detail information

The specifications of the Memorex F16 state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 48x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R discs:

First, let us examine the CD-R writing technology used by the Memorex F16 by burning a data disc in CD-DVD Speed:

We can see that the Memorex F16 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write at its' rated CD-R speed of 48x. This gives an average speed of 37.23x. Let us compare this to some other DVD writers:

The Mad Dog MD-16XDVD9 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write at its' rated CD-R speed of 48x. The average speed of 36.38x.

The Plextor PX-708A uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) to reach it rated speed of 40X. This gives an average speed of 33.38x.

We also wrote a disc with 700Mb of data 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 Memorex F16 used 3 minutes and 11 seconds to write the disc at 48X. For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Memorex F16 obtained the fastest CD-R writing time in CD-Speed! The Nero writing times are about average, but still good. Writing speeds are important, but writing quality is even more important. Let us now examine the CD-R writing quality of the Memorex F16.

CD-R Write Quality:

We will test a total of 8 different CD-R discs for speed and write quality. To really measure the write speed, we used the 'create data CD" function in Nero CD-DVD 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 LTR-32123S drive with firmware XS0Z and scanned the discs at 40X speed (Actual speed is approximately 43X CAV on 80 minute CD-Rs).

A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors; C1 errors are 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 for the best discs, or at least below a 10.0 average for good quality discs. After C2 errors there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

There is no need to hold you in suspense! Below are the obtained results: