg./s	Write Quality
Verbatim	Mitsubishi	32x	32x	1829.00	239.40	Poor
Memorex	Infodisc	12x	10x	838.50	2.81	Poor

The ASUS DRW-1608P2 is a very good CD-R Writer that will write quality CD-R media with excellent results. The drive's performance is a quite different if we take a look at CD-RW part. On all CD-RW media we have tested, the writing quality is really poor. ASUS should take a look at this area and improve support for CD-RW media in its next firmware upgrade.

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

Reading performance

DVD+R/RW Writing performance