CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 9.4.26.0 and Drag-to-Disc 9.0:
For this test I randomly generated 650MB and 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep.
The BWU-500S 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 21.62x and accelerated, reaching a maximum speed of 48.19x at the end of the session. This gave Sony's new drive an average writing speed of about 36.81x.
To test the drive's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden media rated at 52x. The results are below.
| Size in MB | Size in Time | Sony BWU-500S |
Lite-On iHBS112 |
LG WH10LS30 |
Plextor PX-B940SA |
| 701MB | 79:44:21 | 2:48 | 2:49 | 2:41 | 3:15 |
Sony's new drive did very well in our CD writing tests. Thanks to its 48x CD writing speed, the BWU-500S was able to write an entire 701MB CD in 2:48.
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.
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 Verbatim 52x |
The BWU-500S 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. More importantly, 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 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.
While the BWU-500S uses CAV when writing to CD-R discs, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 24x. The drive starts rewriting at about 16x and then jumps to its maximum speed at the 24 minute mark.
| Software | Sony BWU-500S |
Lite-On iHBS112 |
LG WH10LS30 |
Plextor PX-B940SA |
| Nero | 2:48 | 2:48 | 2:26 | 2:38 |
| Drag-to-Disc Write | 2:40 | 2:50 | 2:37 | 2:41 |
| Drag-to-Disc Read | 1:55 | 1:05 | 1:54 | 1:22 |
Sony's new Blu-ray Disc writer didn't do as well as some of the other drives in our rewriting tests. Due to its Z-CLV writing method, the BWU-500S took 2:48 to write 400MB with Nero and 2:40 to do the same with Drag-to-Disc.
| Sony BWU-500S |
Lite-On iHBS112 |
LG WH10LS30 |
Plextor PX-B940SA |
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| Quick Erase | 17 seconds | 19 seconds | 18 seconds | 15 seconds |
| Full Erase | 4:10 | 4:11 | 3:43 | 3:41 |
The BWU-500S also erases at 24x. At this speed, it took the drive 17 seconds to do a quick erase and 4:10 to fully erase the disc.
