ASUS DRW-2014L1T 20x DVD±RW/RAM

Model: ASUS DRW-2014L1T 20x DVD±RW/RAM
Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer, Inc

ASUSTeK Computer is no stranger to the computer industry. A favorite among computer enthusiasts, this Taiwanese company is recognized as one of the world's leading manufacturers of computer components. While best known for their motherboards, graphics cards and notebook computers, ASUS has shown us that they're pretty serious about optical storage. 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.

One of the latest additions to ASUS's already impressive line of DVD writers is the DRW-2014L1T. This Serial ATA equipped "Super-Multi" drive is capable of 20x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 8x DVD±R DL writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. On top of that, it's one of the few drives with the ability to write to DVD-RAM media at 14x. Along with support for HP's LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling system, the DRW-2014L1T also includes features like 48x CD reading and writing speeds, 32x rewriting speeds and support for ASUS's FlextraLink and FlextraSpeed technologies.

With features and specs like this, the DRW-2014L1T sounds like it has a lot of potential. To give you an idea of what to expect from ASUS's new writer, we'll take a look at some of its features and then see how it compares to some of the 20x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does the DRW-2014L1T have what it takes? Is it the best bang for your buck? Keep reading as we find out.

• ASUS DRW-2014L1T 20x DVD±RW/RAM Drive
• Quick Setup Guide
• Nero Software CD
• Beige Replacement Bezel
• Mounting Screws

Physical Features:

The drive we purchased for this review was manufactured in September of 2007 and had firmware 1.00.For this review we used firmware version 1.02.

The look of ASUS's DVD writers really hasn't changed very much over the last few years. With this in mind, I was a little surprised to see that the DRW-2014L1T had been given a makeover. The eject button is not only smaller and more rounded, the bezel as a whole is flatter than those on ASUS's earlier drives. The DRW-2014L1T also has its share of logos. Along with the large "ASUS" logo, you can see a few showing support forthe DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications as well as HP's LightScribe technology.

Below the tray you can see the DRW-2014L1T's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up green when the drive is reading or writing.

If black isn't your color, you're in luck. The retail version of the DRW-2014L1T also comes with a beige replacement bezel.

The rear of the DRW-2014L1T is fairly straight forward. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's SATA interface and power connector.

Technical Specs:

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

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-2014L1T performs with the bundled software.

The DRW-2014L1T is one of the latest drives 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-2014L1T, ASUS turned to Nero. Using the bundled software you can 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 printed a disc using Memorex's LightScribe Cool Colors (v1.2) CD-R media, and the quality was set to "best". The results are shown below.

Memorex LightScribe CD-R (v1.2) - 28 minutes

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that ASUS's DVD writer is identified as an "ASUS DRW-2014L1T".

The Nero screenshot also shows that the DRW-2014L1T has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by 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.

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-2014L1T's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the DRW-2014L1T 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-2014L1T'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 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-2014L1T also supports a feature called "bitsetting." By default, the drive sets 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-2014L1T contains a slimmed down version of the Nero 7 Essentials suite which includes Nero Express, Nero Vision, Nero ShowTime and InCD.

Nero Express 7 - 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. Redesigned to maximize ease-of-use, Nero Express gives users the ability to quickly and easily burn audio, data and video to CD or DVD.

The version of Nero Express that ASUS included with their DVD±RW drive is 7.5.14.4. You can download the latest version of the software from Nero's website.

Nero Vision 4 - Nero Vision 4 is the latest version of Nero's video authoring application. Thanks to a user friendly interface, Nero Vision makes it easy for users to capture, edit and then burn their favorite videos to VCD, SVCD or DVD or export it to Nero Digital format.

Nero Vision also lets users add things like transitions, custom backgrounds, animated menus and text effects. You can even use it to turn your photos into custom slide shows.

Nero ShowTime 3 - Nero ShowTime is Nero's software DVD player. Along with support for DVD's, ShowTime can be used to play back VCD's, SVCD's and miniDVD's as well as any MPEG, AVI or Nero Digital files you might have on your hard drive.

InCD 5 - 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 or DVD±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.

Like ASUS's previous DVD writers, the DRW-2014L1T isn't short on 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 DRW-2014L1T is capable of 20x DVD±R, 8x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. On top of that, it's one of the few drives with the ability to write to DVD-RAM media at 14x. The DRW-2014L1T also supports LightScribe and includes many of the features we've come to expect from ASUS like their FlextraLink, FlextraSpeed and AVRS technologies. With all this, it's easy to see why ASUS DRW-2014L1T gets 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 ASUS's DVD writer in our test computer. After making sure that the DRW-2014L1T was recognized by Windows, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the DRW-2014L1T 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 default the setup program for Nero 7 Essentials will install everything but InCD onto your computer. If you don't want to install the entire suite, select the custom installation. From here you can choose the components you want. Once you reboot, you'll be ready to start burning your own discs.

The Documentation:

Like the DRW-1814BLT, the DRW-2014L1T 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-2014L1T'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.

In the end, installing the DRW-2014L1T was very easy. I had no problems getting the drive or the software installed and working. Nevertheless, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed by the documentation. The brief instructions probably won't phase more experienced users. However, they might leave others in the dark. 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 and CD Speed are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing both CD Speed and CD DAE are used. CD Speed is used to give an overall DAE speed rating and CD DAE is used to give the track by track extraction speeds and to check the extracted tracks for errors the drive may have created.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 4GB to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

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 very well in our CD Winbench tests. In the transfer rate tests, the DRW-2014L1T started reading at 21.7x (3260 / 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 v4.7.7.7 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

When reading pressed CD's, the DRW-2014L1T is rated at 48x. Unfortunately, like the other drives, it came up short of this mark. In our tests, it started reading at 20.47x but reached a maximum transfer speed of only 47.04x. On a more positive note, the DRW-2014L1T's seek times were very good.

CD Speed v4.7.7.7 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

The DRW-2014L1T wasn't nearly as fast when reading CD-R media. Looking at the scores above, you can see that the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of only 40x.

ASUS's new DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The DRW-2014L1T read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 43.98x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.7 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.

Like the other drives, the DRW-2014L1T 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 v4.7.7.7 (DAE) - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that while the ASUS DRW-2014L1Tsupports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

The DRW-2014L1T did very well in our DAE tests. With a maximum speed of 48.14x, the drive had no problems taking the top spot in our tests.

To get a better look at the quality of the extracted audio we use CD DAE. CD DAE is actually designed to be an audio ripping program. It converts the CD-DA on the CD to .wav files. We use it in our testing because it can also be used as a quick and easy way to test the quality. Where CD Speed tests the DAE as one large session, CD DAE extracts each CD track individually. It actually extracts each track twice and then compares them to check for any errors. Every error a drive creates could be a hiss or pop you would hear later in the audio tracks.

While the DRW-2014L1T started out a little faster when extracting our test CD with CD DAE, its average and maximum speeds were slower than what we saw with CD Speed.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.7.7 (DAE) - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same Memorex Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

Unfortunately, the DRW-2014L1T 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 28.99x. 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 DRW-2014L1T 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-2014L1T handled scratched discs relatively well. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 55.6% of the CD to be "damaged". More importantly, none of the sectors on the disc were unreadable.

You can also get an idea of how well the drive can read scratched and dirty discs by using CD DAE. CD DAE will extract the audio tracks twice and then compare them. From this information we can see what the drive's average speed was and how many errors it generated.

The DRW-2014L1Tgave us some mixed results in this test. While the number of errors was fairly low, the scratches on the disc caused it to slow down considerably.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.10.1.0 and DLA 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-2014L1T 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 20.88x and reached a maximum speed of 47.11x at the end of the session. This gave ASUS's new DVD±RW an average writing speed of about 35.66x.

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

While faster than the SH-S203N, the DRW-2014L1T took longer than expected to complete our CD writing tests. It trailed behind the drives from Lite-On and LG, taking 2:53 to write 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-52246S (firmware 6S0F) and read the discs at 32x.

FTI 52x

Imation 52x (MBI)

Taiyo Yuden 52x

The DRW-2014L1T'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.

The DRW-2014L1T 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-1814BLT 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-2014L1T took 2:46 to write 400MB with Nero and 2:47 to do the same with DLA.

The DRW-2014L1T also erases at 32x. While it didn't have the fastest quick erase time out of the four drives here, it was able to do a full erase in a respectable 3:46.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.7 - DVD-ROM:

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

The SH-S203N performed very well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 6.69x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 16.24x.Looking at the other scores, you can see that the drive's seek times and CPU usage were also quite good.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.7 - 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 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-2014L1T 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 12x, but slowed to only 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 5.87x and accelerates, reaching 12x at the 2.7GB mark.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.7 - 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.

Verbatim DVD+R DL

The DRW-2014L1T's performance was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media.The drive read DVD+R discs at 12x and both DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media at 8x.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.7 - 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-2014L1T didn't slow down very much when reading single layer DVD videos. It started out at about 6.64x 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-2014L1T worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace 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 7.10.1.0 and DLA 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 20x, the DRW-2014L1T uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that ASUS's new drive starts writing at about 8x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

ASUS's new drive also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. In both cases it uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum writing speed.

The DRW-2014L1T is the second drive from ASUS to feature 14x DVD-RAM writing speeds. As you can see, it uses CAV to reach this speed.

The DRW-2014L1T performed pretty well when writing to DVD-R media at 20x. While not as fast as the drives from Samsung and LG, it was able to burn an entire 4.7GB DVD in about 5 minutes. Unfortunately, the DRW-2014L1T didn't do quite as well with DVD+R media. The drive had a tendency to slow down before it reached 20x, which which added about 30 seconds to its overall time.

To check the media compatibility of the DRW-2014L1T, 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-2014L1T'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 well within acceptable limits.

While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were pretty good with most of our DVD-R test media. The only real exception was RiDATA's 16x media. When scanned with CD Speed, the PIF rate was a little higher than we'd like to see near the end.

To test the DRW-2014L1T's packet writing performance I used DLA 5.20. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

While not the fastest drive here, the DRW-2014L1T turned in some fairly good writing times with DVD-RW and DVD+RW media. Unfortunately, the drive's 14x DVD-RAM writing speed did not live up to my expectations. With DLA, it took the drive almost 17 minutes to write 4GB of data. I also tried other packet writing software and nothing came close to the performance I saw with CD Speed.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.10.1.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the DRW-2014L1T, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Memorex, RiDATA and Verbatim. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

The DRW-2014L1T wasn't as fast as I had expected when writing to DVD+R DL media at 8x. With Nero, it took the drive 20:15 to write 8001MB of data. If you do the math, this is nearly three and a half minutes slower than the DH-20A3H, which also writes at 8x. 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 results weren't as good with Memorex's 8x DVD+R DL media. When tested with KProbe and CD Speed, the error and jitter rates were very high at the layer change.

The DRW-2014L1T wasn't any faster when writing to DVD-R DL media. This time around, it took the drive 20:52 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was fairly good with Verbatim's 4x and 8x DVD-R DL media. The discs from RiDATA also yielded some pretty good results when tested with KProbe. However, when scanned by the DW1640, the PI rates were a little high throughout some sections of the disc. As you can see, this caused some readability issues.

Performance Revisited:

The performance of ASUS's "Super Multi" drive was pretty mixed, especially when it came to writing DVD's. The DRW-2014L1T had no problems holding its own when writing to DVD-R and DVD±RW media. However, it wasn't as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD+R, DVD-RAM and DVD±R DL discs. Reading DVD's wasn't a problem for the DRW-2014L1T either. 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-2014L1T didn't perform quite as well when reading CD's. The drive had a hard time reaching its rated speeds when reading pressed media and its CD-R read speed was limited to only 40x. The DRW-2014L1T also took a little longer than some of the other drives when writing CD's. Nevertheless, its writing quality was quite good. With all things considered, the ASUS DRW-2014L1T gets a 6 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

Like the DRW-1814BLT before it, the DRW-2014L1T has had its share of growing pains. Early reviews indicated that it suffered from many of the same performance issues as its predecessor. Instead of publishing our own less than flattering review, we put the DRW-2014L1T back on the shelf and gave ASUS a chance to address these issues. Since then, ASUS has released a series of firmware updates that have greatly improved the DRW-2014L1T's writing quality. However, as you saw in our review, the drive still has a few nagging issues that need to be worked out.

The DRW-2014L1T is the first drive from ASUS with the ability to write to both DVD-R and DVD+R media at 20x. At this speed, it took the drive as little as five minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD. The DRW-2014L1T also had no problems holding its own when writing to DVD-RW and DVD+RW media. However, it didn't perform as well as expected when writing to DVD-RAM discs at 14x. The DRW-2014L1T also lagged behind the other drives when writing to DVD±R DL discs, taking more than 20 minutes to write 8GB of data.

With a drive like the DRW-2014L1T, writing quality and media compatibility are just as important as speed. Unfortunately, finding DVD±R media that would work at 20x was not an easy task, even with the latest firmware. Only four types worked at 20x and in some cases, FlextraSpeed would kick in, preventing it from reaching this speed. On the other hand, the DRW-2014L1T's writing quality was fairly good for the most part. However, there is still room for improvement, especially with Ritek manufactured DVD±R DL media.

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-2014L1T either. In our tests, it read DVD±R and DVD-RAM discs at speeds near 12x and DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at a respectable 8x.

When it came to reading CD's, the DRW-2014L1T'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 disappointing considering most drives can read pressed and CD-R media at the same speed. The DRW-2014L1T also 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 DRW-2014L1T's writing quality was quite good.

Like ASUS's previous DVD writers, the DRW-2014L1T isn't short on features. Along with a 2MB buffer, the drive includes support for ASUS's FlextraLink, FlextraSpeed and AVRS technologies. The DRW-2014L1T also has the ability to set the book type of DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media and includes a great software bundle from Nero. Last but not least, the drive features HP's LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling system. An alternative to markers and stick-on labels, LightScribe lets you burn graphics and text onto the tops of specially coated discs.

The DRW-2014L1T is shipping now and can be purchased through some of the vendors listed on Pricegrabber.Prices vary depending on the seller, but the retail version of the drive can be picked up for less than $40.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 20x
• 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
• Writes to DVD-RAM media at 14x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R and DVD-RAM media at 12x
• Reads DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 8x
• Features 48x CD-R and 32x CD-RW writing speeds
• Low seek times
• Supports ASUS's FlextraLink, FlextraSpeed and AVRS technologies
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media
• Includes software from Nero
• Supports 99 minute media
• Serial ATA interface
• Includes both black and beige bezels
• Affordably priced

• High media requirements when writing at 20x
• Questionable quality with some DVD±R DL media
• Slower than other drives when writing to DVD±R DL and DVD-RAM media
• Had a hard time reaching its rated speeds when reading pressed CD's
• Reads CD-R media at only 40x
• Documentation could be better