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.

Samsung SW-240 - CDSpeed Data Tests

Optical Drive	SW-240	SW-232	SW-224	SC-152	DVD-500M	SW-216
Disk Type	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data
Avg Speed	31.06x	31.65x	30.82x	38.90x	32.30x	24.94x
Random Seek Time	93ms	90ms	87ms	86ms	86ms	94ms
1/3 Seek Time	100ms	101ms	91ms	105ms	100ms	112ms
Full Seek Time	160ms	169ms	137ms	181ms	164ms	192ms
CPU use: 1X	1%	1%	1%	1%	0%	1%
CPU use: 2X	2%	2%	3%	2%	1%	2%
CPU use: 4X	5%	4%	7%	4%	2%	5%
CPU use: 8X	10%	9%	11%	8%	3%	9%
Disk Recognition Time:	4.63s	5.2s	9.15s	6.30s	0.01s	-
Disk Eject Time	1.33s	1.39s	1.12s	1.05s	1.19s	1.19s
Disk Load Time:	0.98s	1.080s	1.10s	1.14s	7.26s	1.14s

We would have liked to have seen a jump to something a little closer to 40X average for the data write tests, but the best we can manage will be an end write speed of 40.87X. The manufacturers specs are correct. The SW240 continues the upswing with CPU usage, topping out at 10%. Random seek times are also slightly elevated compared to previous Samsung units we see here.

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.

Samsung SW-240 - CDSpeed Audio Tests

Optical Drive	SW-240	SW-232	SW-224	SC152	DVD-500M	SW-216
Disk Type	Audio	Audio	Audio	Audio	Audio	Audio
Avg Speed	27.44x	24.89x	22.98x	18.97x	29.96x	22.32x
Random Seek Time	92ms	93ms	86ms	88ms	88ms	97ms
1/3 Seek Time	106ms	107ms	102ms	98ms	95ms	98ms
Full Seek Time	161ms	170ms	157ms	167ms	161ms	163ms
DAE Quality	10	10	10	10	10	10
CPU use: 1X	1%	1%	2%	1%	0%	2%
CPU use: 2X	3%	3%	6%	3%	1%	4%
CPU use: 4X	7%	7%	14%	5%	2%	7%
CPU use: 8X	14%	14%	23%	11%	4%	13%
Disk Recog. Time:	3.99s	9.16s	8.38s	4.35s	0.01s	-
Disk Eject Time:	1.33s	1.37s	1.10s	1.06s	1.19s	1.18s
Disk Load Time:	0.98s	1.08s	1.10s	1.14s	7.33s	1.14s

It is hard to say how necessary these audio disc benchmarks really are, but incase you need to know, here are the results. The SW240 shows good average read times (27.44x) and a nice consistent CPU usage (14%). Disk recognition time had dramatically improved over previous models.