MSI DR8-A: The Plextor 708A's little brother

Printed Media

Seek Times - Pressed CD 74:40.02
Drive	Random	Full
ASUS DRW-0402P/D	123ms	163ms
Gigabyte GO-W0404A	92ms	187ms
LiteOn LDW-411S	88ms	179ms
MSI DR4-A	128ms	188ms
MSI DR8-A	76ms	145ms
NEC 1300A	121ms	183ms
Nu Tech DDW-081	102ms	167ms
Plextor 708A	94ms	167ms
Sony DRU-530A	125ms	199ms

Seek Times - Pressed DVD
Drive	Random	Full
ASUS DRW-0402P/D	145ms	188ms
Gigabyte GO-W0404A	142ms	173ms
LiteOn LDW-411S	120ms	196ms
MSI DR4-A	166ms	249ms
MSI DR8-A	117ms	170ms
NEC 1300A	124ms	167ms
Nu Tech DDW-081	135ms	144ms
Plextor 708A	170ms	228ms
Sony DRU-530A	175ms	242ms

The CD and DVD seek times were exceptionally good on the DR8-A. We found this to be slightly unusual, since we could not find advertised seek times anywhere. Even though Plextor's 708A uses the same Sanyo controller, we can tell the 708A and the DR8-A use very different pickups.

We used various DVD and CD media around the lab for this portion of the benchmark. We attempted to use discs that contained no errors or scratches. Higher read speed averages are better.

Read - Pressed CD
Drive	Average Read	Length
ASUS DRW-0402P/D	25.10X	74:43.00
Gigabyte GO-W0404A	30.42X	74:43.00
LiteOn LDW-411S	30.39X	74:43.00
MSI DR4-A	30.81X	74:43.00
MSI DR8-A	30.62X	74:43.00
NEC 1300A	31.01X	74:43.00
Nu Tech DDW-081	32.22X	74:43.00
Plextor 708A	31.66X	74:43.00
Sony DRU-530A	31.59X	74:43.00

Read - DVDR
Drive	Average Read	Length
ASUS DRW-0402P/D	4.62X	4.38GB
Gigabyte GO-W0404A	5.22X	4.38GB
LiteOn LDW-411S	5.23X	4.38GB
MSI DR4-A	4.05X	4.38GB
MSI DR8-A	4.04X	4.38GB
NEC 1300A	3.66X	4.38GB
Nu Tech DDW-081	6.26X	4.38GB
Plextor 708A	6.05X	4.38GB
Sony DRU-530A	3.48X	4.38GB

Read - Pressed DVD Video
Drive	Average Read	Length
ASUS DRW-0402P/D	2.18X	7.88GB
Gigabyte GO-W0404A	9.26X	7.88GB
LiteOn LDW-411S	9.24X	7.88GB
MSI DR4-A	2.04X	7.88GB
MSI DR8-A	9.01X	7.88GB
NEC 1300A	3.66X	7.88GB
Nu Tech DDW-081	3.11X	7.88GB
Plextor 708A	9.14X	7.88GB
Sony DRU-530A	2.01X	7.88GB

Unusually, the DR8-A refused to read speeds higher than 4X on DVDR media, and no higher than 6X on dual layer DVDs. DVD and CD reads were right about where we expected on the DR8-A. Eject time was measured at 2.38s.