detail information

The specifications of the LG GSA-5160D state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 40x and CD-RW at 24x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in 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 it takes to write a disc at the highest speed. (40x):

The drive used 3 minutes and 20 seconds to write the disc at 40x. (Actual write speed 40.1x).  Let us see how this compares to other drives:

• LG GSA-4163B used 3 minutes and 15 seconds at 40x
• Philips DVDR1640P used 3 minutes and 17 seconds at 40x
• NU DDW-082 used 3 minutes and 2 seconds at 40x
• Samsung TS-H552B used exactly 3 minutes at 40x         
• Plextor PX-708A used 2 minutes and 58 seconds at 40x

Write Quality:

We will test CD-R discs from a total of 6 different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the 'create data CD" function in Nero CD-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 SOHR-5238S drive with firmware 4S06 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 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.

Why wait any longer? Below are the obtained results:

EMTEC CD-R High Performance, this media got an average of 1.00 - C1 errors and is consider as 'Best disc quality".

MMORE media - manufactured by Moser Baer India Limited and with it's average of 0.67 it goes in the 'best discs" category.

Media made by Taiyo Yuden have always had a good reputation and with the average 0.16 it goes into the group 'best discs". Highly recommended!

Sky CD-R with Plasmon media code got an average of 2.52 and goes into the category 'Good quality discs".

Also, this media goes into the category 'best quality discs" for its C1 average with 1.37.

Verbatim - a well-known brand, showed us an average of 0.78 it goes in the category 'Best Discs".

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

Due to requests from our readers, we will add a few 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 have been written to before, but none have been written to more than 5 times.

CD-ReWritable media:

The LG GSA-5160D did not like this media at all - the result is not good.

Some high spikes in the beginning of the disc, but the result is ok.

Summary:
The results are just excellent! Overall, it does a fantastic job writing to CD-R Media.

So let us head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing performance…