With blank 32X CD-R media in the SW-232, the burn rates were tested under CD-Speed and came in at an average of 27X, an improvement over the SW224. The maximum simulated write speed was 32X as you can see but the above left graph. On the other end of the spectrum we loaded in some 10X CD-RW media and tested the drive. The SW232 was able to match its listed rewrite speeds of 10X closely which is pretty much expected.

The increase in writing speed is something we can all look forward to with a burner such as the Samsung SW-232 and the numbers are purely academic. Using the P-CAV write type, the SW232 meets its advertised speed ratings toward the end of the burn cycle, and averages about 27X over the entire disk.

With a geared tray the unit is pretty quiet in an office environment, but considering the interest in low-noise products for the computer it may soon be time to start including decibel ratings with drives, and other components. Considering the retail price of this drive, and the fact that it comes with bundled software (Roxio Easy CD Creator 5) the SW232 is a good deal. Samsung have for the past few years been gaining more notice in areas such as optical drives because they offer good products at pretty competitive pricing. The SW232 offers an improvement in performance over the previous version and that is something we all like to see.