Each drive got the same tests. I ran Nero's built-in speed tests and Sandra's standard drive benchmarks, then I decided the best way to test the drives was to actually burn a few CDs. I played around with my MP3 collection until I came up with enough files to create a zip file just shy of 800 megs (794 to be exact). I then used Nero Express to burn the zipped MP3s onto the CD and took a screenshot of the elapsed time.

First up, let's look at the Sandra tests on the 48x24x48 drive:

Sandra is starting to show it's age here with the fastest listed drive being a 32x.

...And the 52x24x52

Not that big of a difference here, though you'll see it in the burn tests.

Now let's look at the burn tests. Remember, I took a 794 meg zip file and burned it to a 48x CD-R rated for 800 megs. How did the drives fare, take a look:

3:26 That's pretty damn fast!

1:14 faster, thats almost 30% faster on the same media!!

Now we'll look at the speed tests from Nero 5.5 Express. There are some interesting results here, most notable is the transfer rate of the 52x vs. the 48x, which actually comes out a little faster. I can't figure out why this is the case, but it seems that it might have something to do with the laser and not the drive's mechanical speed. First up, the 48x drive:

32.69x, not a bad transfer rate for a CAV drive-it's in the ballpark.

The 52x drive must have somesort of trick up it's proverbial sleeve. Again, this result is a little perplexing, so I'm guessing the drive's mechanics, meaninng how fast it spins, might have less to do with transfer rate than I thought. In any event, the result is odd, but I didn't notice any kind of slow down when installing programs.

30.51; slower than the 48x, that's one odd result.

Next Page: Conclusion