In House Review - Samsung SH-S203B 20x DVD±RW/RAM

[Ian]

Today, CDRLabs brings you an in depth look at Samsung's new Serial ATA equipped "Super WriteMaster" drive, the SH-S203B. This highly anticipated drive features some of the fastest reading and writing speeds available. The SH-S203B is capable of 20x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and has a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. On top of that, it's the first drive to offer both 16x DVD+R DL and 12x DVD-R DL writing speeds.

In this review we'll take a look at some of the features found on the SH-S203B and see how it compares to some of the 18x and 20x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does the SH-S203B have what it takes? You'll have to read the review to find out.

[url=http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=306]
Samsung SH-S203B 20x DVD±RW/RAM[/url]

If you have any comments or questions about this review or the Samsung SH-S203B, please post them in the forum.

[DrageMester]

Thanks for the review, Ian.

It looks like an interesting drive, but unfortunately I don't have room for a SATA burner in my current setup.

You mention "only a 2048 KB buffer" as one of the lows of the drive. I don't know of any current DVD burner that has a larger buffer than this, do you?
Only a few earlier generation burners have had larger buffers (e.g. the Plextor PX-716 and PX-712 series), so I'd consider 2048 KB to be a normal sized buffer and neither a high nor low of this particular drive.

[MediumRare]

Good review (as always), Ian.

2 things come to mind while reading it:
- another drive that manages to write a DVD significantly faster than it can read. it. Wouldn't you think that the manufacturers would jump on the chance to have a unique property like 20x reading speed?
- the drive supports Mt. Rainier. What practical consequences does that have? Does it only work together with InCD (like MRW CD-Burners)?

G

[SithTracy]

so I'd consider 2048 KB to be a normal sized buffer and neither a high nor low of this particular drive.

Agree... and I still have a PX-716A... But I also have three SH-S203B's and it is an excellent drive. It did take a driver update from Intel (Matrix Storage Manager) for me to really appreciate this drive... I use it in AHCI mode. I put one in a Galaxy Metal Gear eSATA/USB box (5202AUAS) so I could use it @ work too. I also tried in on the Jmicron e-SATA port on my PC and it worked great (hot plugged in AHCI mode on that too).

My latest SH-S203B shipped with Nero Express v7.9.6.4, not that I'll bother using it.

Great review Ian.

[Ian]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

The comment about the buffer is just wishful thinking. As you guys pointed out, we haven't seen a drive with a buffer larger than 2MB in a number of years. Even if it was bigger, its not really going to give you more than a few milliseconds when the drive is writing at 20x.

I'm hoping that a company like ASUS comes out with a drive that can read as fast as it writes. They already have a pair of DVD-ROM drives that can read at 18x.

Mt. Rainier support isn't going to give you much. It was never built into operating systems so you're still going to need some 3rd party software like InCD, DLA, etc. I'm really surprised that Samsung is still including support for it in their drives. Maybe they read that one guy's petition?

[Ian]

Also, if you're wondering why I didn't include 8x DVD+R DL media from Ridata or Philips (CMC) in this review, its because they were both limited to only 4x. Actually, that's probably a good speed for them.

[DrageMester]

I'm hoping that a company like ASUS comes out with a drive that can read as fast as it writes. They already have a pair of DVD-ROM drives that can read at 18x.

C0deKing over at CDFreaks is experimenting with unofficial firmware that enables 18x and 20x reading in the new LiteOn 20A3 series drives.

Here's the thread if you're interested (the firmware is not available yet, however):

LiteOn First ### 18x and 20x reading ### Sub 4 minute read of a full DVD (at CDFreaks forums)

[Scour]

Nice review, Ian

I´m truly surprised by the performance of thsi writer, much better than Samsung drives in the past.

Could it be that this drive beats Liteon 20x-drives in quality?

[Ian]

Could it be that this drive beats Liteon 20x-drives in quality?

It's definitely better than the LH-20A1L. Lite-On still hasn't released a firmware update for that drive.

[Bhairav]

Ian, any issues on an NF4 platform with the drive? I see you tested it with an AM2 motherboard, with a 570/590 chipset.

The reason I ask.. my neverending woes with a Pio 212 and my NF4 motherboard

[Ian]

I did have the drive stop responding a few times, but that's happened with all SATA drives so far.

[DrageMester]

I'm hoping that a company like ASUS comes out with a drive that can read as fast as it writes. They already have a pair of DVD-ROM drives that can read at 18x.

Thanks to C0deKing over at CDFreaks, you can now get unofficial firmware that increases read speed of this drive (and the 202G) to 18x. There's also a version that increases both read and write speed (12x P-CAV instead of 12x CAV writing).

Samsung S202G/S203B Fast Burn and Fast Read Patched Firmware

Since I don't have either of these drives myself, I haven't tested this firmware.

Please keep in mind that using unofficial firmware voids the warranty on a drive.

[Dartman]

I have the drive on a NF4 amd asus board and so far on the native ports it works OK, on the raid ports, which are sil 3114 it would drop off or not work depending on which port it was on with my LG h62l. I also had some problems on the native ports with it when I had another driver loaded, or the Intel one, I eventually did a repair install after it ate my boot.ini and after sorting that and getting the right drivers installed both it and the LG work.
The drive isn't as godlike as most folks seem to be getting but it is fast and most burns are OK. I have loaded codekings FW and it does speed up 12x speed a bunch but quality is the same, haven't played with read speed or anything else yet.

[LoneWolf]

I'm intrigued. May look into allocating some funds for a pair of these in the next couple of months.

[peterd]

I'm thinking of one of these for a new build and notice the B, D and N models advertised.

I realise that the N is lightscribe, but what's the difference between the D and the B? The D is slightly more expensive.

I've searched tinternet but can't seem to find a comparision.

Cheers

[JASTECH]

Ian, yes very good review. Thanks to CDRLabs I purchased 2 of the Sammy SH-203B drives and am very happy. I have burned a few movie (back-ups) and just a couple of CD-R's. I have not received any replies on my questions under Media so I am not sure on using the CD's I purchased or send them back before it's too late in a couple of days. I also have a few Plextors, SONY's and others that are only like 4X so they sit on the shelf. Thanks again to you and this board for helping noobs in the Disk Arena, lol. Thanks, JAS

[Ian]

Thanks for the compliments JASTECH. I responded to your question about that media the best I could. Hopefully there are others that have experience with it.

[tourrilhes]

Hi all,

I was planning to buy a drive to do DAE with EAC, and therefore looking for a drive with all the appropriate features.
The review on this site mention in the "CD DAE" section that this drive "caches audio data".
On the other hand, the review on CDfreaks tells the drive "doesn’t support caching". The web site www.deafeature.co.uk also list this drive with no caching support, and it seems that the CDfreaks forums support this view.
Could someone explain the discrepancy ?

By the way, thanks for the reviews, it's very helpful navigating the array of choices available.

Thanks in advance...

Jean

[Ian]

I'm not sure tourrilhes. It could be any number of things.. firmware version, software version, etc.

I'm testing the SH-S203N right now so I'll look into it a bit more.

[Ian]

I'm going to have to go back and reinstall the SH-S203B. The Sh-S203N says that it doesn't do caching.

[Ian]

And now the SH-S203B says that it doesn't do caching either. Very weird.. in any case, the screenshot in the review isn't right.

[tourrilhes]

And now the SH-S203B says that it doesn't do caching either. Very weird.. in any case, the screenshot in the review isn't right.

Thanks a lot for taking the time investigating that ! I'm sorry that it happened to be a can of worms, I would not want to delay your review

I've been googling cache issues. A few bit I gathered...
It seems that different tools report caching support differently. But, this would depend on cache size. It seems that if the read cache is below 64 kB, for EAC this is equivalent to no cache, because it always overrun the cache :
http://www.digital-inn.de/exact-audio-c ... post106824

The second thing I looked is a tool called "Cache Explorer". For my drive, one one system (UP) it reports no cache, on another system (SMP) it reports varying cache size. This tool does not seem the be very reliable, or maybe SMP is the issue (are you using a dual core ?).

Lastly, one one web page on hydrogenaudio they say that the authoritative way to test cache is to put a scratched CD, disable both cache and C2 in EAC and check if EAC finds errors while ripping. This seems to be totally non-practical as far as review is concerned. And I'm not sure it's authoritative, if no errors are reported it could be that the drive report the same consistent error.

Sorry again for opening a can of worms. I guess that EAC cache test is probably the best we have.

Good luck with your review...

Jean

[Ekstasis]

Does this drive exist for the IDE Interface, or only SATA ?
I only have sata through a controller card...

[SithTracy]

The 202x series is the IDE equivalent of the 203B, but it does not perform as well as the 203B according to scans I have seen.