ASUS BC-1205PT Blu-ray Combo

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 Blu-ray Disc Combo drives, the performance tests are normally broken down into five sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read, DVD write and BD read. 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 v4.7.7.7 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing, CD Speed is used to give an overall speed rating.

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 v4.7.7.7 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 a 4.38GB image to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. For this, 4GB of random files and directories are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

BD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the BD benchmarks, CD Speed v4.7.7.7 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

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 Blu-ray combo drive performed fairly well in the CD Winbench portion of our tests. While its overall score wasn't as high as the Sony's, its transfer rates were pretty good for a drive with a maximum read speed of 32x. The BC-1205PT started reading at 16.3x (2440 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 32.1x (4820 / 150) on the outside.

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.

	ASUS BC-1205PT	LG GGW-H20L	LG GGW-H10N	Sony BWU-100A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	25.14x 14.62x 33.26x	30.94x 17.80x 40.63x	25.44x 13.94x 33.63x	24.89x 14.39x 32.83x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	144ms 165ms 305ms	114ms 129ms 186ms	183ms 229ms 376ms	137ms 145ms 273ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 3% 6%	1% 1% 8% 9%	1% 1% 3% 5%	0% 1% 3% 3%

ASUS's new drive performed a little better in our CD Speed tests. The BC-1205PT started reading at 14.62x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 33.26x. Unfortunately, its seek times were a little higher than we'd like to see.

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.

	ASUS BC-1205PT	LG GGW-H20L	LG GGW-H10N	Sony BWU-100A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	25.42x 14.68x 33.66x	31.08x 17.77x 40.83x	25.93x 14.04x 34.40x	25.17x 14.30x 33.29x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	147ms 169ms 317ms	123ms 156ms 229ms	186ms 236ms 366ms	148ms 160ms 242ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 2% 4%	1% 1% 8% 10%	1% 1% 3% 5%	0% 2% 3% 4%

Like the other drives, the BC-1205PT was a little faster when reading CD-R media. Thanks to this small speed boost, the drive was able to reach a maximum transfer speed of 33.66x.

ASUS's new Blu-ray combo drive had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. It read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 34.39x.

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.

	ASUS BC-1205PT	LG GGW-H20L	LG GGW-H10N	Sony BWU-100A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	18.79x 10.96x 24.57x	30.56x 17.74x 40.00x	18.99x 10.89x 25.08x	18.54x 10.71x 24.43x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	130ms 141ms 221ms	120ms 135ms 203ms	188ms 217ms 351ms	152ms 162ms 244ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 2% 3% 4%	1% 1% 8% 10%	1% 1% 2% 5%	0% 2% 3% 4%

Like the GGW-H10N and BWU-100A, the BC-1205PT's CD-RW read speeds are limited to only 24x. As you can see, the drive had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.7.7 - 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 combo drive 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 BC-1205PT could return C2 errors.

CD Speed	ASUS BC-1205PT	LG GGW-H20L	LG GGW-H10N	Sony BWU-100A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	25.06x 15.11x 33.14x 10 Yes	30.72x 18.00x 40.30x 10 Yes	25.59x 14.04x 33.84x 10 Yes	18.66x 10.98x 24.75x 10 Yes

The BC-1205PTdid fairly well in our DAE tests. While not nearly as fast as the drive from GGW-H20L, it hadno problems ripping pressed audio CD's at 33x.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.7.7 - 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.

CD Speed	ASUS BC-1205PT	LG GGW-H20L	LG GGW-H10N	Sony BWU-100A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	24.87x 15.04x 32.81x 10 Yes	30.44x 17.99x 39.86x 10 Yes	25.40x 14.17x 33.46x 10 Yes	18.46x 10.88x 24.31x 10 Yes

While ASUS's new combo drive was a little slower when ripping audio CD-R discs, it had no problems reaching a maximum DAE speed of 32x in our tests. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

The BC-1205PT completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 23.14x. While the drive was able to go through the tests without creating any errors, it was unable to pass all of the on the fly copying tests. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the BC-1205PT was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and lead in but failed to read the lead out section of the CD.