The specifications of the Samsung SN-S082M state that the drive is able to write both CD-R discs and CD-RW discs at 24x speed. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R/RW discs:

For our data writing tests, we simply set up a new compilation of 702MB 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 screenshot below shows how long it takes to write a disc at the highest speed. (48x)

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CD-R:

The Samsung SN-S082M took 5 minutes and 16 seconds to write the disc at 48x. Let us see how this compares to other drives in the table below:

The Samsung SN-S082M was more than a minute faster than the NEC ND-7551A when writing CD-R media at 24x speed.

CD-R Writing Quality

We will test CD-R discs from different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the “create data CD” function in Nero CD-Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test, we used KProbe 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.

A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors; C1 errors are easily corrected by the drive’s error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2 errors could also be corrected by most drive’s 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 10.0 averages for good quality discs. After C2 errors, there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

Below are the obtained results:

A very good quality result for this Mitsubishi Chemicals manufactured 52x CD-R media. With a C1 average the disc fits in the “best quality discs” category.

A C1 average of 0.70 places this Taiyo Yuden manufactured media into the “best quality discs” category. Everything else would have been a surprise. 

A CMC Magnetics manufactured 52x CD-R media and once more an excellent result. With a C1 average of 0.86, the disc fits in our “best quality discs” category.

1.19 C1 average, once more a “best quality disc” result for this media.

Ultron media and with the average C1 errors of 4.24 it goes into the group “good quality discs” category.

A C1 average of 1.59 is an excellent result for this RiTEK manufactured CD-R media. Once more, a disc that fits in our “best quality discs” category.

Overall thoughts:

The Samsung SN-S082M burns CD-R media with very good quality.

Now let us check if the CD-RW writing performance is as good as the CD-R writing performance…..

CD-RW Writing Quality

For these tests we will be using 3 different CD-RW media from 2 different manufacturers.

To really measure the write speed, we used the 'create data CD" function in Nero CD-Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed that the drive supports.

For the quality test, we used the same testing procedures as for the CD-R tests in this review

No C2 errors but a C1 average of 43.98. A very poor result for this high quality, Mitsubishi Chemicals manufactured media.

Again we expected a much better result, but a C1 average of 20.25 says it all.

A good result for this media. A C2 average of 6.58 places this RiTek manufactured CD-RW into our “good quality discs” category.

Overall thoughts:

The CD-RW writing performance of the Samsung SN-S082M is poor. Here the drive really needs improving. 

Reading Performance

DVD+R/RW writing performance