Nero CD Speed: Data	Source: Ahead Software

CD Speed is a CD/DVD-ROM benchmark which can test the most important features of a CD-ROM drive. In this particular test we use a pressed CD-ROM with about 640MB of data as the test disk. Using a CDR or CDRW as the test disk may (or may not) impact the results slightly, so the pressed disk is the de facto standard.

Nero CD Speed: Data

Nero CD Speed: Data Benchmark Results
Optical Drive	Gigabyte GO-W0808A	LG GSA-4082B	MSI X48	AOpen 52x32x52x	Samsung SW-252B	MSI CR52A-A2		Plextor W4012TA
Disc Type	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data		Data
Avg Speed	28.79x	23.08x	29.26	28.98x	35.08x	35.38x		29.05x
Random Seek Time	111ms	108ms	84ms	84ms	99ms	91ms		121ms
1/3 Seek Time	110ms	142ms	88ms	89ms	108ms	95ms		140ms
Full Seek Time	191ms	195ms	155ms	142ms	170ms	153ms		212ms
CPU Use: 1x	1%	1%	0%	1%	3%	0%		0%
CPU Use: 2x	2%	2%	1%	1%	4%	1%		1%
CPU Use: 4x	5%	4%	1%	3%	5%	2%		2%
CPU Use: 8x	8%	8%	3%	6%	8%	5%		5%
Disc recognition Time	10.33s	10.16s	7.68s	4.33s	4.77s	0.73s		9.37s
Disc Eject Time	1.2s	2.04s	4.61s	1.47s	1.42s	2.74s		1.64s
Disc Load Time	0.95s	1.33s	0.98s	0.91s	1.11s	7.9s		0.08s

Transfer rates for the Gigabyte GO-W0808A are very good at 28.79x. The drive is also pretty quick when it comes to seek times. CPU Utilization is good, and the GO-W0808A ejects and loads discs pretty quickly too boot. It takes a bit long for the drive to recognize discs though.

Nero CD Speed: Audio	Source: Ahead Software

CD Speed is a CD-ROM benchmark which can test the most important features of a CD-ROM drive. In this particular test we use a pressed Audio CD with about 65 minutes of audio on it as the test disk. CDROM's in general have a harder time processing audio data, and hence the results can be drastically slower than that of data tests alone.

Nero CD Speed: Audio

Nero CD Speed: Audio Benchmark Results
Optical Drive	Gigabyte GO-W0808A	LG GSA-4082B	MSI X48	AOpen 52x32x52x	Samsung SW-252B	MSI CR52A-A2		Plextor W4012TA
Disc Type	Audio	Audio	Audio	Audio	Audio	Audio		Audio
Avg Speed	27.38	18.46x	28.67x	8.37x	28.29x	31.09x		8.03x
Random Seek Time	138ms	114ms	92ms	168ms	104ms	89ms		121ms
1/3 Seek Time	150ms	137ms	95ms	144ms	111ms	90ms		140ms
Full Seek Time	211ms	204ms	315ms	235ms	117ms	309ms		212ms
DAE Quality	10	10	10	10	10	10		10
CPU Use: 1x	6%	1%	0%	1%	1%	2%		0%
CPU Use: 2x	4%	2%	1%	2%	2%	1%		1%
CPU Use: 4x	12%	5%	2%	4%	4%	3%		2%
CPU Use: 8x	14%	9%	4%	10%	9%	69%		3%
Disc recognition Time	8.86s	7.79s	6.53s	3.64s	4s	0.08s		9.37s
Disc Eject Time	0.98s	2.01s	4.62s	1.51s	1.44s	1.66s		1.64s
Disc Load Time	1.22s	1.33	0.96s	0.92s	1.13s	19.25s		0.08s

The Gigabyte GO-W0808A is also pretty quick when it comes to accessing audio CD's. In fact, access times are second only to the Samsung SW-252B - not bad at all! At 8x speed, CPU utilization is a bit on the high side, sitting at 14%.