Lite-On 40/12/48X CD-RW

detail information

Posted by	Robin
Posted on	23/06/02 16:00
Number of views	10786

Reading scratched discs

Writing tests

Write Quality

Backing up protected data discs

CD-ReWriting Performance

Special CD-R disc tests

General & Conclusion

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Data reading tests

Data reading tests:

The specifications of the drive clearly state that the maximum read speed is 48X. Let us see if it is really able to reach this speed. We will also compare it to other readers. The disc we used is the Plextools installation disc, which is exactly 74minutes(333.000 sectors) long. We used Nero CD-Speed to do the tests and ran the tests several times to make sure that the results was accurate. Here we will test:

Reading from the original Plextools disc.
Reading from a CD-R copy of the Plextools disc.
Reading from a CD-RW copy of the plextools disc.

Reading from the original pressed disc:

When reading from the original plextools disc we got this reading curve from Nero CD-Speed.

The green line indicates the read speed.

The yellow line indicates the rotation speed (rpm) that the disc have.

Both firmware ZS0A and ZS0J gave the same results when reading the original plextools disc, as we could se it was able to reach the rated 48X speed. Let us continue and compare the result with other drives.

*Note that the read speeds from the plextor drives is a bit higher due to another disc used, which is a bit longer than the plextools disc. This may also affect the seek times.

The Lite-On was able to outperform the only other 48X reader in this test: The TEAC CD-W540E. But it couldn't reach the same great seek times as the TEAC CD-W540E have.

Reading from a CD-R disc copy:

A copy was taken of the original Plextools disc. We used CloneCD to copy the disc, and the CD-R disc we used was Mitsui Gold 74min 16X certified (written at 16X using a Lite-On LTR-24102B). The Mitsui Gold disc was picked since it's known for its outstanding quality, and we would like to thank the person that was kind enough to supply us with the Mitsui gold discs since Mitsui discs is impossible to get in Norway. You know who you are and we can only say thank you for very much for helping us and supporting us. Here is this manufacturer information:

ATIP: 97m 27s 56f
Disc Manufacturer: Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals, Inc.
Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 650.85MB (74m 05s 11f / LBA: 333236)

Here is the reading curve that Nero CD-Speed gives us.

The green line indicates the read speed.
The yellow line indicates the rotation speed (rpm) that the disc have.

As always with Lite-On drives the performance with CD-R discs is a bit higher. Firmware ZS0A and ZS0J gave near identical results. Both gave a pretty high seek time for full seek, but ZS0A gave even a bit higher seek time (318ms with ZS0A) than ZS0J. But let us compare this with other drives.

* Result with firmware ZS0A was 318ms

Again it was able to beat the only other 48X reader in this test, The TEAC CD-W540E, but lagging behind a bit when it comes to seek times, although not by much.

Reading from a CD-RW disc:

Again we made a copy of the original plextools disc. The copy was made by a Lite-On LTR-24102B at 10X write speed, the media we used was Verbatim 10X certified Highspeed CD-RW disc. Here is the manufacturer information that CD-R Identifier reports:

ATIP: 97m 34s 23f
Disc Manufacturer: Mitsubishi Chemicals Corp.
Reflective layer: Phase change
Media type: CD-ReWritable
Recording Speeds: min. 4X - max. 8X
Nominal Capacity: 656.40MB (74m 43s 00f / LBA: 336075)

But let us now take a look at the reading curve that Nero CD-Speed gave us:

The green line indicates the read speed.
The yellow line indicates the rotation speed (rpm) that the disc have.

As usual with Lite-On drives the CD-RW speed is locked at a lower speed. But it hit 42,5X at the end and that is not really anything to complain about. Firmware ZS0A and ZS0J gave the same performance when reading the discs. Again full seek time was pretty high, and the result were the same with both firmware versions. The disc had no problem in other drives so it may be a drive problem. But let us again compare the result to other drives:

The TEAC CD-W540E simply blew the Lite-On away in this test with really impressing speeds, but this time the TEAC CD-W540E and the Lite-On's seek times was pretty close to each other.

Data reading tests summary:

What we have here is an extremely fast drive, it was able to beat all the other drives (Well only two of the drives was 48X readers, the others was 40X readers) speed wise in all tests except for the CD-RW reading tests where the TEAC CD-W540E won. It had very good seek times but not as low as those from the TEAC CD-W540E, except the in the CD-RW reading test where the TEAC CD-W540E and the Lite-On were practically the same. We saw no point in including reading curves from the drive when overclocked to a LTR-48125W as the performance were 100% identical.

But is it also good at reading music discs? Continue to the next page and find out…

The specifications

Music reading tests

Want to submit your own review? Click here

Posted by MP|3 on Thursday 27 June 2002 03:10

Complete review uploaded! Have fun with this great review

Posted by OC-Freak on Thursday 27 June 2002 21:52

PLEASE comment this review. Over 5000 views and no comments?

Both positive and negative comments wanted. Quetions welcomed as well.

Posted by on Friday 28 June 2002 06:34

Great review, already own the drive, wanted to see where you had it rated. Speed is great, even though I think its not as loud as listed, but other than that and its boring looks, this drive rocks! Good tests, indepth and professional, keep up the good work!
Mike

Posted by ExSport on Saturday 29 June 2002 01:59

Very good review. But I don't understand why Lite-on has only 9.5 and Teac 10. In 90% of tests Liteon was the best and TEAC was second. LITEON has best price,speed,game backup,and so on).I think it's minimally the same as TEAC, maybe better. I have LITE-ON, I know what I say.

Posted by on Saturday 29 June 2002 21:42

If you want more comments how about fixing the pull down menu code so it works in netscape6/mozilla/opera so people can create a login, or better still allow anonymous posting.

Great review, very thorough.

I must stress that the drive is ugly looking and the loader try is very loud and cheap feeling. I prefer the LG 40X over the Lite-On 40x because of this although technically they both perform well.

Posted by Fish3669 on Saturday 29 June 2002 22:09

I thought the review covered the drive very well, as do the other reviews here. I already have this drive and I like it :7

Posted by cj2304 on Sunday 07 July 2002 12:09

Good, indepth & informative review. Well done! I have this drive myself and can't fault it.

Posted by on Friday 12 July 2002 19:59

Fantastic review. I will have to read your reviews about other drives as well. I like the speed and performance of this drive, but there was one aspect which seemed unclear. These discs that are written with SmartBurn, shouldn't they be completely free of all bad sectors or damaged sectors? I can understand that some CD-R's are crap, but I would think that the Smart-Burn would be able to lower the speed to the point where one could expect 100% perfect burns. I have an old Plextor 8X, and am looking to upgrade, these fast burners are great, but what I still want is 100% perfect recording, even if the drive drops to 24X writing, I would expect that if the media is good enough (certified 24X), it would always write perfectly.

I want to check the rest of your reviews to see which drive writes perfectly every single time, whenever it's "active-media detection" technology is engaged.

Posted by on Friday 19 July 2002 21:25

Great review. I went right out and bought one. What is the difference between thew S and W models? Do you lose anything?

Posted by on Monday 29 July 2002 04:15

Australian PC User has reviewed the 40125W the "best buy". They found it both cheap and reliable. I checked with the elby CloneCD 4 web site (http://elby.ch/english/products/clone_cd/writers/l.html#liteon) and it says it supports DAO96.

So there you go. Looks like this will be the first CD-burner for this newbie. :4

Posted by on Sunday 04 August 2002 13:26

Great review. I was trying to decide whether to get the Asus 4816A or the Lite-On 40125S after my Acer 4x4x32 finally died :4. Thanks for making my mind up

I'm going to buy the Lite-On this week.

Posted by MythosGR on Tuesday 03 September 2002 13:55

Great review as always. But I had the teac in my mind till now and Im more confused cause of the score you gave both!

Posted by on Friday 06 September 2002 04:49

first thang first...CD Freaks!? mega indepth and wicked review you've got here! LTR-40125S IS THE KING!!! it's a supurb burning machine! i bought the drive five days before reading the review, mainly cuz a friend told me that it can be overclocked. on the first day i got it, i burned more than 20 perfect cds consecutively. i very much enjoy it's lightning speed. i believe that your review should give it 9.9 (cuz nothing is perfect in the world) for the time being as there will be more great drives in the near future, and teac should only get 9 outta 10. i'm not being bias or anything..as i have never used teac before, but the review clearly speaks for itself, that the performance of liteon surpassed teac. the best part is flashable firmware enabling anyone to overclock it and still running rock solid. sometimes, overclocking isn't all that bad cuz it can show what a hardward is capable of. for me the strongest factor which makes liteon superior to other brands is "value of money". it's not the cheapest rw in town, but it surely has one of the lowest caparable price on today's market. especially when overclocked it will make 40125S the cheapest 48X drive available..so worthy you can even buy a spare in case you wreck the first one. the noise the tray makes and the plainess and dullness of the front to me are bearable. i simply just luv everything about my 40125S. LITEON RULES MAN!!!

Posted by on Wednesday 30 October 2002 09:34

gr8 review. made me buy the Liteon.
Please explain on the possiblity to use a x48 firmware on this machine.
although not legal/voids warranty / with risks, is it simple to do? possible?
Any elaboration is welcomed. Thanks.

Posted by theunbeatable on Friday 06 December 2002 23:31

For better support on copy-protected cd's you could use the newest firmware ZS0P. So makes that a 10 out of 10

Posted by megod on Tuesday 10 December 2002 06:32

Just did a Quick test burning a Simulated 699mb file 588 solid Win RAR File & a 111mb Video file on a 16x Certified Go Tech "Cheap shit media",
LTR-48125w Safeburn off 48x "2.43min"
LTR-48125w Safeburn on 40x "3.09min"
Yamaha CRW3200e Write speed Off 24x "3.52min"
Yamaha CRW3200e Write speed On 24x "3.53min"
I must say I am Impressed with the LiteOn.
Cheers
megod:9

Posted by on Friday 21 February 2003 23:25

I've got this LTR-48125S. Whenever overburning is involved, any speed higher than 16x will be successful, but Scandisc shows Unreadable sectors! How could the reviewer managed to get a fully readable burn on a 99min CDR with 48X?!?! This drive must be something!

Besides, my drive shows success on overburning test using this CD Speed, even @ 99min using an 80min CD-R
Brand: Arita
Manuf: RiTEK

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