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:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ 2.4GHz
Motherboard: Lite-On M2N-SLI Deluxe with BIOS 0304
Memory: Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400
Video Card: MSI NX7900GT-T2D256E - ForceWare v93.71
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 320GB
Operating System: Windows XP SP2 - NVIDIA nForce v9.16

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 and CD Speed 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 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:

  Lite-On
DX-20A4PU
Samsung
SH-S203N
Lite-On
DH-20A3H
LG
GSA-H55L
CD Winbench 99 2047 KB/sec 2140 KB/sec 2037 KB/sec 1638 KB/sec
Transfer Rate: Inside 3170 KB/sec 3040 KB/sec 3040 KB/sec 3060 KB/sec
Transfer Rate: Outside 6470 KB/sec 6450 KB/sec 6420 KB/sec 6390 KB/sec
Random Access Time 93ms 96ms 91ms 100ms
CPU Utilization 4.27% 3.12% 0.46% 0.45%


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.

Lite-On's new DVD writer performed pretty well in our CD Winbench tests. While the DX-20A4PU's overall score wasn't as high as the Samsung's, it had a low access time and some fairly good transfer rates. It started reading at about 21.1x (3170 / 150) on the inside and reached a maximum speed of about 43.1x (6470 / 150) on the outside.

CD Speed v4.7.7.7 - 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.


  Lite-On
DX-20A4PU
Samsung
SH-S203N
Lite-On
DH-20A3H
LG
GSA-H55L
Transfer Speed
Average:
Start:
End:

36.09x
21.25x
47.73x

35.96x
20.75x
47.55x

35.81x
20.82x
47.36x

35.57x
20.47x
47.04x
Seek Times
Random:
1/3:
Full:

96ms
111ms
167ms

102ms
105ms
177ms

98ms
110ms
184ms

103ms
104ms
174ms
CPU Usage
1x:
2x:
4x:
8x:

2%
3%
5%
9%

0%
1%
2%
4%

6%
1%
2%
4%

0%
1%
2%
4%

The DX-20A4PU didn't perform as well as I had expected when reading pressed CD's.While rated at 48x, Lite-On's new external drive came up a little short of this number in our tests. On a more positive note, the DX-20A4PU's seek times were very good.

CD Speed v4.7.7.7 - 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.

  Lite-On
DX-20A4PU
Samsung
SH-S203N
Lite-On
DH-20A3H
LG
GSA-H55L
Transfer Speed
Average:
Start:
End:

36.88x
21.51x
48.89x

31.30x
17.98x
41.48x

36.59x
21.12x
48.50x

36.35x
20.75x
48.16x
Seek Times
Random:
1/3:
Full:

97ms
112ms
161ms

96ms
104ms
174ms

105ms
116ms
181ms

108ms
119ms
178ms
CPU Usage
1x:
2x:
4x:
8x:

2%
4%
8%
12%

0%
1%
2%
5%

6%
4%
3%
n/a

0%
1%
2%
4%

The DX-20A4PU was a little faster when reading CD-R media.Thanks to this small speed boost, it had no problems reaching a maximum transfer speed of 48x in our tests.

Lite-On's external DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The DX-20A4PU read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 52.62x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.7 - 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.

  Lite-On
DX-20A4PU
Samsung
SH-S203N
Lite-On
DH-20A3H
LG
GSA-H55L
Transfer Speed
Average:
Start:
End:

25.66x
14.90x
33.89x

30.74x
17.86x
40.60x

30.12x
17.61x
39.78x

31.24x
18.10x
41.27x
Seek Times
Random:
1/3:
Full:

109ms
123ms
201ms

97ms
106ms
176ms

102ms
112ms
182ms

106ms
118ms
177ms
CPU Usage
1x:
2x:
4x:
8x:

7%
5%
9%
16%

0%
1%
2%
5%

0%
4%
3%
93%

0%
1%
2%
4%

When reading CD-RW media, the DX-20A4PU's transfer speeds are limited to only 32x. While Lite-On's new writer had no problems reaching this speed in our tests, it was the slowest out of the four drives here.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.7.7 (DAE) - 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 the Lite-On DX-20A4PUsupports accurate stream, caches audio data and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from audio CD's.


CD Speed Lite-On
DX-20A4PU
Samsung
SH-S203N
Lite-On
DH-20A3H
LG
GSA-H55L
Average:
Start:
End:
DAE Quality:
Accurate Stream:
36.44x
21.20x
48.16x
10
Yes
30.93x
17.76x
40.86x
10
Yes
30.30x
17.64x
40.03x
10
Yes
31.43x
18.12x
41.52x
10
Yes

The DX-20A4PU did very well in our DAE tests. With a maximum speed of 48.16x, the drive had no problems taking the top spot in our tests.

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.

CD DAE Lite-On
DX-20A4PU
Samsung
SH-S203N
Lite-On
DH-20A3H
LG
GSA-H55L
Average:
Min:
Max:
33.0x
22.1x
47.2x
29.3x
18.7x
40.2x
28.2x
18.3x
39.1x
28.9x
18.9x
40.6x
Errors 0 0 0 0

While the DX-20A4PU 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 v4.7.7.7 (DAE) - 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.

CD Speed Lite-On
DX-20A4PU
Samsung
SH-S203N
Lite-On
DH-20A3H
LG
GSA-H55L
Average:
Start:
End:
DAE Quality:
Accurate Stream:
36.11x
21.15x
47.61x
10
Yes
30.64x
17.74x
40.40x
10
Yes
30.02x
17.51x
39.59x
10
Yes
31.14x
18.16x
41.08x
10
Yes

The LH-20A1L was a little slower when ripping audio CD-R discs. While the drive still performed well, it wasn't able to reach 48x this time around. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Lite-On's new external DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 34.34x. The drive had no problems passing all of the on-the-fly tests and did not create any errors. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the DX-20A4PU was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and even the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

CD DAE Lite-On
DX-20A4PU
Samsung
SH-S203N
Lite-On
DH-20A3H
LG
GSA-H55L
Average:
Min:
Max:
33.7x
21.9x
46.7x
29.0x
18.6x
39.5x
27.8x
18.2x
38.5x
28.7x
18.9x
40.0x
Errors 0 0 0 0

To see how well Lite-On'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 DX-20A4PU handled scratched discs surprisingly well. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 44% of the CD to be "damaged". More importantly, 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.

CD DAE Avg. Speed Errors % of Disc

Lite-On DRW-2015L1T

2.7x 616249 0.08%

Samsung SH-S203N

29.0x 2365653 0.30%

Lite-On DH-20A3H

2.2x 2543386 0.33%

LG GSA-H55L

10.6x 2136523 0.27%

The DX-20A4PUgave us 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.