| Article Index |
|---|
| ASUS DRW-1814BL/T Internal DVD Writers, SATA vs. IDE Comparison |
| Page 3 - ImageBurn |
| Page 4 - Nero CD/DVD Speed |
| Page 5 - K-Probe Drive Tester |
| Page 6 - Conclusion |
| All Pages |
There are many
optical drive manufacturers releasing Serial-ATA versions of the DVD writers recently, they all come with a price premium of around $25 on top of their IDE counterparts, but are they worth the extra cost? Today we look at
the current range of ASUS DVD writers, in both IDE and SATA format to find out. The results may surprise you.
The DRW-1814BL/T range of writers are ASUS’s new 18X speed DVD+/-R burners, as well as supporting speeds up 8X for Dual Layer, 14X speed for DVD-RAM and support for Lightscribe as well, so they have everything you need from a DVD burner.
DVD burners themselves are nothing new, nor exciting, just about every model on the market can write to all the DVD standards at around the same speeds, but now most manufacturers, including ASUS are offering Serial-ATA alternatives for their drives. The specs are exactly the same for both the IDE and SATA versions of the drive, the front of the drives also look exactly the same. So is the premium priced that is charged simply for the convenience of using a thinner cable? Or is there actually a performance difference? We thought we’d run a few tests.
The Test Machine:
- Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo E6400 CPU
- Abit AW9D i975X Motherboard
- 2GB Corsair Twin2X PC2-8500 DDR2 RAM
- Seagate Barracuda ES 250GB Serial ATA-II-300 Hard Drive
- Antec Basiq 500W Power Supply
- Windows XP SP2
{mospagebreak title=Page 2 - DVD Decrypter}
The first test we have is using DVD-Decrypter to copy and decrypt a 7.35GB Dual Layer DVD movie:
As you can see, there is next to no difference between either drive in this case, however DVD-Decrypter relies quite heavily on the rest of the system to decrypt the files on the fly, so it’s unlikely to have maxed out either drive’s throughput rate.
Our next test is using Nero Burning ROM to write a full 4.7GB DVD-R disc in each drive. The data is made up of a large ISO file (left in ISO format) as well as MP3s and smaller files such as Microsoft Word documents and JPEG images.
Here we see a huge difference in burn times, with the IDE drive almost 3 minutes behind the Serial-ATA. I thought these results were odd, but after running 3 tests on each drive, it consistently showed the same results, so there’s no doubt about it. While watching the program write the discs (so very exciting) the IDE drive seemed to go just as fast as the SATA drive in the beginning but slowing down around half way through with the drive’s buffer level fluctuating rapidly. We can only hope some of the other tests can help shed light on this issue.
The next test, writing a DVD from a 3.5GB ISO image using ImageBurn:
As you can see from the above images, the SATA drive has a smooth progressive rise in writing speed (yellow line) as it nears the outer edge of the disc, with the buffer level (white line) and disc speed (green line) stable throughout the whole test. The IDE drive however seems to have an issue when it hits around 11X write speed, with the buffer level fluctuating greatly and thus causing the write speed to become erratic and much slower.
The drive seems to slowly drop the RPM down until the data rate becomes more stable and it continues writing with the disc at a lower RPM. This problem causes an additional minute or so to be added to the total burning time. This may indicate a data throughput/speed issue with the IDE connection, while the SATA connection has bandwidth to spare. This really shouldn’t be the case, because at 11X speed, it’s only transferring around 15MB/s, which wouldn’t be maxing out any IDE connection, even the old ATA33 standard.
For our next test, we use Nero’s CD/DVD speed tool to measure the speed of an image being burnt, similar to the last test, but Nero uses an image taking up the full 4.7GB of the DVD.
As you can see, the same problem rears its head for the IDE drive, running into issues as soon as it approaches 11X write speed. Even after it stabilises itself the first time, when it hits 11X again, it loses the plot. We did the test again using different brands of media (TDK and Mitsubishi) and different types (+R and –R) they all gave the same result.
Our final test is a read transfer rate test using K-Probe drive tester.
Both drives have the same rate of increase as the head gets closer to the outer edge of the disc, but even in a simple read test, the IDE drive struggles at around 10X speed, failing to go any higher, while the SATA drive continues its rise in speed without any problem. It just keeps looking better and better for the SATA drive.
Conclusion:
I believe the tests speak for themselves, and whilst these test results can only be seen as true for these particular ASUS models, and not for all brands that offer both IDE and SATA drives, it clearly shows that this SATA drive has a more reliable transfer rate, which will equate to more reliable discs and faster read/write times.
The only flaw the SATA drive may have is that some older motherboards won’t support using the SATA drive with bootable CDs, such as Windows CD/DVDs. So if you buy one, it couldn’t hurt to keep an old IDE drive around just in case you need it, newer motherboards should not have this issue.
These products can be purchased online at www.techbuy.com.au (Direct Link)
