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| Posted by | Tor Magne |
| Posted on | 07/10/04 13:58 |
| Number of views | 5054 |
Test machine:
For this review we will be using a computer with the following configuration:
Hardware:
⋅ Motherboard: MSI Neo-FIS2R with Intel i875P chipset.
⋅ Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2,8GHz 800MHz FSB with Hyper Threading support.
⋅ RAM: 1Gb PC3500 DDR
⋅ GFX: ATI Radeon 9800 pro
⋅ Sound: SB Audigy 2
⋅ Hard disks: 2 x Hitachi Deskstar 7k250 160Gb S-ATA in RAID 0 on the i875P S-ATA RAID controller.
System set-up:
The MSI DR8-A2 was connected as Primary Master and identified itself as ATAPI DVD RW 8XMax. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices.
Software:
Windows XP professional is installed on the computer along with Service Pack 2 for windows XP. We will be using the following software in this review:
⋅ Ahead Nero Burning ROM version 6.3.1.17
⋅ Ahead Nero CD/DVD Speed v3.12
⋅ Ahead Nero InfoTool v2.21
⋅ DVD-Identifier 3.4
⋅ K-Probe v2.4.2
Installation and supported features:
We quickly installed the drive without any problems and here is a screenshot from Nero info tool:
Our drive came shipped with firmware 140D, we updated the firmware version 150D for this review. The only drawbacks we could see are the inability to read DVD+R DL discs as well as a small buffer and the lack of Mount Rainier compatibility.
And another shot from Nero Burning ROM:
We do not really find anything alarming here, but Mount Rainier and a larger buffer would have been nice.
HD-BURN (High Density BURN).
To see what this technology offer we visited Sanyo's pages, and looked at how they presented it:
Secrets of CD-R/RW burning in double-density.
The methods generally used to achieve high-density are as follows:
- Shorten the minimum pit length.
- Reduce the track pitch.
- Expand the writing area on the disc.
- Improve efficiency of modulation method.
- Improve efficiency of error correction method.
HD-BURN is designed with the methods of 1,4, and 5 in consideration of using existing CD-R/RW disc and using CD for playback optical system and mechanism.
Among the methods above, it seems to be able to make the minimum pit length much shorter, however, it is shortened to the level in which the minimum pit observation level will not become too small and the read/write system configuration is made easy when replaying by normal replay-ONLY- pickup.
Besides, the error correction method has no problem with correction capability for the extensive improvement of its performance even though the correction codes are less than those of CD.
A disc written with the HD-BURN technology should be compatible with a DVD-player, if its firmware has been modified to allow reading of this type of media. Normal computer drives will not be able to read HD-BURN disc. HD-BURN also cannot be used to create audio discs with. This seems a bit scaring and we doubt there will be many drives able to read these HD-BURN discs. Let us do a test and see what results we could get. For this test we used Nero Burning ROM:
The MSI DR8-A2 wrote a full (1,4Gb) HD Disc in 7 minutes and 38 seconds. But let us see how fast it is to read the disc:
It read the disc at a speed that is the same as 80x CD-Reading speed. We tried several other drives too, including standalone DVD-Players. But none of these were able to read the disc. We will also like to mention that the drive is very picky on what media it likes for writing HD-BURN discs. Disc types that failed: Mitsubishi, Prodisc, Ritek, Plasmon, CMC Magnetics. The first disc we got working was a Moser Baer manufactured CD-R disc.
Included software:
Now it's time to look at the included software, and comment it if needed. Notice that we may not use the included software in our performance testing part of the review.
Nero OEM suite:
We guess that the Ahead program suite is not new to most of you; it contains programs for creating most types of CD/DVD discs. Packet writing program, media player etc. Our favourite writing program suite, and thus MSI gets a plus in our book for including it.
Sonic MyDVD:
This is the opening window of Sonic MyDVD.
And this is the creation window.
Sonic MyDVD is one of the easier programs we have used when it comes to creating VCD and DVD movies. Although we have not used the program very long it seems like MSI made a good choice on including Sonic MyDVD.
Now that we have finished examining the drive and bundled programs '? let us head on to the next page, which is reading performance test…
Introduction and specifications
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