NEC ND-3540A 16x DVD±RW

Model: NEC ND-3540A 16x DVD±RW
Manufacturer: NEC Corporation
Provided By: NEC Solutions America

As one of the biggest names in the electronics industry, the NEC Corporation doesn't need much of an introduction. Founded more than a century ago, this Japanese company got its start by manufacturing communications equipment. As time went on, they expanded into other markets, adding electronic components and computer hardware to their product lineup. NEC is no stranger to the optical storage industry either. One of the world's leading manufacturers of optical drives, they offer a wide range of products for the OEM and retail markets.

The latest addition to NEC's already impressive line of DVD writers is the ND-3540A. Introduced this spring, the ND-3540A takes DVD writing speeds to the next level. It not only offers 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 6x DVD-R DL writing speeds, it's one of the first drives with the ability to write to DVD+R DL media at 8x. Of course, NEC's new drive isn't just about reading and writing DVD's.The ND-3540A also includes features like 48x CD reading and writing speeds, 32x rewriting speeds, and support for buffer underrun protection.

With specs like this, the ND-3540A has the potential to be one the fastest DVD writers currently available. To give you an idea of what to expect from NEC's new drive we'll take a look at its features and then see how it stacks up against the 16x DVD±RW drives from companies like Sony, ASUS and Plextor. Does the ND-3540A have what it takes? More importantly, is it the best bang for your buck? Read on to see what we had to say.

(Mini-cons not included)

The ND-3540A we received from NEC was an OEM version. The drive did not come with any software, cables or even a printed manual.

Physical Features:

The drive NEC sent us for this review was manufactured in March of 2005 and had firmware 1.01. At the time of this review, this is the only official firmware available for the ND-3540A.

NEC's new DVD writer definitely doesn't get any bonus points for looks. Like their previous drives, they've kept the look of the ND-3540A very simple. There are no large NEC logos or anything advertising the drive's reading and writing speeds. If you look closely though, you can see logos advertising support for DVD-R/RW, DVD+R DL and Ultra Speed CD-RW media.

Below the tray you can see the ND-3540A's single LED. It lights up green when the drive is both reading and writing.

The rear of the ND-3540A is pretty straightforward. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's IDE interface, power connector and audio output connectors.

Starting from the left of the IDE connection you'll see the jumper switch for master, slave and cable select. By default the drive's jumper comes set to master. Next to the jumper block is the analog audio connector. To the left of this is the digital audio output.The connector on the far left is undocumented and is most likely used for diagnostics.

Technical Specs:

Most of the specs below have been taken from NEC's website and by running a few simple tests:

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that NEC's new DVD writer is identified as an "_NEC DVD_RW ND-3540A".

The Nero screenshot also shows that the ND-3540A has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by some form of buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the drive can also write CD-Text and overburn. Unfortunately, like some of the other NEC based DVD writers we've tested, it wasn't able to recognize our 99 minute CompUSA discs at all.

NEC's new drive seems to be able to do EFM encoding correctly. Using CloneCD version 4.2.0.2 with AWS disabled, Iwas able to reproduce older SafeDisc 2 protected titles like Max Payne along with some protected by SafeDisc 2.51 like Serious Sam: The Second Encounter.

Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the ND-3540A's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the ND-3540A is a RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. A patched RPC-1 firmware can be downloaded here. Just keep in mind that it is not supported by NEC nor by CDRLabs. Use it at your own risk.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the ND-3540A's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that while NEC's new drive can read and write to both DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media, it does not support the Mt. Rainier format.

Like NEC's previous 16x DVD±RW drives, the ND-3540A doesn't let you set the book type of single layer DVD+R or DVD+RW media. However, using programs like CD Speed or Nero, you can set the book type for DVD+R DL discs to "DVD-ROM." This greatly reduces compatibility problems, especially with older DVD players.

While affordably priced, NEC's new DVD±RW offers many of the features found on more expensive writers. Along with support for most CD and DVD formats, the ND-3540A sports some pretty impressive specs including 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 6x DVD-R DL writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. More importantly, it's one of the first drives with the ability to write to DVD+R DL media at 8x. The ND-3540A also includes features like a 2MB buffer and support for some sort of buffer underrun protection, but lacks bitsetting support for single layer DVD+R and DVD+RW media. Even then, the NEC ND-3540A scores a 9 out of 10 for its features.

Like the other NEC drives we've reviewed, the NE-3540A was very easy to install. From start to finish, the entire process took only a few minutes. After taking the drive out of the box, I left the jumper set to master and installed it on the secondary IDE chain by connecting the IDE cable and power connector. When I turned on the computer the BIOS detected it as a drive supporting UDMA 33. The only thing left to do was to go into Device Manager and make sure DMA was enabled. With a drive like the ND-3540A, enabling DMA is very important, especially if you're looking to get the best reading and writing performance possible.

Documentation:

While the drive we received from NEC did not come with any software or documentation, we were able to get a hold of a copy of the user's manual in PDF format. Similar to the ones included with NEC's previous drives, this manual covers a number of different topics. It starts out with a few pages worth of safety instructions. The manual continues on by going over the various buttons and connectors located on the front and back of the ND-3540A.The diagrams NEC has provided are clearly labeled and easy to understand.

From here, the manual jumps right into the installation process. While not the most elaborate instructions I've seen, it covers all the basics including how to set the jumpers, hook up the cables and install the drive in your computer. The manual also has a brief section on how to use the ND-3540A. It explains how to insert and eject DVD's and how to get a disc out of the drive in case of an emergency. Last but not least, it finishes up with a few pages worth of specifications and a list of recommended media.

In the end, installing the ND-3540A was pretty easy. Even with the basic manual I had, there were no problems getting the drive up and running. Just keep in mind that like with any OEM drive, it's up to the vendor as to whether or not you will receive any documentation or software. Overall I give the installation an 8 out of a possible 10.

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 v4.00 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 650MB and 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 v4.00 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.

NEC's new DVD writer did pretty well in the CD Winbench portion of our tests. While the ND-3540A's overall score wasn't as high as some of the other drives, its transfer rates were quite good.It started reading at 21.4x (3215 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 42.5x (6373 / 150) on the outside.

CD Speed v4.00 - 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.

	NEC ND-3540A	Sony DRU-800A	ASUS DRW-1608P	Plextor PX-716A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	35.60x 20.56x 47.07x	36.37x 20.74x 48.10x	31.31x 18.15x 41.41x	35.46x 20.50x 46.90x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	125ms 137ms 213ms	125ms 141ms 216ms	101ms 113ms 189ms	102ms 120ms 172ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 3% 6%	1% 2% 4% 7%	0% 1% 2% 4%	0% 1% 2% 3%

The ND-3540A didn't perform as well as I had expected when reading pressed CD's. While rated at 48x, NEC's new drive came up a little short of this number in our tests. Nevertheless, it was still faster than the drives from both ASUS and Plextor.

CD Speed v4.00 - 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 ND-3540A 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.

Like NEC's previous drives, the ND-3540A had some trouble reading our 99 minute CompUSA media. If the session on the CD was larger than 90 minutes in size, it would not recognize the disc correctly. Using a disc with about 90 minutes worth of data, I was able to reach a maximum read speed of about 48.06x.

CD Speed v4.00 - 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.

While the ND-3540A can read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 48x, its CD-RW read speeds are limited to 40x. As you can see, it had no problem reaching this speed in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.00 - 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 ND-3540A supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

CD Speed	NEC ND-3540A	Sony DRU-800A	ASUS DRW-1608P	Plextor PX-716A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	30.92x 17.99x 40.11x 10 Yes	36.75x 21.32x 48.58x 10 Yes	30.68x 17.94x 32.64x 10 Yes	31.45x 18.20x 41.55x 10 Yes

The ND-3540A did pretty well in our DAE tests. While not nearly as fast as the drives from Sony, it hadno problems reading pressed audio CD's at 40x.

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 NEC'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 v4.00 - 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.

While the ND-3540A was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media, this didn't keep it from reaching amaximum DAE speed of 40x in our tests. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

NEC's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 29.46x. 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 ND-3540A 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 NEC'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 ND-3540A didn't handle scratched discs as well as some of the other DVD writers we've looked at. The drive not only considered more than 85% of the CD to be damaged, there were parts of the disc that it could not read at all.

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.

Unfortunately, NEC's new DVD writer was not able to complete this test. Part way through the 4th track, CD DAE would return the error you see above.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.12 and DLA 4.95:

For this test I randomly generated 650MB and 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep. All of the times below include not only the actual writing time, but the lead in and out times too. This gives a more realistic idea of how long it takes to write a CD.

 

Like the DRU-800A and PX-716A, the ND-3540A has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x. To reach this speed, it uses CAV, or Constant Angular Velocity. With Fuji's 48x media, the drive started writing at about 21.60x and reached a maximum speed of 47.99x at the end of the session. This gave NEC's new DVD±RW an average writing speed of about 36.48x.

To test the drive's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden manufactured Fujimedia rated at 48x. The results are below.

NEC's new DVD writerdid pretty well here. While not as fast as the drives from Sony and Plextor, the ND-3540A took less than 3 minutes to write an entire 650MB CD, beating the ASUS DRW-1608P by a good 19 seconds

To test the drive's writing quality I used Lite-On IT's KProbe2. Written by Karr Wang, this utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52246S (firmware 6S0F) and read the discs at 32x.

Fuji 48x (Taiyo Yuden)

Memorex 52x (CMC)

Verbatim 52x

The ND-3540A's writing quality is very good. By looking at the KProbe screenshots, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors and there were no C2 errors at all.

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using DLA from Sonic. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

The ND-3540A is one of the first DVD writers to feature 32x rewriting speeds. To reach this speed, the drive uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that it uses a total of four "zones" to reach its maximum speed. The drive starts writing at 20x and jumps to 24x at about the 5 minute mark. When it reaches the 13 minute mark, the drive changes to 28x and then to 32x at the 22 minute mark.

NEC's new DVD writer had no problems taking the top spot in our rewriting tests. Thanks to its 32x rewriting speed, the ND-3540A took only 2:05 to write 400MB with both Nero and DLA.

The ND-3540A also erases at 32x. In our tests, it not only had the fastest quick erase time out of the four drives here, it was able to do a full erase in an impressive 3:22.

Nero CD Speed v4.00 - DVD-ROM:

A little editorial note here. Like a CD-ROM, you will get different benchmark results depending on what kind of discs you are using. You are probably going to get varying results from a full data disc to a single layer movie disc. You're also going to get different results for single and dual layer discs.

The DVD Speed website recommends using a single layer DVD-ROM disc with a capacity of at least 4GB. If you use a dual layer disc you probably won't get the best results because most DVD-ROM drives slow down to read them. Some even slow down to read single layer DVD-Video discs. To make a long story short, I am using a 4.37GB single layer, single sided disc for this test.

NEC's new drive wasn't as fast as some of the others when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. While it came very close, the ND-3540A once again had a hard time reaching its rated speed in our tests.

Nero CD Speed v4.00 - DVD-R and DVD-RW:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disk using some general use 4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

When it comes to reading DVD-R and DVD-RW media, the ND-3540A is hard to beat. In our tests, the drive read DVD-RW discs at 13x and DVD-R media at an impressive 16x.

Verbatim DVD-R DL

The ND-3540A wasn't as fast when reading Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media. As you can see, the drive started reading at 3.03x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 7.25x.

Nero CD Speed v4.00 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disc using some 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

The ND-3540A's performance with DVD+R and DVD+RW media was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R and DVD-RW media. The drive read DVD+R discs at 16x and DVD+RW media at 13x.

Verbatim DVD+R DL

NEC's new DVD writer didn't have any problems reading Verbatim's double layer DVD+R media either. While not as fast as the drives from Plextor and ASUS, it reached an impressive 7.29x in CD Speed's transfer rate tests.

Nero CD Speed v4.00 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.

The ND-3540A didn't do as well as some of the other drives when reading DVD videos. In our tests, it started out at about 3.36x and reached a maximum read speed of 7.91x. While this is an improvement over NEC's previous DVD writers, it's still pretty slow considering there are drives out there that can reach speeds as high as 16x.

To see how well NEC's DVD±RW worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace using WinDVD 4 and PowerDVD 5. The drive had no problems playing back these movies with either program and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.12 andDLA 4.95:

To test the DVD writing performance of NEC's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW and 4x DVD+RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x, the ND-3540A uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that NEC's new drive starts writing at about 6.6x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed as it reaches the end of the disc.

As I've mentioned in the past, the dips in the graphs are not an indication of poor performance and/or writing quality. They're due to the ND-3540A's Active Optimized Power Control (Active OPC) technology. According to NEC, this system actively monitors writing power and reflection of the media in use. By doing so, the drive can calculate the optimum laser power and adjust it in real-time.

The ND-3540A also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. In both cases the drive uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

NEC's new drive did very well here. While its Z-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage when writing to DVD-RW discs, the ND-3540A turned in some very good times with DVD+R, DVD-R and DVD+RW media.

While NEC has a list of compatible media on their website, I wanted to see for myself how well the ND-3540A worked with some of the DVD+R and DVD-R media currently available.

So what about writing quality? Testing a drive's DVD writing quality isn't easy. Until now, there were very few options, unless you wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for a certified test machine. Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates.For these tests I used a Lite-On SOHW-1673S (firmware JS07) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1620. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1620 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back with a Lite-On XJ-HD166S. By default, this DVD-ROM drive reads recordable media at only 8x. However, thanks to a firmware patched by The Dangerous Brothers, I was able to boost the drive's read speed to 12x. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter.

The ND-3540A's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. Looking at the graphs above, you can see that aside from a few isolated PIF spikes, the error rates remained fairly low. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement, especially with the Optodisc media. When scanned with the BenQ DW1620, the PIF rates were fairly high near the end and there were a number of PO Failures.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were pretty good for the most part. The only exception was Memorex's 16x media. When scanned with KProbe, the PI rates were higher than we'd like to see.

To test the ND-3540A's packet writing performance I used DLA 4.95. Verbatim 4x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW media were used once again.

When writing our test data, the ND-3540A turned in some very good times with both DVD+RW and DVD-RW media. The drive was also fairly quick when reading DVD+RW discs, but for whatever reason took longer than expected to read back our test data from DVD-RW media.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.12:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the ND-3540A, I used Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL, Memorex 2.4x DVD+R DL and Verbatim 4x DVD-R DL media. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

NEC's new drive had no problems writing to Verbatim's DVD+R DL media at 8x. Unfortunately, Memorex's Ritek manufactured discs would not work at anything faster than 2.4x.

With Nero, it took the ND-3540A about 18:19 to write 8001MB of data. While faster than the drives from Sony and ASUS, it was actually a few seconds slower than the PX-716A. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

I have to admit, the writing quality was better than I expected with Verbatim's 2.4x DVD+R DL media. When writing to these discs at 8x, I expected poor writing quality and readability problems. As you can see, that wasn't really the case. Aside from the spike at the layer change, the PI and PIF errors stayed within acceptable limits.

While written to at a much slower speed, Memorex's Ritek manufactured media yielded some mixed results. The PI/PIF rates remained relatively low when tested with KProbe. However, when tested with the BenQ DW1620, they were not only higher, there were a number of PO Failures. Surprisingly enough, this didn't seem to have any effect on readability.

The ND-3540A also features 6x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, Verbatim's new 4x DVD-R DL media was used.

With its Z-CLV writing method, the ND-3540A wasn't as fast as the drives from ASUS and Plextor. Nevertheless, it took only 20:34 to write 8001MB of data, beating the DRU-800A by almost 7 minutes. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The ND-3540A's writing quality was also pretty mixed with Verbatim's DVD-R DL media. While the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits when tested with KProbe and CD Speed, there were a small number of PO Failures. Nevertheless, aside from a slight dip in one of the transfer rate graphs, there were no readability problems.

Performance Revisited:

Like NEC's previous DVD writers, the ND-3540A performed pretty well in our tests. The drive flew through our DVD writing tests, turning in some impressive times with DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media. Reading DVD's wasn't a problem for the ND-3540A either. NEC's new drive was able to read single layer data DVD's and DVD±R discs at speeds near 16x, but slowed to only 7x when reading DVD videos.

The ND-3540A also did relatively well in our CD reading and writing tests. While its seek times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive was able to read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 48x. The ND-3540A wasn't as fast in our DAE tests. However, it still ripped audio CD's at a respectable 40x. NEC's new drive also performed very well in our writing and rewriting tests. The ND-3540A turned in some good writing times and its writing quality was quite good. With all things considered, the NEC ND-3540A gets an 8 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

NEC drives have quite a following among enthusiasts and after having the ND-3540A in our 'Labs, it's easy to see why. While affordably priced, their new 16x DVD±RW offers a healthy dose of features and some of the fastest DVD reading and writing speeds available.

It shouldn't be too surprising that what the ND-3540A does best is write DVD's. When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x, the drive took about 6 minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD. NEC's new DVD writer also performed pretty well in our rewriting tests, turning in some impressive times with both DVD-RW and DVD+RW media. The ND-3540A held its own when writing to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media, but due to its Z-CLV writing method, it wasn't as fast as some of the other drives we've tested.

Finding compatible media really wasn't an issue with the ND-3540A. The drive wrote to most of our test media at its rated speed or better and was even able to write to some 8x DVD±R discs at 16x. The ND-3540A's writing quality was also fairly good for the most part. However, there's definitely room for improvement, especially with Optodisc 16x DVD+R and Ritek DVD+R DL media. Hopefully NEC can tweak this in a future firmware update.

NEC's new DVD±RW also performed pretty well in our DVD read tests. While its seek times were higher than I would have liked, the drive was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R discs at speeds as high as 16x. The ND-3540A also read DVD±RW media at an impressive 13x but slowed to 7x when reading DVD+R DL discs and DVD-Videos. This is an improvement over NEC's previous DVD writers. However, there are still better drives out there if you want to rip DVD movies.

Reading and writing CD's wasn't a problem for the ND-3540A either. In our tests, the drive read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 48x and CD-RW discs at 40x. It also ripped audio CD's at a respectable 40x but had some problems reading scratched discs. This level of performance carried over to our writing tests. The ND-3540A turned in some impressive times thanks to its 48x CD-R and 24x CD-RW writing speeds and its writing quality was quite good.

When it comes to features, the ND-3540A is very similar to NEC's previous DVD writers. To prevent buffer underruns, the drivehas a 2048KB buffer that is backed up by some sort of buffer underrun technology. The ND-3540A also offers a good number of writing and rewriting speeds to choose from and supports bitsetting for DVD+R DL discs. Unfortunately, it won't let you set the book type of DVD+R or DVD+RW media. Of course, this is something you can easily get around by using modified firmware.

In the end, it usually comes down to price. Fortunately, the ND-3540A is one of the more affordable 16x DVD±RW drives currently available. Available in your choice of black or beige, the OEMversion of the drive can be picked up for less than $50 through some of the vendors listed on Pricegrabber.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 16x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD+R DL media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-R DL media at 6x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R media at 16x
• Reads DVD±RW media at 12x
• Reads DVD±R DL media at 7x
• Features 48x CD-R and 32x CD-RW writing speeds
• Good selection of writing and rewriting speeds
• Includes buffer underrun prevention technology
• Good CD writing quality
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R DL media
• Can write to select 8x DVD-R and DVD+R media at 16x
• Affordably priced

Lows:

• Had a hard time reaching its rated speeds when reading pressed CD and DVD discs
• Reads DVD Videos at only 7x
• Erases 6x DVD-RW media at only 4x
• Cannot set the book type of DVD+R or DVD+RW media
• Problems recognizing discs larger than 90 minutes
• Only a 2048KB buffer