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The specifications of the LG GSA-4040B states that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 24x, and during the intro of this review we saw that the drive used Z-CLV(Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to reach 24X, giving an average write speed of only 19.23x. Let us find out how the drive really performs at speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R discs:

For our data writing tests we simply set up a new compilation of 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 time it takes to write a disc at the highest speed that is 24X:

The drive used 4 minutes and 56 seconds to write the disc at 24x, this is about what we could expect when we consider the low average speed of 19.23x as a comparison the Memorex Dual-X used 5 minutes and 28 seconds when writing at 16X. But speed is not everything, quality is even more important, so let us take a look at the writing quality of this drive.

Write Quality:

We will test CD-R discs from a total of 11 different large and not so large CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed we used the create data CD function in Nero CD-Speed, the discs was written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test we used K-Probe that 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-52246S drive and scanned the discs at 48X speed. A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors, C1 errors is easily corrected by the drives error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2 errors could also be corrected by most drives 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 average or at least below 5.0 average. After C2 errors there is only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

Why wait any longer? Below are the obtained results:

It's a bit disappointing to see that the drive only writes these discs at 16x since CMC is a large and well-known manufacturer. A C1 average of 1.401 is a pretty average result for the CMC discs and is nothing to be worried about.

The good thing is that the drive wrote these discs at 24X speed, but that is about the only good thing as well. The disc is actually totally unreadable after the 70minute mark and this leads to sky-high amount of C2 and C1 errors as well. Stay away from these disc if you have the LG GSA-4040B drive.

A C1 average of 0.592 is great and we recommend these discs for use with this drive as they works at 24X and with great quality.

With an average of 3.444 C1 errors these discs is not among the discs we recommend for this drive. On the other hand there were no C2 errors so these discs will most likely not cause any problems either.

We like to call it the superiority of the Taiyo Yuden CD-R discs. An average C1 error amount of 0.102 is simply outstanding. This is one of the few discs that this drive wrote at 24X and with good quality.

Again discs from a large and well-known manufacturer that is limited to 16X writing. Maybe there is a reason for the speed to be limited since the produced result is not among the best. With a few C2 errors and an average C1 error amount of 4.107 we can hardly recommend these discs.

The drive wrote these discs at 24X, but the produced result is not good as the average C1 error level is 7.984. But thankfully there are no C2 errors. Notice that these discs is of relatively low quality and do not work very good in most writers.

Again one of the discs that contains a bit more C1 errors than we prefer. These discs will most likely cause any problems as there is no C2 errors, but still we don't recommend them.

Seems like LG knows the same as us; princo is low quality discs. So LG limited the write speed to 12x for these discs. At 12x speed they work ok with an average C1 amount of 1.714.

To bad that the drive is limited to 16x for these excellent manufactured CD-R discs. And they do work well as the average C1 error amount is only 0.390. Highly recommended discs if you could live with a write speed of only 16x.

While TDK is a well-known brand in larger parts of the world their own manufactured CD-R discs may not be so well known, as they are mostly only available in Europe. And as we see the result with these discs is not so good with the LG. The amount of C1 errors is fine but there are some ugly C2 errors around the 70min mark. We can't recommend these discs for the LG GSA-4040B.

That's all for now and we could conclude with that this drive is among the worse drives when it comes to CD-R media compatibility and write quality. If you are looking to buy CD-R media for this drive we recommends Taiyo Yuden or Mitsubishi chemicals manufactured CD-R discs.

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