CD Winbench 99	Source: Zdnet

The CD Winbench99 benchmark runs a series of scripted programs from a special CD in the drive and measures the speed of the data transfer. Higher numbers mean better performance.

CD Winbench 99 Benchmark Results
Optical Drive	Results	Ranking
Samsung SW-252B (CD-RW)	1860 kb/s
MSI CR52A-A2 (CD-RW)	2420 kb/s
Plextor PXW4012TA (CD-RW)	2190 kb/s
LG 32-10-40 (CD-RW)	2110 kb/s
MSI CDRW 8340 (CD-RW)	2050 kb/s
Samsung SW-240 (CD-RW)	1910 kb/s
Samsung SW-232 (CD-RW)	1460 kb/s
Samsung SW-224 (CD-RW)	1320 kb/s
Samsung SC-152 (CDROM)	1710 kb/s
Pioneer DVD-500M (DVD ROM)	2440 kb/s
Samsung SW-216 (CD-RW)	1280 kb/s
AOpen 52x32x52x (CD-RW)	2300 kb/s
LG GSA-4082B (DVD-/+RW)	1130 kb/s
Gigabyte GO-W0808A (DVD-/+RW)	2240 kb/s
AOpen 5232 Combo (CD-RW/DVD-ROM)	2510kb/s
AOpen DRW8800 (DVD-/+RW)	2150kb/s
MSI DR16-B (DVD-/+RW)	1400kb/s

According to CD Winbench 99, the MSI DR16-B is not a very fast drive. Let's see how the drive fares in our other tests before we label it though. Most DVD drives show similar speeds....

SiSoft Sandra 2004	Source: Sandra

The Sisoft Sandra 2004 drive benchmark measures the theoretical read performance of optical drives in a number of areas.

Sisoft Sandra 2004 Benchmark Results
Optical Drive	MSI DR16-B	AOpen DRW8800	AOpen 5232 Combo	LG GSA-4082B	MSI X48	Samsung SW-252B		MSI CR52A-A2
Disc Type	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data		Data
Drive Index	2912 kb/s	3056 kb/s	2574	1627	2187	2207		2426
Buffered Read:	2480 kb/s	2567 kb/s	6000 kb/s	779 kb/s	1780 kb/s	1582 kb/s		1893 kb/s
Sequential Read:	3135 kb/s	3258 kb/s	2712 kb/s	2362 kb/s	3005 kb/s	3284 kb/s		3408 kb/s
Random Read:	2577 kb/s	2752 kb/s	2336 kb/s	524 kb/s	961 kb/s	792 kb/s		952 kb/s
Access Time:	283ms	231ms	220 ms	761ms	363ms	245 ms		194 ms

The MSI DR16-B performs fairly well here. Access times are a tad on the high side, but acceptable.