Test machine

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

Hardware:

• Motherboard: ASUSTeK P5K (Intel P35 chipset)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
• RAM: 4 GB OCZ Platinum dual channel kit DDR2 800
• GFX: BFG nVidia 8800GTS (640 Megabytes GDDR3 HDCP compliant)
• Sound: Onboard Realtek ALC882 HD audio controller
• Hard disk: 2X 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (SATA 2)
• Case: ThermalTake Armor (silver)
• PSU: Enermax Liberty 620W
• Display: Samsung Syncmaster 245B 24” widescreen LCD (HDCP compliant)
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit) with Service Pack 1

System setup:

The Optiarc AD-7200A was connected to an IDE channel on the motherboards JMicron IDE controller. As we can see from the above screenshot, Nero InfoTool reports the Optiarc AD-7200A as a UDMA4 device.

And another screenshot from Nero InfoTool:

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Optiarc AD-7200A supports DVD-RAM read and write. The drive came shipped with firmware version 1.01, when firmware version 1.05 became available, the drive was updated before starting this review.

Installed software:

For conducting our various tests, we will be using the following applications.

• Nero Burning Rom 8
• Nero CD/DVD Speed
• Nero InfoTool
• DVDFab Platinum
• Slysoft CloneCD
• Exact Audio Copy

Our review PC has Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit installed with Service Pack 1.

Features and techniques

Drive Internals:

Optiarc AD-7200A PCB

The Optiarc AD-7200A is powered by an NEC MC-10043 chipset

BookType (Bitsetting):

The Optiarc AD-7200A supports automatic bit-setting and supports Bit-Setting on DVD+R DL media.

Here is how you could check if your discs are really written with DVD-ROM book type:

Start Nero CD-DVD Speed and click the Disc info button and you should get something like this:

DVD+R DL with BookType DVD-ROM

Another quick test is to start Nero CD-Speed and look at the disc information:

Disc Quality Scanning:

5x DQ scan using CD-Speed

The Optiarc AD-7200A can be used along with CD-Speed for Disc Quality Scanning. We will examine this feature in a little more detail in the Authors page of this review.

Writing technique

Now it’s time to take a closer look at the write technology used by the Optiarc AD-7200A:

For these tests we used CD-Speed and wrote a full disc at the drives maximum speed.

CD Recordable:

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7200A, it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 48x.

The Optiarc AD-7200A uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 48X. This gives an average speed of 34.98x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 9 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the Optiarc AD-7200A was about average when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7200A, it should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 32x.

The Optiarc AD-7200A uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 32X. This gives an average speed of 29.09x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 21 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the Optiarc AD-7200A was one of the fastest drives when writing CD-RW media.

20x DVD+R/-R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7200A, it should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 20x.

DVD+R

The Optiarc AD-7200A uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 20X. This gives an average speed of 14.86x and a total writing time of 4 minutes and 35 seconds.

DVD-R

The Optiarc AD-7200A uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 20X. This gives an average speed of 14.87x and a total writing time of 4 minutes and 42 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see from our table, the Optiarc AD-7200A was the fastest drive when writing DVD+R media and one of the fastest drives when writing DVD-R media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7200A, it should be able to write DVD+RW at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Optiarc AD-7200A uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 7.75x and a total writing time of 7 minutes and 23 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Optiarc AD-7200A was one of the fastest drives when writing our test DVD+RW media.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7200A, it should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Optiarc AD-7200A uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average speed of 6.01x and a total writing time of 10 minutes and 2 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Optiarc AD-7200A was above average when writing DVD-RW media.

12x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7200A, it should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 12x.

We had no media that was rated at 12x writing speed, the fastest being 8x

The Optiarc AD-7200A uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 6.32x and a total writing time of 18 minutes and 46 seconds.

12x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7200A, it should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 12x.

We had no media that was rated at 12x writing speed, the fastest being 8x

The Optiarc AD-7200A uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 6.34x and a total writing time of 18 minutes and 49 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Optiarc AD-7200A was about average when writing double layer media.

12x DVD-RAM writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7200A, it should be able to write DVD-RAM at a maximum speed of 12x.

The Optiarc AD-7200A uses P-CAV, (Partial Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 12X. This gives an average speed of 9.86x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 58 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Optiarc AD-7200A was about average when writing our test DVD-RAM media.

Summary:

There is no doubt that the Optiarc AD-7200A has excellent writing performance on DVD recordable media and was the fastest drive we have ever tested here at CD Freaks when writing to DVD+R media and one of the fastest drives when writing to DVD-R media. CD-R writing performance was also very good.

Let’s head on to the next page where we will check reading performance….

Introduction

Reading Performance