Asus DRW-1814BLT detail information

Writing Quality with CD-R/RW discs

The specifications on the ASUS DRW-1814BLT state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 48x and CD-RW discs at 32x.  Let’s move on now and find out just how the drive performs in both speed and quality

For our CDR data writing tests, we set up a new compilation of approximately 702MB using Nero Burning ROM software.  Used DAO (Disc At Once) in non-multi-session with “finalize disc” enabled.  The screenshot below shows how long it took to write the disc at the highest speed (48X):

The DRW-1814BLT took 3 minutes and 12 seconds to write the disc at 48X.  Let’s now take a look at how that compares with our other test drives:

Write Quality

Now we are going to test CD-R discs from different CD-R manufacturers.  To measure the write speed we will use the “create data CD” function from within Nero CD-DVD Speed.  We wrote these discs at the maximum speed that the drive supports.  For the quality test, we used KProbe 2 which is a tool developed by a Lite-On employee.  KProbe runs under Windows and works with the 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 CD-RW SOHR-5239V with firmware 2$0B 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 averages for good quality discs.  After C2 errors, there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

So, in short, our analysis will be based on these guidelines to determine the quality of the burned discs:

CD-R/RW quality scans guideline

Below you will see our obtained results:

Verbatim DataLifePlus CD-R burned well with average C1 errors of 0.23 and without C2 errors.  This media goes into the “best quality discs” category.

This Verbatim media – manufactured by CMC Magnetics Corp burned with a C1 error average of 0.43 and no C2 errors placing it in the “Best Quality” category.

Media manufactured by Taiyo Yuden have always enjoyed a good reputation and with this burn resulting in C1 errors of 0.06, without C2 errors places it in the “Best Quality” category.  This media is highly recommended.

This media, manufactured by Ritek resulted in C1 average errors of 1.01 and no C2 errors which will place it in the “Best Quality” ranking.

As with the Fuji media above that was manufactured by Taiyo Yuden, this TY media burned with 0.38 average C1 errors and no C2 errors which will place it in the “Best Quality” category.  Once again, this media is highly recommended.

Writing Quality with CD-RW discs

We will add a few write quality tests with rewritable media.  Settings and testing procedures are the same as used earlier in this review, so you may want to go back and read them if you are unsure.

High C1 average errors of 5.39 and zero C2 errors places this media in the “Good Category”.  

Due to the C1 errors of 13.02 this disc will still go into the “Poor Quality” category.  This is only partly due to this media as some drives write it with stellar results.

Summary

The ASUS DRW-1814BLT is an exceptional CD-R writer with overall excellent results in our CD-R write tests.  The drive also did well with the CD-RW media; however the DRW-1814BLT did produce a “Poor Quality” burn with the 24X CDRW, although it is partly a media problem.

The DRW-1814BLT is a DVD-Writer, so let’s move on and learn about its DVD-writing performance and DVD media capabilities.

Reading Performances

DVD+R/RW writing performance