Nero CD Speed: CD-R, CD-RW	Source: Ahead Software

Nero's CD Speed burn tests are done twice, once with a CD-R disc rated to 1x-52x burn speed, and again with a CD-RW rated to 4x-32x. Each disc was test with the same files, about 640MB in size. This test is performed by simply placing blank recording media into the burner and running CD Speed. The software will detect if it is CD-R or CD-R/W media and run the appropriate tests.

Nero CD Speed: CD-R/RW
CD-R CD-RW

Nero CD Speed: CD-R, CD-RW Benchmark Results

Optical Drive

MSI DR16-B

AOpen DRW8800

AOpen 5232 Combo

LG GSA-4082B

MSI X48

Samsung SW-252B

MSI CR52A-A2

Media

CD-R

CD-RW

CD-R

CD-RW

CD-R

CD-RW

CD-R

CD-RW

CD-R

CD-RW

CD-R

CD-RW

CD-R

CD-RW

Media Write Speed:

40x

24x

32x

16x

52x

32x

24x

16x

48x

24x

52x

24x

52x

24x

Avg Speed:

30.16x

23.4x

28.45x

16.64x

34.01x

30.65x

19.29x

15.28x

19.29x

4x

39.57x

18.72x

39.76x

24x

Start Speed:

17.72x

17.78x

16.64x

16.64x

22.51x

21.77x

12.01x

12.01x

12.01x

4x

23.62x

11.22x

23.82x

24x

End Speed:

40.32x

24.45x

33.32x

16.64x

44.74x

32.25x

24.02x

16.02x

24.02x

4x

52.14x

24.61x

52.25x

24x

Type

P-CAV

P-CAV

P-CAV

CLV

P-CAV

P-CAV

Z-CLV

Z-CLV

Z-CLV

CLV

CAV

CAV

CAV

CLV

In both instances (CD-R and CD-RW) the MSI DR16-B is able to reach maximum CD burning speed. No problems here.

Nero CD Speed: DVD-ROM	Source: Ahead Software

CD Speed can also read DVD-ROM discs, showing you maximum transfer speeds, access times and CPU utilization. The DVD data disc has about 3.78GB of data on it and is a retail DVD-ROM disc, not a recordable DVD.

Nero CD Speed: DVD-ROM
DVD-ROM

Nero CD Speed: DVD-ROM Benchmark Results
Optical Drive	MSI DR16-B	AOpen DRW8800	AOpen 5232 Combo	Gigabyte GO-W0808A	LG GSA-4082B	MSI X48
Disc Type	DVD-ROM	DVD-ROM	DVD-ROM	DVD-ROM	DVD-ROM	DVD-ROM
Avg Speed	11.58x	8.89x	11.63x	8.94x	8.83x	11.29x
Random Seek Time	106ms	121ms	95ms	94ms	104ms	95ms
1/3 Seek Time	110ms	122ms	105ms	100ms	170ms	103ms
Full Seek Time	186ms	172ms	158ms	162ms	183ms	161ms
DAE Quality	10	10	10	10	10	10
CPU Use: 1x	13%	6%	17%	6%	2%	1%
CPU Use: Max	49%	48%	50%	25%	4%	1%
Disc Recognition Time	7.55s	10.33s	7.86s	10.28s	6.6s	4.87s
Disc Eject Time	1.84s	1.74s	1.38s	0.96s	1.85s	5.44s
Disc Load Time	1.31s	0.01s	1.03s	1.2s	1.32s	0.96s

The average speed of the MSI DR16-B is very good, the second highest of all the drives we've tested. Access times are also fairly quick, but CPU utilization is a bit on the high side when accessing DVDs, especially at maximum load.