detail information

In this part of our VisionTek Xtasy 48X review we'll test how fast the drive can write different CD-Recordable media. Of course we tested every disc afterwards if errors had occurred. We used a 650MB avi-file and various files to make a total file size of 700MB. We used Nero Burning Rom to write this file in DAO (Disc At Once) mode. Every disc was finalized and set-up as non-multisession. We left 'SMART-BURN' enabled during these tests. In the table below we've summed it all up for you:

The VisionTek Xtasy 48X drive could write all discs at their certified speed and even higher. A question that comes to mind here is what about quality when writing at such high speeds and higher speeds than the media is certified for? Well as we see it you should always be very cautious when writing discs at a higher speed than they're certified for. We had for instance some problems with the 'That's Write' (Digital Storage Technology) discs that were certified up to 16x. The Lite-On's SMART-BURN feature indicated that the discs could be written at 40x as you can see from the screenshot below:

The problem was however, that the discs would always fail at this speed! When we lowered the speed to 32x the discs were written without problems. Agreed, this is still twice as fast as the discs were certified for but it shows that you can't always trust the 'burner's opinion'...

Conclusion:

The VisionTek Xtasy 48X drive could write all discs at their certified speed and most discs faster. All discs could be read just fine after writing them but we had some problems with the 'That's Write' CD-Recordables as described above. For more write quality tests we suggest you read this this page where our member OC-Freak has done some more extensive tests with the Lite-On LTR-48125W writer.

To conclude our review we will take a look at how far the VisionTek Xtasy 48X can overburn and if it can handle 8cm CD-R's...