In House Review - NEC ND-3520A 16x DVD±RW

[Ian]

Today CDRLabs brings you a review of NEC's second generation 16x DVD±RW, the ND-3520A. While affordably priced, the drive features some of the fastest reading and writing speeds available. The ND-3520A is capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds and has a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. More importantly, it's one of the first drives to feature support for both the DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL formats.

In this review we'll take a look at some of the features found on the ND-3520A and see how it compares to some of the 16x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does NEC's new drive have what it takes? You'll have to read the review to find out.

[url=http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=255]
NEC ND-3520A 16x DVD±RW[/url]

As usual, if you have any comments or questions about this review or the NEC ND-3520A, please post them in the forum by clicking the link below.

[Ian]

Just to let you know, your review suggestions are not going ignored. BenQ DW1620 scans are included in this review for those that wanted to see Jitter rates. While I didn't do it here, I've already modified my testing to use a full 4.37GB disc image for DVD write tests. You'll see those in the next review.

[hoxlund]

what a coincidence i got my 3520 today also, delivered a day early

same firmware, but mine was manufacturered feburary 05

[MediumRare]

I haven't read the whole review yet- have to leave for work in 20 min.- but I really like the drive's mug-shot in the Features-section. There's no hiding that this comes from CDRLabs- even without the watermark!

G

[hoxlund]

ohh that was a good idea, unless that wasn't your intent Ian

[Wesociety]

I've already modified my testing to use a full 4.37GB disc image for DVD write tests. You'll see those in the next review.

Thanks Ian.

[Ian]

I haven't read the whole review yet- have to leave for work in 20 min.- but I really like the drive's mug-shot in the Features-section. There's no hiding that this comes from CDRLabs- even without the watermark!

G

The picture with Kicker in it? I started taking that shot and realized that it was pretty boring. Kicker was sitting there so I stuck him in there.

[bill]

Just to let you know, your review suggestions are not going ignored. BenQ DW1620 scans are included in this review for those that wanted to see Jitter rates. While I didn't do it here, I've already modified my testing to use a full 4.37GB disc image for DVD write tests. You'll see those in the next review.

Nice review, Ian. Thanks for all your effort, it is appreciated.

[ETP]

Yep! It's time to buy up all those $52 drives at Newegg.com.

[MediumRare]

The picture with Kicker in it? I started taking that shot and realized that it was pretty boring. Kicker was sitting there so I stuck him in there.

Yes, that's the picture I meant. I find it to be a really nice touch!

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same NEC Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

Who makes this media for NEC? Or was it just a quick search-and-replace from a Memorex review?

Seriously, another good review. I really appreciate the detailed media performance tests, also with BenQ scans.

One thing I noticed was some sort of structure in the PI Error rate and jitter at ca. 2.3 GiB in almost all the BenQ-scans- either a spike or a jump or (rarely) a drop. The transfer rate and KProbe scans showed no such structure. Is this an artifact of the BenQ drive or does this correspond to a speed step in the NEC burning strategy (unlikely at 16x CAV)? Do discs from other burners show this too?

I have a couple of other suggestions, but they're more general and I'll post them in the feedback thread.

G

[Ian]

Who makes this media for NEC? Or was it just a quick search-and-replace from a Memorex review?

Oops.. that has probably been in there for awhile.

One thing I noticed was some sort of structure in the PI Error rate and jitter at ca. 2.3 GiB in almost all the BenQ-scans- either a spike or a jump or (rarely) a drop. The transfer rate and KProbe scans showed no such structure. Is this an artifact of the BenQ drive or does this correspond to a speed step in the NEC burning strategy (unlikely at 16x CAV)? Do discs from other burners show this too?:

Yeah, I noticed this too. I think it's due to the Z-CLV writing strategy. I haven't used the BenQ enough for PI/PIF testing to know (yet) whether or not it does this with discs burned by other drives.

[MediumRare]

I think it's due to the Z-CLV writing strategy.

I thought that might be the case too- but it doesn't match the speed steps (if your 8x DVD+RW curve goes for +R media too) and a spike shows in the 16x CAV curve without any steps.

G

[RJW]

Very good review.
Again it's showeing great improvements.
If things keep going like this then I would be really suprised to see what you can do for the next reviews.

[jsl]

One thing I noticed was some sort of structure in the PI Error rate and jitter at ca. 2.3 GiB in almost all the BenQ-scans- either a spike or a jump or (rarely) a drop. The transfer rate and KProbe scans showed no such structure. Is this an artifact of the BenQ drive or does this correspond to a speed step in the NEC burning strategy (unlikely at 16x CAV)? Do discs from other burners show this too?

Yes that's a little interesting because there are similar spikes in the Japanese "YSS" guy's 16x burn scans from both NEC ND-3520 and Pioneer 109:
http://homepage2.nifty.com/yss/dvr-abn1 ... dvd16x.htm
http://homepage2.nifty.com/yss/a09j/a09jdvd16x.htm

Slower burning with ZCLV on these writers does not seem to produce these spikes though and I can't remember I've seen them from burns made on any other writers either. So maybe the BenQ just doesn't like CAV burns from drives based on the latest NEC chipset?