Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW/RAM

Model: Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW/RAM
Manufacturer: Sony Optiarc
Provided By: Reader Donations

While a relatively new name in the optical storage industry, Sony Optiarc already has a lot of experience under its belt. Established in 2006 as a joint venture between Sony and NEC, Optiarc combines the technologies and expertise of its parent companies with the goal of providing the best optical drives in the world. It has definitely paid off, as Optiarc is quickly becoming one of the industry's largest manufacturers with a product lineup that includes DVD and Blu-ray Disc drives for the portable and desktop markets.

One of the latest additions to Optiarc's already impressive line of DVD writers is the AD-7260S. Featuring some of the fastest reading and writing speeds available, this Serial ATA equipped "Super-Multi" drive is capable of  24x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. The AD-7260S also includes features like 48x CD reading and writing speeds, 32x rewriting speeds and support for buffer underrun protection.

We've had the AD-7260S in the 'Labs for a few weeks now and have had the time to put it through its paces. To give you an idea of what to expect from Optiarc's new DVD writer, we'll take a look at its features and then see how it compares to some of the 22x and 24x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does the AD-7260S have what it takes? More importantly, is it the best bang for your buck? Keep reading to find out.

The AD-7260S we purchased from Newegg.com was the bulk, or OEM, version. The drive did not come with any software, cables or even a printed manual. 

Physical Features:

The drive Optiarc sent us for this review was manufactured in February of 2010 and had firmware 1.00. For this review we used firmware versions 1.00 and 1.01.

Optiarc's new DVD writer definitely doesn't get any bonus points for looks. Like their previous drives, they've kept the look of the AD-7260S very simple. There are no large Optiarc logos or anything advertising the drive's reading and writing speeds. If you look closely though, you can see logos advertising support for Ultra Speed CD-RW media and the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications.

Below the tray you can see the AD-7260S's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up green when the drive is reading or writing.

The rear of the AD-7260S is fairly straight forward. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's SATA interface and power connector.

Technical Specs:

The specs below have been taken from Sony Optiarc America's website and by running a few simple tests.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Optiarc's new DVD writer is identified as an "Optiarc DVD RW AD-7260S."

Nero shows that the AD-7260S has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer, which is backed up by some form of buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the drive can also write CD-Text and overburn. Unfortunately, like Optiarc's earlier DVD writers, it wasn't able to recognize our 99 minute CompUSA discs at all.

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility I was able to determine that the AD-7260S is a "two sheep" burner. This means that Optiarc's new drive is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.

Here is a screen shot from Erik Deppe's Opti Drive Control. Among other things, this program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. Opti Drive Control had no problems detecting the  AD-7260S's reading and writing speeds and supported disc types.

Opti Drive Control also shows that the AD-7260S is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not yet available for this drive.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the AD-7260S'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 Optiarc's new drive can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media, it does not support technologies like LightScribe or Labelflash. If you need a drive that supports these technologies, they are supported on Optiarc's other 24x DVD writers, the AD-7261S (LightScribe) and AD-7263S (LabelFlash).

The AD-7260S doesn't let you set the book type of single layer DVD+R or DVD+RW media. However, using software like Nero or CD Speed, 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, the Sony Optiarc AD-7260S delivers a good number of features. This Serial ATA equipped "Super Multi" drive not only supports all major DVD formats, it sports some of the fastest DVD reading and writing speeds available. The AD-7260S is capable of 24x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. Optiarc's new drive 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 Sony Optiarc AD-7260S scores a solid 8 out of 10 for its features.

Along with smaller cable size, one of the biggest benefits of Serial ATA is its ease of installation. Because it uses a point to point connection, setting jumpers has become a thing of the past. In most cases, installation is as simple as plugging in the SATA and power cables and turning the computer on. Needless to say, it took only a couple of minutes to install Optiarc's DVD writer in our test computer. After making sure that the AD-7260S was recognized by Windows, I was ready to go. 

Documentation:

As I mentioned earlier, the drive we purchased from Newegg.com did not come with any software or documentation. Fortunately, I was able to download a copy of the operating instructions from Optiarc's website. Similar to the ones included with Optiarc's other drives, this manual covers a number of different topics. It starts out by going over the various buttons and connectors located on the front and back of the AD-7260S. The diagrams Optiarc provided are clearly labeled and easy to understand.

From here, the manual jumps right into the installation process. With no jumpers to configure, this section is relatively brief. Nevertheless, it covers all of the basics including how to install the drive in your computer and hook up the cables. The manual also has a brief section on how to use the AD-7240S. 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, the manual finishes up with a comprehensive list of specifications for the AD-7260S.

Like Optiarc's previous DVD writers, the AD-7260S was very easy to install. 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 and CD Speed are used to test transfer speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing, CD Speed is used to give an overall speed rating and is used in combination with CD DAE to see how well a drive reads scratched and dirty discs.

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 Roxio's Drag-to-Disc 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 a 4.38GB image to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Roxio's Drag-to-Disc is used to test packet writing speeds. For this, 4GB of random files and directories 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.

Optiarc's new DVD writer gave us some mixed performance in our CD Winbench tests. While the AD-7260S's overall score wasn't as high as some of the other drives, its transfer rates were fairly good. It started reading at 18.5x (2780 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 42.4x (6360 / 150) on the outside.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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.

 

	Optiarc AD-7260S	Lite-On iHAS424-08	Optiarc AD-7240S	Samsung SH-S223Q
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	35.49x 20.41x 46.95x	35.89x 20.93x 47.46x	35.51x 20.37x 46.95x	35.98x 20.97x 47.60x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	140ms 148ms 233ms	102ms 119ms 162ms	151ms 164ms 259ms	101ms 106ms 176ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	16% 1% 2% 3%	0% 0% 1% 2%	19% 1% 2% 3%	0% 1% 1% 3%

The AD-7260S didn't perform as well as I had expected when reading pressed CD's. While rated at 48x, Optiarc's new drive came up a little short of this number in our tests. Looking at the other scores, its seek times were also a little higher than we'd like to see.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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 AD-7260S was a little faster when reading CD-R media. Unfortunately, even with this slight speed boost, it still wasn't able to reach 48x in our tests. On top of that, its seek times were again a little high.

Optiarc's new DVD writer had some trouble reading our 99 minute CompUSA media. If the session on the CD was larger than 90 minutes in size, the AD-7260S 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 46.24x. 

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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.

Like the other drives, the AD-7260S reads CD-RW media at only 40x. As you can see, the drive came very close to reaching this speed in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (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 while the Optiarc AD-7260S supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

 

CD Speed	Optiarc AD-7260S	Lite-On iHAS424-08	Optiarc AD-7240S	Samsung SH-S223Q
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	30.90x 17.78x 40.83x 10 Yes	36.24x 20.90x 47.91x 10 Yes	30.63x 17.71x 40.01x 10 Yes	30.66x 17.73x 40.44x 10 Yes

The AD-7260S did fairly well in our DAE tests. While not nearly as fast as the Lite-On iHAS424, it had no problems ripping pressed audio CD's at 40x.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (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.

The AD-7260S was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media. Nevertheless, this didn't keep it from reaching a maximum DAE speed of 40x in our tests. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Optiarc's DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 29.12x. 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 AD-7260S 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 the AD-7260S 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 AD-7260S handled scratched discs relatively well. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 52.8% 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. The application extracts the audio tracks twice and then compares them. From this information we can see what the drive's average speed was and how many errors it generated.

The AD-7260S gave 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. 

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0 and Drag-to-Disc 9.0:

For this test I randomly generated 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.

The AD-7260S has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x. To reach this speed, it uses CAV, or Constant Angular Velocity. With Taiyo Yuden's 52x media, the drive started writing at about 21.34x and reached a maximum speed of 48.06x at the end of the session. This gave the AD-7260S an average writing speed of about 35.47x.

To test the drive's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden media rated at 52x. The results are below.

The AD-7260S took longer than expected to complete our CD writing tests. It trailed behind the drives from Lite-On and Samsung, taking more than three minutes to burn an entire 701MB CD.

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-52327S (firmware QS09) and read the discs at 32x. 

MBI 52x

Taiyo Yuden 52x

Verbatim 52x

The AD-7260S's writing quality was 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 Drag-to-Disc from Roxio. Verbatim's 32x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

While the AD-7260S uses CAV when writing to CD-R discs, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 32x. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that it uses a total of three "zones" to reach its maximum speed. The drive starts writing at 16x and jumps to 24x at about the 20 minute mark. The AD-7260S writes at this speed until about the 49 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed increases to 32x and stays there until the end of the session.

Optiarc's new DVD writer didn't do as well as some of the other drives in our rewriting tests. Due to its Z-CLV writing method, the AD-7260S took 2:45 to write 400MB with Nero and 2:44 to do the same with Drag-to-Disc.

While the AD-7260S's Z-CLV writing method didn't have much of an effect on its quick erase time, it took 3:51 to do a full erase.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-ROM:

For this test I used a single layer, single sided data DVD-ROM disc that is 4.37GB in size.

The AD-7260S was fairly quick when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 6.60x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 16.08x.  Unfortunately, its seek times were not as low as some of the other drives.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM:

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 disc using some general use 16x DVD-R and 6x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. For the DVD-RAM tests, media from Maxell was used. The results are below.

The AD-7260S performed very well when reading DVD-R and DVD-RW media. In our tests, the drive read DVD-R discs at 16x and DVD-RW media at a respectable 13x.

Verbatim DVD-R DL

Optiarc's new drive wasn't as fast when reading Verbatim's 8x DVD-R DL media. As you can see, the AD-7260S started reading at 4.99x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 12.00x.  

Maxell 12x DVD-RAM

Optiarc's new drive has a maximum transfer speed of 12x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that it starts reading at 5.90x and accelerates, reaching 12x at the 2.9GB mark.  

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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 16x DVD+R and 8x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

The AD-7260S'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

Reading Verbatim's double layer DVD+R media wasn't a problem for the AD-7260S either. The drive started reading at 4.99x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 12.01x.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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 AD-7260S didn't slow down very much when reading single layer DVD videos. It started out at about 6.53x and reached a maximum read speed of 15.93x. Optiarc's new drive was also fairly quick when reading dual layer discs. By looking at the screenshot below, you can see that the drive's transfer speeds peaked at about 12x.

To see how well the AD-7260S worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith using Nero Showtime. The drive had no problems playing back these movies with either program and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0 and Drag-to-Disc 9.0:

To test the DVD writing performance of Optiarc's new drive I used Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD+R, Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD-R, Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and Verbatim 6x 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 24x, the AD-7260S uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Optiarc's new drive starts writing at about 10x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The AD-7260S also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. In both cases, the drive writes at its maximum writing speed throughout the entire session.

The AD-7260S performed fairly well in our DVD writing tests. While the drive lagged a few seconds behind the iHAS424 and AD-7240S, it turned in some respectable times with DVD±R and DVD±RW media.

While Optiarc has a list of recommended media on its website, I wanted to see for myself how well the AD-7260S worked with some of the DVD+R and DVD-R discs available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below. 

So what about writing quality? 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 SHM-165H6S (firmware HS0E) 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 DW1640. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 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 at 16x with the DW1640. 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 AD-7260S's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media I tested. In most cases, the PI/PIF rates stayed well within acceptable limits. The only exception being MBI's 16x DVD+R media. When tested with KProbe and CD Speed, the PI rate was fairly high throughout the entire disc.

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.

To test the AD-7260S's packet writing performance I used Drag-to-Disc 9.0. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

The AD-7260S had no problems holding its own when reading and writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW media. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as fast as the other drives when writing to DVD-RAM media and took nearly 16 minutes to write 4GB of data.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the AD-7260S, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim, Memorex and Moser Baer. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

While Lite-On's new drive is capable of writing to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media at 12x, its speeds were limited to 8x with Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL discs. As a result, the AD-7260S took more than 19 minutes to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

Performance Revisited:

Like Optiarc's previous DVD writers, the AD-7260S performed pretty well throughout most of our tests. While not as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD±R DL and DVD-RAM discs, it turned in very good times with DVD±R and DVD±RW discs. The AD-7260S was also fairly quick when reading DVD's.  In our tests, the drive was able to read single layer data DVD's and DVD±R media at 16x and DVD±RW media at a respectable 13x.

The AD-7260S also did relatively well in our CD read 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 near 48x and rip audio CD's at 40x. Unfortunately, The AD-7260's CD writing performance wasn't as impressive. The drive took longer than some of the others when writing to CD-R media and its Z-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage in our rewriting tests. With all things considered, the Sony Optiarc AD-7260S gets a solid 8 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

Sony Optiarc drives have quite a following among enthusiasts and after having the AD-7260S in our 'Labs, it's easy to see why. While affordably priced, this new "Super-Multi" drive offers a healthy dose of features as well as some of the fastest DVD writing speeds available.

The AD-7260S performed very well when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 24x. At this speed, it took the drive a little more than 4 minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD. The AD-7260S also turned in some respectable times with DVD+RW and DVD-RW media. However, without compatible media, we weren't able to test its full potential when writing to DVD±R DL discs.  As a result, the AD-7260S took more than 19 minutes to burn 8GB of data.

When it came to media compatibility, the AD-7240S gave us some mixed results. While the drive wrote to most of our test media at its rated speed or better, only two types worked at 24x. On the other hand, the AD-7240S's writing quality was fairly good for the most part. However, there is still room for improvement with MBI 16x DVD+R and select DVD+R DL media. Hopefully, Optiarc can address this in a future firmware update.

The AD-7260S also performed fairly well in our DVD read tests. While its seek times were a little higher than I would have liked, it was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R media at 16x. The AD-7240S also reached some pretty impressive transfer speeds with other types of DVD media. In our tests, it read DVD±RW discs at 13x and both DVD±R DL and DVD±RAM media at 12x.

Reading CD's wasn't a problem for the AD-7260S either. In our tests, the drive read pressed and CD-R media at speeds near 48x and CD-RW discs at 40x. Optiarc's new drive wasn't as fast in our DAE tests. However, it still ripped audio CD's at a respectable 40x. Unfortunately, the AD-7260S lagged behind some of the other drives when writing CD's. It took longer than expected when writing to CD-R media and its Z-CLV writing method also put it at a slight disadvantage in our rewriting tests. Nevertheless, the AD-7260S's writing quality was quite good.

Like Optiarc's previous DVD writers, the AD-7260S has its share of features. Along with support for all major CD and DVD formats, it has a 2048KB buffer that is backed up by some sort of buffer underrun technology. While this buffer is a little smaller than we'd like to see on a 24x DVD writer, this system worked flawlessly in our tests. The AD-7260S 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. 

The Sony Optiarc AD-7260S is available now in your choice of black or beige and can be purchased through retailers like Newegg.com or Amazon for as little as $20. The LightScribe enabled AD-7261S has also begun to ship and is priced only a few dollars more than the AD-7260S.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 24x
• Writes to DVD-R DL and DVD+R DL media at 12x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD-R and DVD+R media at 16x
• Reads DVD-RW and DVD+RW media at 13x
• Reads DVD-R DL and DVD+R DL media at 12x
• Reads and writes to DVD-RAM media at 12x
• Features 48x CD-R and 32x CD-RW writing speeds
• Good selection of writing and rewriting speeds
• Includes buffer underrun prevention technology
• Good CD-R and DVD±R writing quality
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R DL media
• Affordably priced

Lows:

• Questionable writing quality with some DVD+R and DVD+R DL media
• Had a hard time reaching its rated speeds when reading pressed CD's
• Cannot set the book type of DVD+R or DVD+RW media
• Slower than other drives when writing to DVD-RAM, CD-R and CD-RW media
• Problems recognizing discs larger than 90 minutes
• Higher than average seek times