LG GSA-2166D USB 2.0 Super-Multi 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 v4.01 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 v4.01 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.

LG's new "Super-Multi" drive did pretty well in the CD Winbench portion of our tests. While the GSA-2166D's overall score wasn't as high as some of the other drives, it had some very good transfer rates. The drive started reading at 20.4x (3060 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 42.7x (6400 / 150) on the outside.

CD Speed v4.01 - 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.

	LG GSA-2166D	Sony DRU-810A	NEC ND-3540A	Plextor PX-716A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	35.69x 20.48x 47.11x	36.39x 20.64x 48.13x	35.60x 20.56x 47.07x	35.46x 20.50x 46.90x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	99ms 105ms 166ms	106ms 123ms 176ms	125ms 137ms 213ms	102ms 120ms 172ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 2% 3% 7%	1% 1% 3% 6%	0% 1% 3% 6%	0% 1% 2% 3%

The GSA-2166D didn't perform as well as I had expected when reading pressed CD's. While rated at 48x, LG's new drive came up a little short of this number in our tests. Nevertheless, the drive's seek times were very good.

CD Speed v4.01 - 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.

LG's new writer was a little faster when reading CD-R media.While this wasn't enough to top the drive from Sony, the GSA-2166D had no problems reaching a maximum transfer speed of 48x in our tests. Looking at the other scores, you can see that the drive's seek times were again quite good.

The GSA-2166D 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 51.99x! This is pretty good for a drive rated at only 48x.

CD Speed v4.01 - 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.

While the GSA-2166D can read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 48x, its CD-RW read speeds are limited to 32x. As you can see, it came up a little short of this speed in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.01 - 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 the LG GSA-2166D supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

CD Speed	LG GSA-2166D	Sony DRU-810A	NEC ND-3540A	Plextor PX-716A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	36.04x 20.81x 47.63x 10 Yes	36.76x 20.90x 48.59x 10 Yes	30.92x 17.99x 40.11x 10 Yes	31.45x 18.20x 41.55x 10 Yes

Ripping audio CD's wasn't a problem for LG's new "Super-Multi" drive. The GSA-2166D flew through CD Speed's DAE tests, reaching a maximum speed of 47.63x.

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 GSA-2166D started out a little faster 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 v4.01 - 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.

The GSA-2166D was a little slower when ripping audio CD-R discs. However, this didn't keep it from reaching amaximum DAE speed of 47.10x in our tests. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

LG's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 33.99x. The drive did not create any errors, but for whatever reason, it was not able to pass all of the on-the-fly copying tests. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the GSA-2166D was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and even the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

To see how well LG's "Super-Multi" drive 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 GSA-2166D did surprisingly well here. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 52.9% of the CD to be "damaged". On top of that, 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.

The GSA-2166D gave some mixed results in this test. While it had the lowest number of errors, the scratches on the disc caused it to slow down considerably.