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Originally
posted 10/11/02 by rob-ART
morgan,
mad scientist CD burner speeds
are up to 48X**. Like you, I've been wondering how
fast they really burn. I decided to "build" my own
FireWire 48X burner using a generic case and a
Buslink
48X (Lite-On
LTR-48125W)
CD-RW. (Why Lite-On? Because it was rated
second
fastest by PCWorld
and because it had a fast 80ms average access
time.) Since we had 40X,
32X, 16X, and 8X burners already in the lab, I knew
it was time for another shootout... heh, heh,
heh. ** On 10/12/02
I discovered CompUSA
had received a shipment of Memorex
52X
CD-ReWriteable
drives (same as Lite-On
LTR-52246S)
which they are selling for $79
after rebate.
On 10/15/02, I exchanged the 48X12X48 Lite-On for a
Memorex 52X, tested it, and added those numbers to
the graphs below. (* The
Sony CD-RW was labeled as both 40X and 48X burn on
the box. The small print said there was a "one
button turbo" mode that boosts it from 40X to 48X.
Apparently that only works on PC's with special
software because I got the same times whether I
designated at 40X or 48X in Toast. And the verify
speed matched that of the other two burners with
40X read speed... hence, the 40X designation in my
graphs.) PERFORMANCE
ANALYSIS The Memorex 52X
burner burned CD's 3.1 times faster than the
Pioneer 8X, not 6.5 times faster as the "X" rating
implies. It burned 114% faster than Plextor 16X,
not 325%. I used 48X rated CD-R blanks because I
couldn't find 52X rated ones. Verify speeds are
much closer due to faster READ speed ratings for
the "slower" burners. The 52X burner was only 107%
faster than the 8X Pioneer and only 27% faster than
the Plextor 16X. As for "ripping"
audio CD's, the 52X's speed gain was only 27% over
the slowest burner. A word about
capatibility. Not all brands of burners work
with Macs. For example, I tried an Aptec 48X
but it wouldn't work no matter what interface I
used and no matter what software I tried. Some
drives are partly compatible. The Memorex 52X
worked with Toast, could boot a System CD, and
could import music using iTunes. However, neither
Finder nor iTunes could use Apple's built-in Burn
software to burn a CD. I suspect the 52X burner is
too new to be supported. AccelerateYourMac
has a drive compatibility database where you can
look to see what CD-RW's have been tried with
various models of Mac. ***The first
posting of this page showed the Sonnet Tempo
ATA-133 PCI host adapter to be much slower than the
FireWire interface when doing VERIFY and RIP.
It turns out that the problem lies with firmware in
the ATA-133 controller card. When the firmware was
written to support ATAPI devices like burners, they
used "slow" mode. Why? Because they ran out of ROM
space. Whoops. As you can
see, I updated the graphs with the results from
testing the 52X and 48X burners using the Power
Mac's internal ATA interface (same cable that
drives the SuperDrive). The VERIFY and RIP
speeds now closely match that of the FireWire
interface. Does the 52X
or 48X burn speed advantage justify the premium
price? Not if you want to be sensible. You'll
typically pay $150 for an off-brand 48X FireWire
burner. My custom 52X solution cost me $178 (Drive
$79, Case $99). Compare that price to the 32X
ACOMdata FireWire burner sold recently at Compusa
for $20 after rebate. (That deal is done but watch
Deal
Mac for
more like it.) One other
performance note. I prefer using
Roxio's
Toast 5.2
Titanium
to Apple's built-in burn software. Why? Apple's
software took 100 seconds longer to burn a CD due
to having to copy the files to a staging
area. RELATED
LINKS PCWorld
rated the top ten 48X
CD-RW's.
The Lite-On was rated second fastest and number two
in the ratings. CDspeed2000 has a
fascinating
AVERAGE speed rating
chart for
various models of CD-RW. According to their tests,
none of the 48X burners averaged more than 38X. But
then, the fastest 40X burner averaged 32X. They
also illustrate the difference between CAV, P-CAV,
and Z-CLV writing mechanisms. PCWorld
article on conditions under which CD blanks can
shatter while spinning the new fast drives (at
150mph at the outer edge). XLR8YourMac has
an illustrated
installation guide
in case you want to add a fast CD-RW to your Beige,
Blue'n'White, or early Graphite Power
Mac. WHERE TO
BUY The sexiest
PRE-PACKAGED FireWire CD-RW is the
Mercury
model from Other World
Computing.
It's pricey at $180 for a 40X but the Teac burner
used does feature an 8MB buffer and the case kit
matches the look of the newest Power Macs. The OWC
people emphasize that they chose the TEAC drive
because it produced the best quality music CD's.
They also offer a model with the Plextor
40X. But if you
BUILD-YOUR-OWN FireWire burner or plan to
shove one into a spare optical drive bay, shop
around. The Lite-On 48X is selling for $72 at
NewEgg.com).
CompUSA
is selling the Memorex
52X CD-RW
for $79
after rebate
(both in the store and on the web site). Pay attention to
DealMac
for hot deals on REBATES AND SALES on the
40X and 32X models as their popularity
drops. If you are into
RE-WRITE, the Memorex
52X re-burns
at 24X. For FIREWIRE
CASES, my favorite is the clear plastic Mercury
FireWire case kit from Other
World Computing.
It's slim, good looking, and uses an external power
supply (no noisy fan). It works with CD-RW or DVD-R
drives. You can order the
Roxio's
Toast 5 Titanium SOFTWARE
direct from Roxio or buy it from your favorite
reseller. (If you already have it, Version 5.2 for
OS X is available that supports 52X mode and
is supposed to include MP-aware code.) Costco is selling
TDK 48X CD BLANKS in quantity 100 for $15
after rebate. TEST
NOTES The test "mule"
was my trusty G4/1000 MP "SDR" Power Mac with 1.5
1GB of PC133 CL2 SDRAM and 120GB IBM 120GXP boot
drive running OS X (10.2.1). CD-RW test units
included: Software used for
burn and verify tests was Roxio's
Toast 5 Titanium
for OS X. (Version 5.2 now supports 52X CD-RW's.)
The test files for burning were a collection of MP3
tunes totaling 695.5MB. The test file for comparing
Toast to the Apple burn software was a single 457MB
file. Apple's iTunes
3.01 was used for "ripping" a CD to MP3. The test
CD had 20 songs totaling 1.1 hours or
727.4MB's. |
HOME PAGE SPEED TEST RESULTS by Category LINKS to SPEED tests on other sites HOT DEALS on speed upgrades rob-ART
morgan,
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© 2002 Rob Art
Morgan "BARE facts on Macintosh speed FEATS" Email webmaster at rob-art@barefeats.com
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