Read Tests/Seek Times

For our CD read and seek time tests, we used a CD-ROM filled with 700MB of data on all of the competitors.

CD Seek Times

Though the NEC ND-3500A had an excellent performance in CD and DVD read and write speeds and quality, the average CD seek time was the second longest compared to the rest of the drives at 125ms. Pioneer's DVR-108D averaged at about a 131ms seek time. The quickest drives were the DW1620 and MSI's DR16-B.

As for the DVD seek time tests we used a DVD-Video, specifically "The Matrix".

DVD Seek Times

The results for DVD seek times were the same, with the Pioneer unit being the slowest at 134ms and Nu Tech's DDW-163 coming in at first at 94ms.

Now let's take a look at how quickly our drives could read a DVD in measures of read speed.

4.5GB DVD Read Speed

From our results, it is obvious once again that the ND-3500A reads not only CD media, but also DVD 4.5GB media, the fastest at an average of 11.05X. The slowest was Sony's DRU-710A, which reported an average 6.13X speeds. How will the ND-3500A perform with 9GB DVD media?

9GB DVD Read Speed

There has been quite a bit of change from 4.5GB DVD read speeds. With a 9GB DVD, the Pioneer DVR-108D comes out on top at an average read speed of 9.40X while, surprisingly, MSI's DR16-B comes in second at 7.56X on average. The NEC does not do as well this time, coming in second to last with a 5.88X read speed, slightly better than the last place Nu Tech DDW-163's 5.34X average speed.

NuTech DDW-163 Write Tests
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  • Operandi - Monday, November 1, 2004 - link

    For future reference if you are going to bother taking pictures of the drives take a picture of somthing useful, the drive bezel. nobody cares what the circut board PCB looks like.
  • xsilver - Monday, November 1, 2004 - link

    Also is there somewhere where I can find tests on reading regular dvd-9 movies? my liton 16x reader goes completely ape when there is any scratches on the disc, the 106d is much slower but plugs through.
    This is when using dvd decrypter

    and who the hell uses cd's anymore? dvd's are so much cheaper per m/b to store data.... if someone doesn't have at least a dvd reader, I say quit trying to buy that l33t AMD64 / 6800 and get something useful!
  • PuravSanghani - Monday, November 1, 2004 - link

    The bitsetting feature on this model is very limited with the current firmware in that only DVD+R DL media will be autoset to the DVD-ROM booktype.
  • KristopherKubicki - Monday, November 1, 2004 - link

    >Also the 108d is the same price as the 3500a where I am.... would it be recommended then?

    I would still recommend the NEC-3500A. The faster CD writing is worth it.

    Kristopher
  • xsilver - Monday, November 1, 2004 - link

    Can the bitsetting option on the pioneer 108d be explained more? what will it auto set to?

    I have a 106d I want to upgrade and have found the pioneer to be much better than something like a liteon....
    Also the 108d is the same price as the 3500a where I am.... would it be recommended then?

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