ASUS DRW-1608P2 16x DVD±RW

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 v4.10 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 v4.10 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 didn't do as well as some of the other drives in our CD Winbench tests. The DRW-1608P2's overall score was not only very low, its 40x CD read speed put it at a disadvantage in the transfer rate tests. As you can see, it started reading at 14.3x (2143 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 38.1x (5720 / 150).

CD Speed v4.10 - 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-1608P2	NEC ND-4550A	LG GSA-4167B	Sony DRU-810A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	31.30x 18.12x 41.24x	35.60x 20.54x 47.09x	35.63x 20.45x 47.28x	36.39x 20.64x 48.13x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	104ms 145ms 222ms	137ms 145ms 219ms	114ms 126ms 183ms	106ms 123ms 176ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 1% 3% 6%	17% 1% 3% 6%	1% 1% 3% 36%	1% 1% 3% 6%

The DRW-1608P2 performed a little better in our CD Speed tests. While still not as fast as the other drives, it had no problems reaching a maximum speed of 41.24x. Unfortunately, its seek times were also higher than we'd like to see.

CD Speed v4.10 - 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-1608P2 was a little faster when reading CD-R media. While this still wasn't enough to top the other drives, it had no problems reaching a maximum read speed of 42.17x.

Unfortunately, ASUS's new drive had some trouble reading our 99 minute CompUSA media. While the DRW-1608P2 was able to recognize the disc correctly, it would not read beyond the 94 minute mark.

CD Speed v4.10 - 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 DRW-1608P2 can read pressed and CD-R media at 40x, its CD-RW read speeds are limited to only 32x. As you can see, the drive had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.10 - 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 ASUS's new DVD writer supports accurate stream and has the ability to cache audio data, it does not have the ability to retrieve C2 error information. This is different than what we saw with InfoTool. If you remember back, it showed that the DRW-1608P2 could return C2 errors.

CD Speed	ASUS DRW-1608P2	NEC ND-4550A	LG GSA-4167B	Sony DRU-810A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	30.52x 18.04x 38.58x 10 Yes	30.94x 17.99x 40.12x 10 Yes	30.81x 17.50x 40.79x 10 Yes	36.76x 20.90x 48.59x 10 Yes

The DRW-1608P2 didn't do as well as I expected in our DAE tests. Like the Pioneer DVR-R100, it had a tendency to slow near the end, preventing it from reaching 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.

ASUS's new writer started out a little faster when extracting our test CD with CD DAE. Unfortunately, it slowed down during the later tracks, preventing it from reaching its rated speed.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.10 - 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 DRW-1608P2 did much better here. While not as fast as the drive from Sony, it had no problems 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.

ASUS's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 29.10x. The drive did not create any errors, but for whatever reason, it was not able to pass all of the on-the-fly copying tests. In the advanced features tests, the DRW-1608P2 was able to read the CD-Text and subchannel data but was not able to read the lead in or lead out sections of the CD.

To see how well ASUS's new drive 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-1608P2 didn't handle scratched discs as well as some of the other DVD writers we've looked at recently. While there weren't any unreadable sectors on the disc, the drive considered more than 80% of the CD to be "damaged."

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-1608P2 did better this time around. As you can see, the scratches on the disc had little effect on the drive's speed and the number of errors remained relatively low.