Sony Optiarc AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW/RAM

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0 and DLA 5.20:

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-7240S 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-7240S also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. While the drive uses CLV when writing to DVD-RW media, it uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

Optiarc's new "Super-Multi" drive performed very well in our DVD writing tests. The AD-7240S turned in some of the fastest DVD±R and DVD±RW writing times we've seen, beating the drives from Samsung and LG by a small margin.

While Optiarc has a list of recommended media on its website, I wanted to see for myself how well the AD-7240S 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-7240S'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 RiDATA's 16x DVD+R media. When scanned with the BenQ DW1640, the PI rate was higher than we'd like to see near the end.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. With the exception of RiDATA's 16x DVD-R media,  the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits when tested with both KProbe and CD Speed.

To test the AD-7240S'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.

The AD-7240S performed pretty well in our packet writing tests. While not the fastest drive we've tested, it turned in some respectable times when reading and writing to DVD+RW, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM media.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the AD-7240S, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim, Memorex and Ritek. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

The AD-7240S wasn't as fast as I had expected when writing to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media at 12x. At this speed, it took the drive 14:45 to write 8001MB of data to DVD+R DL media and 14:22 to do the same with DVD-R DL discs.

Performance Revisited:

Like Optiarc's previous DVD writers, the AD-7240S performed pretty well throughout most of our tests. While not as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD±R DL discs, it turned in very good times with DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD-RAM media. The AD-7240S was also fairly quick when reading DVD's. 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-7240S 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 as high as 48x. Unfortunately, The AD-7240'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-7240S gets a solid 8 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.