ASUS DRW-1612BL 16x DVD±RW/RAM

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For DVD writers the performance tests are broken down into four sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read and DVD write tests. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 v3.0 and CD Speed v4.7.5 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing both CD Speed and CD DAE are used. CD Speed is used to give an overall DAE speed rating and CD DAE is used to give the track by track extraction speeds and to check the extracted tracks for errors the drive may have created.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed v4.7.5 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 4GB to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

ASUS's new DVD writer performed pretty well in our CD Winbench tests. In the transfer rate tests, the DRW-1612BL started reading at 21.4x (3230 / 150) on the inside and reached a maximum speed of about 43.1x (6470 / 150) on the outside. This resulted in a very good overall CD Winbench score.

CD Speed v4.7.5 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

	ASUS DRW-1612BL	ASUS DRW-1608P3S	LG GSA-H10N	Lite-On SHM-165H6S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	36.08x 20.73x 47.73x	31.61x 18.12x 41.49x	35.57x 20.42x 46.78x	36.68x 21.95x 48.50x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	92ms 107ms 176ms	113ms 129ms 202ms	114ms 130ms 175ms	103ms 116ms 168ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 1% 3%	0% 1% 2% 4%	1% 1% 3% 21%	2% 4% 7% 12%

The DRW-1612BL didn't perform as well as I had expected when reading pressed CD's. While rated at 48x, the drive came up a little short of this number in our tests. Nevertheless, its seek times and CPU usage were pretty good.

CD Speed v4.7.5 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

The DRW-1612BL wasn't nearly as fast when reading CD-R media. Looking at the scores above, you can see that it reached a maximum transfer speed of only 40x. On a positive note, the drive's seek times were again quite good.

ASUS's new DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The DRW-1612BL read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 43.97x.

CD Speed v4.7.5 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.

ASUS's new drive reads CD-RW media at 40x. As you can see, the DRW-1612BL came very close to reaching this speed in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.5 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that while the ASUS DRW-1612BL supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

CD Speed	ASUS DRW-1612BL	ASUS DRW-1608P3S	LG GSA-H10N	Lite-On SHM-165H6S
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	36.44x 20.96x 48.15x 10 Yes	31.15x 18.77x 41.38x 10 Yes	30.73x 17.95x 40.68x 10 Yes	37.03x 21.26x 48.93x 10 Yes

The DRW-1612BL did very well in our DAE tests. While it wasn't able to top the drive from Lite-On, it hadno problems ripping pressed audio CD's at 48x.

To get a better look at the quality of the extracted audio we use CD DAE. CD DAE is actually designed to be an audio ripping program. It converts the CD-DA on the CD to .wav files. We use it in our testing because it can also be used as a quick and easy way to test the quality. Where CD Speed tests the DAE as one large session, CD DAE extracts each CD track individually. It actually extracts each track twice and then compares them to check for any errors. Every error a drive creates could be a hiss or pop you would hear later in the audio tracks.

While ASUS's new DVD writer started out a little faster when extracting our test CD with CD DAE, its average and maximum speeds were slower than what we saw with CD Speed.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.5 - CD-R Media:

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

Unfortunately, the DRW-1612BL wasn't nearly as fast when ripping audio CD-R discs. This time around, the drive reached a maximum DAE speed of only 39.80x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

ASUS's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 28.70x. The drive had no problems passing all of the on-the-fly tests and did not create any errors. In the advanced tests, the DRW-1612BL was able to read the CD-Text and subchannel data but failed to read the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

To see how well ASUS's DVD writer can read scratched and dirty discs, I used CD Speed's ScanDisc utility to see how many sectors were damaged or unreadable. This is a very rough, but good way to test the drive's error correcting abilities.

CD Speed - ScanDisc

The DRW-1612BL did surprisingly well here. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 54.9% of the CD to be "damaged". On top of that, none of the sectors on the disc were unreadable.

You can also get an idea of how well the drive can read scratched and dirty discs by using CD DAE. CD DAE will extract the audio tracks twice and then compare them. From this information we can see what the drive's average speed was and how many errors it generated.

The DRW-1612BL gave some mixed results in this test. While the number of errors was very low, the scratches on the disc caused it to slow down considerably.