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For this article we will be using two computers with the following configuration:

PC 1 - Hardware:

• Motherboard: Abit IC-7 MAX3 i875P
• Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3,2GHz 800MHz FSB Prescott with Hyper Threading support.
• RAM: 1Gb PC4300 DDR
• GFX: Asus GeForce 6800
• Sound: SB Audigy 2
• Hard disks: 400Gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 S-ATA connected to the Intel i875P S-ATA controller.

PC 2 - Hardware:

• Motherboard: ECS Elitegroup N2U400-A with Nvidia nForce 2 Ultra-400 and nForce MCP chipset.
• Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (Barton) 333 MHz FSB.
• RAM: 1 GB Infineon PC2700 DDR
• GFX: ATI Radeon 9600 XT
• Sound: SoundBlaster Audigy
• Hard disk: Samsung SP1614N 160 GB.

Software:

Windows XP professional is installed on both computers along with Service Pack 2 for windows XP. We will be using the following software:

• Ahead Nero Burning ROM version 6.6.0.8a
• Ahead Nero CD/DVD Speed v3.80
• DVD-Identifier 3.6.2
  

Test Drives:

In this 1^st look article we are going to use the following DVD-R DL capable DVD-Writers:

• NEC ND-3520AW
• NEC ND-3540A
• Philips DVDRxxxx *
• Pioneer DVR-109D
• Plextor PX-716A

*The drive name has been removed/censored since the drive is an engineering sample.

Write Strategies:

Let us take a look at the 4x and 6x write strategies:

The NEC ND-3520AW uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 4X. The average writing speed is 4.08x, with an total time of 27 minutes and 6 seconds.

The Plextor PX-716A also uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity). But it can write this 4x certified media with a maximum speed of 6X. The average writing speed is 5.92x, with an total time of 19 minutes and 8 seconds.

The NEC ND-3540A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) at 6x on the first layer and CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity on the second layer. The average writing speed is 4.87x, with an total time of 23 minutes and 53 seconds.

Let us start to write some DVD-R DL media……