Nero CD Speed: CD-R, CD-RW	Source: Ahead Software

Nero's CD Speed burn tests are done twice, once with a CD-R disc rated to 1x-52x burn speed, and again with a CD-RW rated to 4x-32x. Each disc was test with the same files, about 640MB in size. This test is performed by simply placing blank recording media into the burner and running CD Speed. The software will detect if it is CD-R or CD-R/W media and run the appropriate tests.

Nero CD Speed: CD-R/RW
CD-R CD-RW

Nero CD Speed: CD-R, CD-RW Benchmark Results

Optical Drive

Gigabyte GO-W1616A

MSI DR16-B

AOpen DRW8800

AOpen 5232 Combo

LG GSA-4082B

MSI X48

Samsung SW-252B

Media

CD-R

CD-RW

CD-R

CD-RW

CD-R

CD-RW

CD-R

CD-RW

CD-R

CD-RW

CD-R

CD-RW

CD-R

CD-RW

Media Write Speed:

48x

24x

40x

24x

32x

16x

52x

32x

24x

16x

48x

24x

52x

24x

Avg Speed:

32.58x

16.06

30.16x

23.4x

28.45x

16.64x

34.01x

30.65x

19.29x

15.28x

19.29x

4x

39.57x

18.72x

Start Speed:

19.16x

16.03

17.72x

17.78x

16.64x

16.64x

22.51x

21.77x

12.01x

12.01x

12.01x

4x

23.62x

11.22x

End Speed:

42.98x

16.03

40.32x

24.45x

33.32x

16.64x

44.74x

32.25x

24.02x

16.02x

24.02x

4x

52.14x

24.61x

Type

CAV

CLV

P-CAV

P-CAV

P-CAV

CLV

P-CAV

P-CAV

Z-CLV

Z-CLV

Z-CLV

CLV

CAV

CAV

In both instances we failed to reach the burners top writing speed although we came close. Good results for the drive here.

Nero CD Speed: DVD-ROM	Source: Ahead Software

CD Speed can also read DVD-ROM discs, showing you maximum transfer speeds, access times and CPU utilization. The DVD data disc has about 3.78GB of data on it and is a retail DVD-ROM disc, not a recordable DVD.

Nero CD Speed: DVD-ROM
DVD-ROM

Nero CD Speed: DVD-ROM Benchmark Results
Optical Drive	Gigabyte GO-W1616A	MSI DR16-B	AOpen DRW8800	AOpen 5232 Combo	Gigabyte GO-W0808A	LG GSA-4082B
Disc Type	DVD-ROM	DVD-ROM	DVD-ROM	DVD-ROM	DVD-ROM	DVD-ROM
Avg Speed	5.97x	11.58x	8.89x	11.63x	8.94x	8.83x
Random Seek Time	114ms	106ms	121ms	95ms	94ms	104ms
1/3 Seek Time	126ms	110ms	122ms	105ms	100ms	170ms
Full Seek Time	192ms	186ms	172ms	158ms	162ms	183ms
DAE Quality	10	10	10	10	10	10
CPU Use: 1x	7	13%	6%	17%	6%	2%
CPU Use: Max	17%	49%	48%	50%	25%	4%
Disc Recognition Time	13.21s	7.55s	10.33s	7.86s	10.28s	6.6s
Disc Eject Time	1.24s	1.84s	1.74s	1.38s	0.96s	1.85s
Disc Load Time	1.18s	1.31s	0.01s	1.03s	1.2s	1.32s

The average speed of the Gigabyte GO-W1616A is quite a bit lower than we would have expected but access times are pretty good. CPU utilization is also on the low side, unlike with the CD tests.