ASUS DRW-1612BL 16x DVD±RW/RAM

Model: ASUS DRW-1612BL 16x DVD±RW/RAM
Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

ASUSTeK Computer is one of the world's leading computer component manufacturers. For nearly two decades, this Taiwanese company has lead the way, producing some of the industry's best motherboards and graphics cards. ASUS is no stranger to the optical storage industry either. Over the years, they've introduced a wide range of products for the portable and desktop markets. With their innovative technologies and impressive performance, these drives have been popular right from the start.

This past fall, ASUS unveiled their first LightScribe enabled DVD writer, the DRW-1612BL. Designed in-house by ASUS's own team of engineers, this new "Super-Multi" drive is capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD±R DL and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and has a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. Along with support for HP's LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling system, the DRW-1612BL also includes features like 48x CD reading and writing speeds, 32x rewriting speeds and support for ASUS's FlextraLink, FlextraSpeed and QuieTrack technologies.

We've had ASUS's new DVD writer 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 the DRW-1612BL, we'll take a look at some of its features and then see how it compares to some of the 16x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does the DRW-1612BL have what it takes? Is it the best bang for your buck? Keep reading as we find out.

What's in the box?:

• ASUS DRW-1612BL 16x DVD±RW/RAM Drive
• Quick Setup Guide
• Nero Software CD
• CD Case
• 2 Verbatim LightScribe 52x CD-R Discs
• Mounting Screws

Physical Features:

The drive ASUS sent us for this review was manufactured in November of 2006 and had firmware 1.06.For this review we used firmware versions 1.06 and 1.10.

From the front, the DRW-1612BL looks very similar to ASUS's previous 16x DVD±RW drives, the DRW-1608P2 and DRW-1608P3S. While there are a few cosmetic differences like the eject button and placement of the LED, all three drives share the same basic design and have many of the same logos. Along with the large "ASUS" logo, you can see a few showing support for the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications as well as technologies like QuieTrack and LightScribe.

Below the tray you can see the DRW-1612BL's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up green when the drive is reading or writing.

The rear of the DRW-1612BL is fairly straight forward. 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.

Technical Specs:

Most of the specs below have been taken from ASUS's website and the manual that came with the drive.

The DRW-1612BL also has many of the same features found on ASUS's other drives, including support for their FlextraLink, FlextraSpeed and QuieTrack technologies. More information on these features can be found in our reviews of the CRW-5224A and CRW-5232AS.

LightScribe:

Note: We took a much closer look at LightScribe technology in our review of the BenQ DW1625. In this review we'll just go over some of the basics and see how the DRW-1612BL performs with the bundled software.

The DRW-1612BL is the first drive from ASUS to feature LightScribe technology. Developed by HP, LightScribe lets you burn durable, silk screen quality labels directly onto your CD's and DVD's using the same drive that burned the data. According to HP, it's as simple as burning the data, flipping the disc, and then burning the label.

Of course you can't do this with just any drive, media or software. While LightScribe capable drives use the same laser when burning both the data and label, they have to be able to accurately control the laser's focus and position as well as the spindle speed. They also must be able to recognize LightScribe media. These special discs have a thin dye coating on the label side that absorbs laser light. This triggers a chemical reaction that produces a color change, allowing the user to print text, artwork or graphics.

Even if you have a LightScribe capable drive and media, you will need software that supports it. Most major software companies have pledged support for the technology. However, at the time of this review, the list of compatible software is still relatively short. For the DRW-1612BL, ASUS turned to Nero. Using the bundled software you can both create and burn LightScribe disc labels.

Once you've created your LightScribe label, you're ready to print it. Before you can do this though, you will need to choose the contrast. Keep in mind this option not only changes the level of detail, it affects the amount of time it takes to print the label. The higher the quality, the longer the process will take.

How long does it take to print a label? For testing purposes, we created a few discs using Verbatim's LightScribe v1.2 DVD+R and color CD-R media. In both cases, the quality has been set to "best". The results are shown below.

Verbatim CD-R v1.2 - 21 minutes		Verbatim DVD+R v1.2 - 21 minutes

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that ASUS's new DVD writer is identified as an "ASUS DRW-1612BL".

The Nero screenshot also shows that the DRW-1612BL has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2000KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by some form of buffer underrun protection. In this case, it is ASUS's FlextraLink technology. According to Nero, the drive can write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity, it had no problems overburning up to 99 minutes with CompUSA's 99 minute CD-R media.

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the DRW-1612BL is a "two sheep" burner. This means that ASUS's new drive is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.

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 DRW-1612BL's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the DRW-1612BL is an 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. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not available for this drive yet.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the DRW-1612BL'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 ASUS's new drive can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media, it does not support the Mt. Rainier format.

The DRW-1612BL also supports a feature called "bitsetting." Using programs like Nero or CD Speed, you can set the book type of DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media to "DVD-ROM." This feature comes in handy if you have an older DVD player that has problems playing recordable media.

ASUS has once again turned to Nero for their software bundle. The CD that comes with the DRW-1612BL contains copies of Nero Express 6, Nero Media Player, and InCD as well as ASUSTeK ASUSDVD 6.0.

Nero Express 6 - With Nero Express, Nero has taken the features and performance people have come to expect from Nero Burning Rom and combined them with a user friendly interface. While the interface has been simplified, Nero Express still supports more advanced features like VCD and DVD creation, CD/DVD duplication, overburning, CD-Text and realtime audio filters.

The version of Nero Express that ASUS included with their new DVD±RW drive is 6.6.1.6f. You can download the latest version of the software from Nero's website.

Nero Media Player - Nero Media Player features on-the-fly encoding of audio CD's to MP3, HE-AAC, TwinVQ, WMA, and WAV format.The MP3 encoder uses the latest audio codec technology from Fraunhofer.While most of the plugins are unrestricted, the MP3 encoder included with this version of the program is limited to only 30 audio tracks.If you need to encode more you will probably want to upgrade to Nero's NeroMIX.

InCD 4 - InCD is Nero's packet writing software. Like Roxio's Drag-to-Disc or Sonic's DLA, it allows a person to use their CD-RW drive as a big floppy disk. The person can then drag and drop files onto a CD-RW or DVD±RW disc. Many people consider InCD to be one of the best packet writing tools because of its simplicity and performance.

ASUSTeK ASUSDVD 6.0 - The DRW-1612BL also comes with ASUS's own DVD playback software, ASUSDVD. Based on CyberLink's PowerDVD, ASUSDVD offers a complete set of navigation commands, including advanced features like multi-angle viewing, dual subtitle display, digital zoom and parental controls.

Along with DVD movies, ASUSDVD can be used to play back your VCD's, SVCD's or whatever video files you might have on your hard drive. Unfortunately, the version of ASUSDVD included with the DRW-1612BL only supports 2 speaker output. If you want to take advantage of DVD's encoded with DTS or use Dolby Pro Logic II, you'll probably want to pick up a retail copy of PowerDVD or WinDVD.

I was a little disappointed that the DRW-1612BL did not come with any software to edit and burn videos. This was a bit surprising considering ASUS's previous drives came with both NeroVision Express and Ulead's DVD MovieFactory suite.

While affordably priced, ASUS's new "Super-Multi" drive delivers a good number of features. The DRW-1612BL supports all major DVD formats and has specs like 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. The drive also supports bitsetting and includes many of the features we've come to expect from ASUS, like their FlextraLink, FlextraSpeed and QuieTrack technologies. The DRW-1612BL also comes with a software bundled form Nero. However, it lacks the components needed to edit and burn videos. Even then, the ASUS DRW-1612BL scores a solid 8 out of 10 for its features.

Installing the DRW-1612BL in our test computer took only a couple of minutes. I took the drive out of the box, 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 66. After making sure that DMA was enabled in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the DRW-1612BL comes with a CD full of software from Nero. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu pictured below will automatically come up when you insert the disc.

By now most of you should be pretty familiar with this menu. From here you can choose to install Nero 6, Nero Media Player, or ASUS DVD. Simply click the name of the application you want to install, and its setup program will start up automatically. Once you reboot, you'll be ready to start burning your own discs.

The Documentation:

The DRW-1612BL doesn't offer much in the way of documentation. The closest thing to a manual is the drive's "Quick Installation Guide". This small, fold out guide is broken up into 20 different languages with each language getting about a page worth of instructions. While these instructions take the user step by step through the installation process, the small size of the diagrams keeps them from being very useful. Also, if you're looking for things like the DRW-1612BL's specs or system requirements, you'll have to check the back of the box or visit ASUS's website. You won't find that information in the guide.

Like the other ASUS drives we've looked at, the DRW-1612BL was very easy to install. There were no problems getting the drive or the software installed and working correctly. However, the less than stellar documentation might not be user friendly enough for those new to upgrading their computer. With this in mind, I give the installation a 7 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 v4.7.5 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.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.15 andDLA 5.20:

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 DRW-1612BL 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 20.89x and reached a maximum speed of 47.10x at the end of the session. This gave ASUS's new DVD±RW an average writing speed of about 35.67x.

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

ASUS's new drive did fairly well in our CD writing tests. While not as fast as the drive from Lite-On, it was able to write an entire 700MB CD in 2:49.

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 DRW-1612BL'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 DLA from Sonic. Verbatim's 32x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

While the DRW-1612BL 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 19 minute mark.The DRW-1612BL writes at this speed until about the 54 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed increases to 32x and stays there until the end of the session.

ASUS'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 DRW-1612BL took 2:51 to write 400MB with Nero and 2:45 to do the same with DLA.

The DRW-1612BL also erases at 32x. While it didn't have the fastest full erase time out of the four drives here, it was able to do a quick erase in only 20 seconds.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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 CD 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.

The DRW-1612BL performed pretty well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 6.69x and reached a maximum transfer speed of about 16.25x. Looking at the other scores, you can see that the drive's seek times were also quite good.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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 disc 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. For the DVD-RAM tests, media from Maxell was used. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD-R DL

The DRW-1612BL had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In our tests, the drive was able to read DVD-R discs at a respectable 12x, but slowed to about 8x when reading DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media.

Maxell 12x DVD-RAM

ASUS'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 5.93x and accelerates, reaching 12x at the 2.8GB mark.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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 DRW-1612BL'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 12x and DVD+RW media at 8x.

Verbatim DVD+R DL

Reading Verbatim's double layer DVD+R media wasn't a problem for the DRW-1612BL either. While not nearly as fast as the drive from LG, it reached a maximum transfer speed of 8.31x.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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 DRW-1612BL didn't slow down very much when reading single layer DVD videos. It started out at about 6.63x and reached a maximum read speed of 16.09x. ASUS'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 8.25x.

To see how well the DRW-1612BL 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 6.6.1.15 andDLA 5.20:

To test the DVD writing performance of ASUS's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 8x DVD+RW and 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 16x, the DRW-1612BL uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that ASUS's new drive starts writing at about 6.6x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed as it reaches the end of the disc.

The DRW-1612BL also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. In both cases the drive uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum writing speed.

The DRW-1612BL performed pretty well in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as the drive from LG, it turned in some fairly good times with DVD±R and DVD±RW media.

To check the media compatibility of the DRW-1612BL, I ran a few tests using some of the media 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? 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 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 (firmware BSLB). 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 DRW-1612BL's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. Aside from a few small spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits.

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 DRW-1612BL's packet writing performance I used DLA 5.20. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW media were used once again.

The DRW-1612BL performed pretty well in our packet writing tests. While not the fastest drive here, it turned in some fairly good writing times with DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM media.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.15:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the DRW-1612BL, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

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

The DRW-1612BL wasn't as fast as I had expected when writing to DVD+R DL media at 8x. With Nero, it took the drive 19:16 to write 8001MB of data. If you do the math, this is a good minute and a half slower than the DRW-1608P3S and nearly four minutes slower than the GSA-H10N. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was fairly good with Verbatim's 8x and 2.4x DVD+R DL media. Aside from a few isolated spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed well within acceptable limits. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Memorex's 2.4x DVD+R DL media. The PI/PIF rates were very high at the layer change which caused some readability problems.

The DRW-1612BL also features 8x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA was used.

The DRW-1612BL wasn't as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD-R DL media either. Even at 8x, it took more than 23 minutes to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

As you can see, the DRW-1612BL's writing quality with DVD-R DL media is less than stellar. When tested with KProbe, the PI rates remained fairly low but the PIF rates were two or three times higher than they should be. When scanned with the BenQ DW1640, the results were even worse. The error rates were very high on the first layer, making the discs unreadable.

Performance Revisited:

The performance of ASUS's new "Super-Multi" drive was pretty mixed, especially when it came to writing DVD's. While the DRW-1612BL turned in some good times with DVD±R and DVD-RAM media, it wasn't as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD±R DL discs. Writing quality was also an issue as the PI/PIF rates were quite high with some DVD±R DL media. On the other hand, the DRW-1612BL was fairly quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, it was able to read single layer data and video DVD's at 16x and DVD±R media at a respectable 12x.

Unfortunately, the DRW-1612BL didn't perform as well as I had expected when reading CD's. The drive had a hard time reaching its rated speeds when reading pressed media and for whatever reason its CD-R read speed was limited to only 40x. The DRW-1612BL also gave us some mixed results when writing CD's. While the drive turned in some fairly decent times when writing to CD-R media, its Z-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage in our rewriting tests. With all things considered, the DRW-1612BL gets a 6 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

For the last few years, ASUS has been content to base their DVD writers on Pioneer designs. A wise decision for the most part, these drives have offered a good mix of performance and features at an affordable price. For the DRW-1612BL, ASUS has turned to their own team of engineers, designing the drive in house. While this has allowed them to incorporate features like LightScribe, its hard to ignore the fact that there are still a number of performance issues that need to be worked out.

The DRW-1612BL performed relatively well when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x. At this speed, it took the drive a little more than 6 minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD. This level of performance carried over to our rewriting tests where ASUS's new DVD writer turned in some respectable times with DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM media. Unfortunately, the DRW-1612BL lagged behind the other drives when writing to DVD±R DL media, taking as much as 23 minutes to write 8GB of data.

Finding compatible media really wasn't an issue with the DRW-1612BL. The drive wrote to most DVD±R media at its rated speeds and, unlike most new drives, was able to write to Verbatim's 2.4x DVD+R DL media at 8x. The DRW-1612BL's writing quality was also pretty good, at least with single layer DVD±R media. With DVD±R DL media though, there were a number of cases where the PI/PIF rates were very high. In fact, the error rates were so high on some DVD-R DL discs that they could not be read back.

ASUS's "Super-Multi" drive performed pretty well in our DVD read tests. It was able to read both single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD-Videos at 16x and had some relatively good seek times. Reading recordable media wasn't a problem for the DRW-1612BL either. In our tests, it read DVD±R and DVD-RAM discs at 12x and DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at a respectable 8x.

When it came to reading CD's, the DRW-1612BL's performance was a mixed bag. While the drive read pressed media at speeds near 48x, its CD-R and CD-RW read speeds were limited to only 40x. This was a little surprising considering most drives can read pressed and CD-R media at the same speed. As a writer, the DRW-1612BL performed as expected. The drive had no problems holding its own when writing to CD-R media. However, itsZ-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage in our rewriting tests.

The DRW-1612BL also has its share of features. Along with a 2MB buffer, the drive features things like ASUS's FlextraLink, FlextraSpeed and QuieTrack technologies. The DRW-1612BL also offers a good number of writing and rewriting speeds to choose from and has the ability to set the book type of DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media. Most notable though, is the DRW-1612BL's LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling system. With LightScribe, you can burn graphics and text onto the tops of specially coated discs.

In the end, it usually comes down to price. Fortunately, the DRW-1612BL is one of the more affordable 16x DVD±RW drives currently available. Available in your choice of black, silver or beige, the retail version of the drive can be picked up for less than $40 through some of the online vendors found 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 and DVD-R DL media at 8x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R media at 12x
• Reads DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 8x
• Reads and writes to DVD-RAM media at 12x
• Features 48x CD-R and 32x CD-RW writing speeds
• Supports ASUS's FlextraLink, FlextraSpeed and QuieTrack technologies
• Good selection of writing and rewriting speeds
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media
• Includes software from Nero and ASUS
• Supports 99 minute media
• Affordably priced

Lows:

• Poor writing quality with DVD-R DL media
• Slower than other drives when writing to DVD±R DL and CD-RW media
• Had a hard time reaching its rated speeds when reading pressed CD's
• Reads CD-R media at only 40x
• Does not come with software to burn or edit videos
• Documentation could be better
• Only a 2048KB buffer