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NEC ND-3520A - Modified vs. stock firmware
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Posted by Jan S.
Posted on 30/01/05 17:36
Number of views 32147
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 Conclusion
 Introduction
 Facts - Modified firmware
 KProbe explained
 DVD+R writing
 DVD-R writing
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Introduction
 

 

Review: Dee's vs. stock firmware
Reviewer: Jan70 & Dee-27
Provided by: CDFreaks.com
Firmware: 1.04 & LD3520 beta 3 preview

In the following mini-preview we are going to compare Dee's firmware versus the NEC stock firmware for the NEC ND-3520 DVD writer. Since the testing drives are provided by CDFreaks.com - we are going to skip NEC's company information.

Drive specifications:

The listed specification of this drive was found on the NEC website:

NEC ND-3520A with LD3520 Beta 3 preview firmware.

NEC ND-3520A With Stock V1.04 firmware.

Test machines:

For this review we will be using computers with the following configuration:

Hardware PC #1:

  • Motherboard: ECS Elitegroup N2U400-A with Nvidia nForce 2 Ultra-400 and nForce MCP chipset.
  •  Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (Barton) 333 MHz FSB.
  • RAM: 1 GB Infineon PC2700 DDR
  •  GFX: ATI Radeon 9600 XT
  •  Sound: SoundBlaster Audigy
  • Hard disk: Samsung SP1614N 160 GB.

System set-up:

NEC ND-3520A with Stock Firmware

Hardware PC #2:

  • Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X Rev.2 with Nvidia NForce 2 chipset.
  • Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2800+
  • RAM: 1 GB Samsung PC2700 DDR
  • GFX: ATI All In Wonder Radeon 8500 DV
  • Hard disks: 2x Maxtor 120 GB Raid 0 SATA

System set-up:

NEC ND-3520A with Modified Firmware

Software:

Windows XP professional is installed on both PC's along with Service Pack 2 for windows XP. We will be using the following software in this review:

Now it's time to take a closer look at the write technology used by the NEC ND-3520A:

CD-Recordable:

The NEC ND-3520A uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 48X. This gives an average speed of 36.39x.

CD-Rewritable:

The NEC ND-3520A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its rated speed of 24x, this gives an average speed of 23.68x.

DVD+Recordable:

The NEC ND-3520A uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16x. The average speed is 11.77x and total writing time is 5 minutes and 56 seconds.

DVD-Recordable:

The NEC ND-3520A uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-R at 16x. The average speed is 11.75x and total writing time is 5 minutes and 42 seconds.

DVD+ReWritable:

The NEC ND-3520A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8x. The drive wrote the last zone at 8.27X and this gives an average speed of 7.99x.

DVD-ReWritable:

The NEC ND-3520A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6x. The drive wrote the last zone at 6.20X and this gives an average speed of 5.79x.

 

On the next page you read some basic facts about modified firmware…..
Conclusion
Facts - Modified firmware
Want to submit your own review? Click here
Reactions on this item
Posted by BoSkin on Sunday 30 January 2005 23:41
"...in most cases the STOCK firmware has the edge on quality, showing fewer errors on a burned media."

To me, this is the most important thing,
in other words this is what counts, not, let's say, the like 0,37% write speed gain and kinda "saved" 7-8 seconds.
Mostly, I have something else to do when burning stuff.
:g
Posted by Mender on Thursday 03 February 2005 00:50
An excellent comparison article. This is the sort of information I like to see:)
Posted by Zim33 on Saturday 12 February 2005 05:21
Great info, but I'd also like to see data READ capability compared, too.
Posted by J37HR0 on Thursday 17 February 2005 01:27
Thank you so much for this comparison. I really liked the side by side comparisons.

Excellent Job.
Posted by danbo on Saturday 19 February 2005 05:55
"...in most cases the STOCK firmware has the edge on quality, showing fewer errors on a burned media." "To me, this is the most important thing, "

Some of us actually CARE about bitsetting!
:d
Posted by RaHzElChO on Friday 10 June 2005 16:53
:B
Posted by Skeleton (guest) on Friday 20 April 2007 09:46
my nec3520a works excelent now. i tried burning dvd-r at 16x and it works excelent. before i had problems. i tried for the first time to write one image of 7.5 gb on one dvd+r dl verbatim. on read test it did not make it. sugestions? :r
Posted by jvkersbergen (guest) on Sunday 21 September 2008 21:58
gaarne downloden voor 3520A1.04
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