ASUS DRW-1608P3S 16x DVD±RW/RAM

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4 andDLA 4.95:

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 16x, the DRW-1608P3S uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that ASUS's new drive starts writing at about 6.7x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed as it reaches the end of the disc.

The DRW-1608P3S 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.

The DRW-1608P3S performed pretty well in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD+R discs at 16x, it turned in some fairly good times with DVD-R, DVD+RW and DVD-RW media.

To check the media compatibility of the DRW-1608P3S, 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 SOHW-1673S 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 DRW-1608P3S'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 within acceptable limits. The only real exception being Optodisc's 16x DVD+R media. When scanned with the BenQ DW1640, the PI/PIF rates jumped up considerably near the end.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were pretty good for the most part.

To test the DRW-1608P3S's packet writing performance I used DLA 4.95. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 5x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

The DRW-1608P3S performed pretty well in our packet writing tests. While no match for the GSA-H10N when reading and writing to DVD-RAM discs, it turned in some fairly good times with DVD-RW and DVD+RW media.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the DRW-1608P3S, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA. 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-1608P3S had no problems writing to Verbatim's 8x and 2.4x DVD+R DL media at 8x. Unfortunately, the discs from RiDATA would not work at anything faster than 2.4x.

While no match for the drive from LG, the DRW-1608P3S took 16:26 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality wasn't as good as I had expected with Verbatim's DVD+R DL media. In both cases, the error rate started out fairly low but jumped up considerably on the second layer. RiDATA's DVD+R DL media didn't fair any better. While written at a slower speed, the PI/PIF rates were fairly high at the layer change. Surprisingly enough, this didn't seem to have any effect on readability.

The DRW-1608P3S also features 8x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media was used.

The DRW-1608P3S had no problems taking the top spot in this test. Thanks to its 8x DVD-R DL writing speed, it took the drive only 16:56 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The DRW-1608P3S's writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media. The error rates stayed within acceptable limits when tested with both KProbe and CD Speed and there were no readability problems. Unfortunately, the results weren't as good with RiDATA's DVD-R DL media. The PI/PIF rates were not only high, there were a number of PO Failures. As you can see, this caused a large dip in the transfer rate graph.

Performance Revisited:

For the most part, the DRW-1608P3S performed as expected. The drive had no problems holding its own in our DVD writing tests, turning some respectable times with DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media. Reading DVD's wasn't a problem for ASUS's new drive either. The DRW-1608P3S was able to read single layer data DVD's at 16x and DVD±R media at 12x, but slowed to only 5x when reading DVD videos.

The DRW-1608P3S also did relatively well in our CD read tests. While the drive's seek times were a little on the high side, it had no problems reading all types of media at its rated speeds. When it came to writing CD's, the DRW-1608P3S's 40x CD-R writing speed put it at a slight disadvantage. Nevertheless, its writing quality was very good. With all things considered, the ASUS DRW-1608P3S gets an 8 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.