ASUS DRW-1608P3S 16x DVD±RW/RAM

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 v4.51 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 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 v4.51 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 gave us some mixed performance in our CD Winbench tests.In the transfer speed tests, the drive started reading at 18.7x (2800 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 38.2x (5730 / 150) on the outside. While this is pretty good for a drive with a maximum read speed of 40x, the DRW-1608P3S's overall score was not as high as some of the other DVD writers we've looked at.

CD Speed v4.51 - 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-1608P3S	LG GSA-H10N	Lite-On SHM-165H6S	NEC ND-4550A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	31.61x 18.12x 41.49x	35.57x 20.42x 46.78x	36.68x 21.95x 48.50x	35.60x 20.54x 47.09x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	113ms 129ms 202ms	114ms 130ms 175ms	103ms 116ms 168ms	137ms 145ms 219ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 2% 4%	1% 1% 3% 21%	2% 4% 7% 12%	17% 1% 3% 6%

The DRW-1608P3S performed a little better in our CD Speed tests. While still not as fast as the other drives, it had no problems reaching a maximum speed of 41.49x.

CD Speed v4.51 - 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.

Like the other drives, the DRW-1608P3S was a little faster when reading CD-R media. While this still wasn't enough to top the other drives, it had no problems reaching a maximum read speed of 42.48x.

ASUS's new DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The drive read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 43.51x

CD Speed v4.51 - 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.

When reading CD-RW media, the DRW-1608P3S's transfer speeds are limited to only 32x. While ASUS's new writer had no problems reaching this speed in our tests, it was still the slowest out of the four drives here.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.51 - 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 DVD writer 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 DRW-1608P3S could return C2 errors.

CD Speed	ASUS DRW-1608P3S	LG GSA-H10N	Lite-On SHM-165H6S	NEC ND-4550A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	31.15x 18.77x 41.38x 10 Yes	30.73x 17.95x 40.68x 10 Yes	37.03x 21.26x 48.93x 10 Yes	30.94x 17.99x 40.12x 10 Yes

The DRW-1608P3S did fairly well in our DAE tests. While not nearly as fast as the drive from Lite-On, it hadno problems ripping pressed audio CD's at 41x.

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-1608P3S started out fairly quick 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 v4.51 - 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.

While the DRW-1608P3S was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media, this didn't keep it from reaching amaximum DAE speed of 41x in our tests. 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 29.62x. The drive had no problems passing all of the on-the-fly tests and did not create any errors. In the advanced features tests, the DRW-1608P3S was able to read the CD-Text and subchannel data but was not able to read the lead in or 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-1608P3S handled scratched discs relatively well. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 60% 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.

Here too, the DRW-1608P3S did pretty well. While the scratches on the disc slowed the drive down slightly, the number of errors was still quite low.