CD Speed is a CD-ROM benchmark which can test the most important features of a CD-ROM drive. In this particular test we use a pressed CD-ROM with about 640MB of data as the test disk. Using a CDR or CDRW as the test disk may (or may not) impact the results slightly, so the pressed disk is the de facto standard.

MSI 52x24x52 - CDSpeed Data Tests

Optical Drive	MSI CR52A-A2	Plextor PXW4012TA	LG 32/10/40	MSI 8340	SW-240	SW-232	SW-224	SC-152	DVD-500M	SW-216
Disk Type	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data
Avg Speed	35.38x	29.05x	30.46x	30.69x	31.06x	31.65x	30.82x	38.90x	32.30x	24.94x
Random Seek Time	91ms	121ms	101ms	94ms	93ms	90ms	87ms	86ms	86ms	94ms
1/3 Seek Time	95ms	140ms	112ms	98ms	100ms	101ms	91ms	105ms	100ms	112ms
Full Seek Time	153ms	212ms	184ms	165ms	160ms	169ms	137ms	181ms	164ms	192ms
CPU use: 1X	0%	0%	1%	0%	1%	1%	1%	1%	0%	1%
CPU use: 2X	1%	1%	2%	1%	2%	2%	3%	2%	1%	2%
CPU use: 4X	2%	2%	20%	5%	5%	4%	7%	4%	2%	5%
CPU use: 8X	5%	5%	9%	8%	10%	9%	11%	8%	3%	9%
Disk Recognition Time:	0.73	9.37s	7.08s	0.01s	4.63s	5.2s	9.15s	6.30s	0.01s	-
Disk Eject Time	2.74	1.64s	1.55s	1.32s	1.33s	1.39s	1.12s	1.05s	1.19s	1.19s
Disk Load Time:	7.9	0.08s	1.27s	7.60s	0.98s	1.080s	1.10s	1.14s	7.26s	1.14s

Even though MSI is new to the scene, they still do very well for themselves. With a high average speed and low access time, you got yourself a fast optical device reader!

CD Speed is a CD-ROM benchmark which can test the most important features of a CD-ROM drive. In this particular test we use a pressed Audio CD with about 65 minutes of audio on it as the test disk. CDROM's in general have a harder time processing audio data, and hence the results can be drastically slower than that of data tests alone.

MSI 52x24x52 - CDSpeed Audio Tests

Optical Drive	MSI CR52A-A2	Plextor W4012TA	LG 32/10/40	MSI 8340	SW-240	SW-232	SW-224	SC152	DVD-500M	SW-216
Disk Type	Audio	Audio	Audio	Audio	Audio	Audio	Audio	Audio	Audio	Audio
Avg Speed	31.09x	8.03x	27.51x	29.58x	27.44x	24.89x	22.98x	18.97x	29.96x	22.32x
Random Seek Time	89ms	162ms	105ms	134ms	92ms	93ms	86ms	88ms	88ms	97ms
1/3 Seek Time	90ms	185ms	119ms	109ms	106ms	107ms	102ms	98ms	95ms	98ms
Full Seek Time	309ms	254ms	172ms	520ms	161ms	170ms	157ms	167ms	161ms	163ms
DAE Quality	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10
CPU use: 1X	1%	2%	1%	1%	1%	1%	2%	1%	0%	2%
CPU use: 2X	1%	1%	3%	1%	3%	3%	6%	3%	1%	4%
CPU use: 4X	3%	3%	5%	3%	7%	7%	14%	5%	2%	7%
CPU use: 8X	5%	69%	10%	6%	14%	14%	23%	11%	4%	13%
Disk Recog. Time:	0.48s	0.08s	6.99s	0.02s	3.99s	9.16s	8.38s	4.35s	0.01s	-
Disk Eject Time:	2.69s	1.66s	1.55s	1.31s	1.33s	1.37s	1.10s	1.06s	1.19s	1.18s
Disk Load Time:	10.12	19.25s	1.28s	7.60s	0.98s	1.08s	1.10s	1.14s	7.33s	1.14s

Again the MSI 52x CD-RW does very well for itself here. It has the highest average speed by far and its random and 1/3 seek times are very good. Its full seek time is quite high, though unlike the Plextor 40x CD-RW, the disc load at 8X is very low.