IDE CD-RW Drives Roundup (Part XIV)

By Alexander Vorobiev

Recently the most manufacturers of optical storage devices have reached 40x write speed and then stopped. I don't think that it is the technological barrier that holds them back, because some huge pickup manufacturers have already announced pickup modifications which allow making 52x and even 60x CD-RW drives. I think the problem lies in a wide availability of the media. CeBIT 2002 showed that the most of large media makers did have samples of 40x CD-R and soon would start production of 48x discs, but the experience shows that the time period from announcing of a new high-speed disc till it become widely-spread is very long. The situation concerning rewritable media with speeds up to 12x is also blameful. Such discs are not widely available. Of course, some modern High-Speed CD-RW discs from famous companies can work at 12x which is not a rated speed for them and get a time benefit, but you should realize that information won't be recorded reliably.

Nevertheless, I think that both drive makers and media makers should increase exactly rewrite speed, not just a write one. CD-RW discs have already become a universal medium for carrying of large amounts of data between computers. And of course, it can be very helpful if a speed of data transfer onto a CD-RW disc would be just a bit lower than a recording speed of the same data onto a CD-R.

Today we have drives from different manufacturers which record CD-Rs at a maximum of 24x - 40x. Some tested CD-RW drives are able to rewrite at 12x instead of the standard 10x.

AOpen CRW2440

ASUSTeK CRW-4012A

TEAC CD-W540E

Philips CDRW3210S

TDK CyClone CDRW321040X

Plextor PX-W4012TA

Test results

For the performance estimation in reading operations we chose the CD-ROM TEAC 540E.

CDWinBench 99 CD-ROM Transfer Rate

All modern 40x CD-RW drives cope excellently with reading of discs, outpacing the CD-540E by a great margin. The 48x ASUS and TEAC drives are leaders. The rest show approximately equal results.

CPU Utilization in CD-ROM Transfer Rate:

At such a high transfer rate the TEAC CD-W540E shows the lowest CPU load. Also at the high speed the drive from ASUS loads the processor considerably, as well as the AOpen's model. All other drives are within the range of 0.5%.

CDWinBench 99 CD-ROM Access Time

The champion in the data access is the TEAC. 63.9 ms is an excellent result! The TEAC is followed by the AOpen and only then by the ASUS. The Plextor recorders never shined in data reading or data access, and the CDWinbench proves it once again.

CDWinBench 99 CPU Utilization

It seems to me that the TEAC's drive wants to break all records. The Plextor performs very close to it. The CRW-4012A also shows quite good results.

CD recording time

Recording of CD-R TDK Reflex Ultra (cyanine, 24x rated write speed)

CD-RW drive	Write speed	Time (min.)
AOpen CRW2440	24x	4.33
ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	40x	3.18
TEAC CD-W540E	40x	3.09
Philips CDRW3210S	32x	3.32
TDK CyClone 321040X	32x	3.36
Plextor PX-W4012A	40x	3.39

Of course, the cyanine from TY is not designed for such high record speeds. Nevertheless, the test results look very interesting. Despite a specified high write speed the Plextor burns the TY's CD-R quite slowly, and according to Nero, the recording is finished at 40x. The TEAC's recorder works best of all. Later we will find out how it affects recording quality.

Recording of CD-R Mirex (phthalocyanine, 24x rated write speed)

CD-RW drive	Write speed	Time (min.)
AOpen CRW2440	24x	4.38
ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	16x	5.12
TEAC CD-W540E	32x	3.32
Philips CDRW3210S	32x	3.40
TDK CyClone 321040X	32x	3.41
Plextor PX-W4012A	40x	5.16

If you are not disposed only toward such brands as Mitsui, Hitachi-Maxell or Ricoh, the most optimal variant for you will be TEAC, Philips and TDK drives. With these recorders you can burn phthalocyanine discs from Mirex at the maximum speed and very fast. The AOpen CRW2440 is a good alternative solution.

Recording of CD-R SKC "bulk"(cyanine, rated write speed unknown)
write speed 4x

CD-RW drive	Time (min.)
AOpen CRW2440	19.29
ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	19.33
TEAC CD-W540E	19.25
Philips CDRW3210S	19.51
TDK CyClone 321040X	19.48
Plextor PX-W4012A	20.06

If time is very important for you but you have no desire or opportunity to record at a higher speed the TEAC or AOpen drives will be the best choice. They burn such discs quite fast and the quality is rather high.

Time spent for full formatting of a CD-RW disc in UDF format

Philips CD-RW 4x

CD-RW drive	Time (min.)
AOpen CRW2440	31.29
ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	27.19
TEAC CD-W540E	27.13
Philips CDRW3210S	29.01
TDK CyClone 321040X	28.55
Plextor PX-W4012A	22.44

Ricoh CD-RW 10x

CD-RW drive	Time (min.)
AOpen CRW2440	21.39
ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	13.42
TEAC CD-W540E	13.44
Philips CDRW3210S	15.22
TDK CyClone 321040X	15.28
Plextor PX-W4012A	11.08

The Plextor is an undoubted leader in the speed of formatting of CD-RW discs. It performs especially well in recording of the 4x discs. The TEAC and ASUSTeK devices score quite good results as well. And the AOpen is an outsider. The CRW2440 performs better with the CD-RW discs from Acer.

Recording of a CD-RW disc (UDF)

Philips CD-RW 4x

CD-RW drive	Time (min.)
AOpen CRW2440	19.02
ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	18.55
TEAC CD-W540E	18.31
Philips CDRW3210S	18.15
TDK CyClone 321040X	18.21
Plextor PX-W4012A	18.28

CD-RW Ricoh 10x

CD-RW drive	Time (min.)
AOpen CRW2440	9.49
ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	6.34
TEAC CD-W540E	6.27
Philips CDRW3210S	7.22
TDK CyClone 321040X	7.34
Plextor PX-W4012A	6.27

Taking into account the advantage of the Plextor in the disc formatting, it is one of the fastest drives for today in operation with CD-RW media. The 4x CD-RW discs from Philips are recorded at approximately equal speeds. The CDRW3210S and the CyClone 321040X were faster than its competitors by just a couple of seconds. In operation with the HS CD-RW discs we have leaders - the drives from TEAC, ASUSTeK and Plextor. All these recorders support 12x writing.

BLER factor of the recorded CD-R discs

CD-R disc, write speed	Mirex	TDK Reflex Ultra	"SKC", 4x
AOpen CRW2440	27-33 (24x)	27–31	34–42
ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	8–11 (16x)	166–184	87–93
TEAC CD-W540E	36–44 (40x)	55–61	68–76
Philips CDRW3210S	68–118 (32x)	196–207	13–18
TDK CyClone 321040X	96–111 (32x)	170–196	27–36
Plextor PX-W4012A	9–13 (40x)	59–68	5–7

(for these tests we used a device described in the fifth part of our review)

The Plextor recorders always had high recording quality, and the PX-W4012A is not an exception, although recording at the maximum speed wasn't stable all the time. The discs recorded on the TEAC's drive have high results as well. Although the recording quality of the cyanine disc SKC is not the best, the high-speed recording of the CD-Rs from Mirex and TDK looks excellent.

The results on the professional equipment - CDCATS SA3 test station which is provided by the Urals Electronic Plant will be obtained and published later.

Nero CDSpeed

Reading of the CD-R TDK Reflex Ultra

CD-RW drive	Graph of reading
AOpen CRW2440
ASUSTeK CRW-4012A
TEAC CD-W540E
Philips CDRW3210S
TDK CyClone 321040X
Plextor PX-W4012A

Reading of the CD-R Mirex

CD-RW drive	Graph of reading
AOpen CRW2440
ASUSTeK CRW-4012A
TEAC CD-W540E
Philips CDRW3210S
TDK CyClone 321040X
Plextor PX-W4012A

Reading of the CD-R SKC "bulk" (write speed - 4x)

CD-RW drive	Graph of reading
AOpen CRW2440
ASUSTeK CRW-4012A
TEAC CD-W540E
Philips CDRW3210S
TDK CyClone 321040X
Plextor PX-W4012A

All drives read all types of media excellently.

Reading of the CD-R Rostok Media 780 MBytes (90 min)

AOpen CRW2440

ASUSTeK CRW-4012A

TEAC CD-W540E

Philips CDRW3210S

TDK CyClone 321040X

Plextor PX-W4012A

All drives read the 90-minute discs without any problems.

Test results of the recorded TDK Reflex Ultra CD-Rs

	AOpen CRW2440	ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	TEAC CD-W540E	Philips CDRW3210S	TDK CyClone 321040X	Plextor PX-W4012A
Average	30.36x	30.05x	36.48x	30.51x	30.55x	30.42x
Random Seek	98 ms	72 ms	62 ms	130 ms	131 ms	116 ms
SpinUp Time (sec)	1.76	2.83	1.45	0.74	0.76	2.04
SpinDown Time (sec)	3.42	5.03	3.72	3.28	3.31	4.09
Disc Eject Time (sec)	1.05	2.64	2.26	2.06	2.01	1.72
Disc Load Time (sec)	0.77	1.75	8.13	9.52	9.55	8.99
Disc Recognition Time (sec)	5.43	10.83	0.01	0.71	0.73	0.25

Test results of the recorded Mirex CD-Rs

	AOpen CRW2440	ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	TEAC CD-W540E	Philips CDRW3210S	TDK CyClone 321040X	Plextor PX-W4012A
Average	29.80x	34.39x	36.72x	30.26x	30.30x	31.49x
Random Seek	96 ms	145 ms	62 ms	121 ms	127 ms	117 ms
SpinUp Time (sec)	1.84	1.83	1.45	1.13	1.06	2.06
SpinDown Time (sec)	4.40	5.27	3.75	3.84	3.85	4.10
Disc Eject Time (sec)	1.05	2.63	2.25	2.07	2.05	1.73
Disc Load Time (sec)	0.76	1.75	8.23	9.47	9.87	9.00
Disc Recognition Time (sec)	5.56	11.03	0.17	0.81	0.86	0.26

CDSpeed Test results of the recorded SKC CD-R (bulk)

	AOpen CRW2440	ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	TEAC CD-W540E	Philips CDRW3210S	TDK CyClone 321040X	Plextor PX-W4012A
Average	30.66x	35.89x	36.38x	30.31x	30.15x	31.42x
Random Seek	96 ms	144 ms	61 ms	119 ms	116 ms	119 ms
SpinUp Time (sec)	1.73	2.88	1.46	1.16	1.26	2.04
SpinDown Time (sec)	3.40	5.57	3.63	4.18	4.28	4.08
Disc Eject Time (sec)	1.06	2.64	2.25	2.04	2.04	1.72
Disc Load Time (sec)	0.79	1.77	8.21	8.99	9.73	8.97
Disc Recognition Time (sec)	5.35	10.87	0.17	0.81	0.91	0.25

The read speed of the 48x drives from TEAC and ASUS is, as expected, higher than that of the other devices. The TEAC is a leader in the integral estimation. The ASUS and AOpen also perform quite well.

CDSpeed Test results of the recorded CD-RW discs

	CD-RW UDF (4x)	CD-RW UDF (10x)	CD-RW ISO (4x)
AOpen CRW2440	30.06x	30.12x	31.27x
ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	22.35x	22.43x	25.24x
TEAC CD-W540E	31.48x	32.06x	37.24x
Philips CDRW3210S	28.44x	28.52x	30.16x
TDK CyClone 321040X	28.56x	28.52x	30.33x
Plextor PX-W4012A	27.38x	27.44x	31.41x

The TEAC and AOpen recorders work really fast with the CD-RW discs of any format (although the latter is quite slow at formatting/recording of CD-RW media). The CD-RW drives from Philips and TDK have also good scores, while the ASUS falls behind to some reason. The CDW-4012A copes excellently with CD-RW discs of the ISO format, but the speed of reading of UDF discs is not the best. I hope the situation will become better in the new firmware version.

Reading of the CD-RW (ISO format)

AOpen CRW2440

ASUSTeK CRW-4012A

TEAC CD-W540E

Philips CDRW3210S

TDK CyClone 321040X

Plextor PX-W4012A

CD-ROM Drive Analyzer

Reading of the recorded TDK Reflex Ultra CD-Rs

AOpen CRW2440

ASUSTeK CRW-4012A

TEAC CD-W540E

Philips CDRW3210S

TDK CyClone321040X

Plextor PX-W4012A

Reading of the recorded Mirex CD-Rs

AOpen CRW2440

ASUSTeK CRW-4012A

TEAC CD-W540E

Philips CDRW3210S

TDK CyClone321040X

Plextor PX-W4012A

Reading of the recorded SKC CD-Rs (bulk)

AOpen CRW2440

ASUSTeK CRW-4012A

TEAC CD-W540E

Philips CDRW3210S

TDK CyClone321040X

Plextor PX-W4012A

Like in the CDSpeed, all drives read excellently all media types. There are no bad saws on any graph.

Sound track extraction from audio CDs (CDDAE 99)

AOpen CRW2440

	Piano Favorites	Acoustic Planet vol.2	Bloodhound Gang "Greatest Hits"
Average extraction speed	8.8x	8.3x	29.9x
Total errors	1.16%	0.00%	0.00%

ASUSTeK CRW-4012A

	Piano Favorites	Acoustic Planet vol.2	Bloodhound Gang "Greatest Hits"
Average extraction speed	29.0x	28.6x	34.7x
Total errors	0.03%	0.01%	0.00%

TEAC CD-W540E

	Piano Favorites	Acoustic Planet vol.2	Bloodhound Gang "Greatest Hits"
Average extraction speed	21.6x	14.4x	35.3x
Total errors	1.44%	0.00%	0.00%

Philips CDRW3210S

	Piano Favorites	Acoustic Planet vol.2	Bloodhound Gang "Greatest Hits"
Average extraction speed	7.4x	12.0x	27.4x
Total errors	1.39%	2.05%	0.00%

TDK CyClone321040X

	Piano Favorites	Acoustic Planet vol.2	Bloodhound Gang "Greatest Hits"
Average extraction speed	8.0x	12.8x	27.6x
Total errors	1.13%	1.77%	0.00%

Plextor PX-W4012A

	Piano Favorites	Acoustic Planet vol.2	Bloodhound Gang "Greatest Hits"
Average extraction speed	24.5x	6.8x	30.8x
Total errors	4.00%	7.22%	0.00%

According to the CDDAE 99 utility, the TEAC and ASUSTeK drives are best at extracting audio data from audio CDs. The AOpen also has high results. Having set the speed at 8x you can be sure the result will be perfect. The same thing can be done with the Philips and TDK devices which do not yield much to the AOpen in speed and quality of data extraction.

Sound track extraction from audio CDs (EAC 0.9 prebeta 11)

Support of backoff and processing of data on C2 errors

	AOpen CRW2440	ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	TEAC CD-W540E	Philips CDRW3210S	TDK CyClone 321040X	Plextor PX-W4012A
C2	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes

Burst mode

	Piano Favorites	Acoustic Planet vol.2	Bloodhound Gang "Greatest Hits"
AOpen CRW2440	18.3x	14.4x	29.6x
ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	4.7x	14.6x	28.6x
TEAC W540E	5.8x	12.5x	29.4x
PhilipsCDRW3210S	8.4x	9.8x	31.5x
TDK CyClone 321040X	8.5x	8.8x	35.4x
Plextor PX-W4012A	25.5x	4.0x	30.4x

Secure mode

	Piano Favorites	Acoustic Planet vol.2	Bloodhound Gang "Greatest Hits"
AOpen CRW2440	0.7x	4.7x	9.3x
ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	0.6x	0.7x	2.0x
TEAC W540E	0.8x	1.6x	2.8x
PhilipsCDRW3210S	0.6x	1.3x	3.8x
TDK CyClone 321040X	0.8x	1.4x	5.3x
Plextor PX-W4012A	1.1x	1.4x	9.7x

Taking into account that the recorders from TEAC, AOpen and Plextor are able to notify about C2 errors, and their speed characteristics, I can recommend them to users who often work with audio contents. The results of the Advanced DAE Test will give more detailed information on capabilities of each recorder.

Advanced DAE Test

CD-RW drive	AOpen CRW2440	ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	TEAC CD-W540E	Philips CDRW3210S	TDK CyClone 321040X	Plextor PX-W4012A
Offset	412 bytes (103 samples)	24 bytes (6 samples)	2624 bytes (656 samples)	2632 bytes (658 samples)	2956 bytes (739 samples)	272 bytes (68 samples)
Sequential Read Test	Average Speed: 29.27X Data Errors: 0 Sync Errors: 0	Average Speed: 28.35X Data Errors: 415 Sync Errors: 0	Average Speed: 28.86X Data Errors: 0 Sync Errors: 0	Average Speed: 28.50X Data Errors: 0 Sync Errors: 0	Average Speed: 28.48X Data Errors: 0 Sync Errors: 0	Average Speed: 30.04X Data Errors: 0 Sync Errors: 0
Harmonica Read Test	Average Access Time: 131 ms Data Errors: 0 Sync Errors: 0 Total Data Errors: 0 Total Sync Errors: 0 Quality Score: 100.0	Average Access Time: 182 ms Data Errors: 303 Sync Errors: 0 Total Data Errors: 718 Total Sync Errors: 0 Quality Score: 100.0	Average Access Time: 108 ms Data Errors: 0 Sync Errors: 0 Total Data Errors: 0 Total Sync Errors: 0 Quality Score: 100.0	Average Access Time: 165 ms Data Errors: 0 Sync Errors: 0 Total Data Errors: 0 Total Sync Errors: 0 Quality Score: 100.0	Average Access Time: 168 ms Data Errors: 0 Sync Errors: 0 Total Data Errors: 0 Total Sync Errors: 0 Quality Score: 100.0	Average Access Time: 1041 ms Data Errors: 0 Sync Errors: 0 Total Data Errors: 0 Total Sync Errors: 0 Quality Score: 75.0
On The Fly Copying Simulation	Copying at 1 X OK Copying at 2 X OK Copying at 4 X OK Copying at 6 X OK Copying at 8 X OK Copying at 10 X OK Copying at 12 X OK Copying at 16 X OK	Copying at 1 X OK Copying at 2 X OK Copying at 4 X OK Copying at 6 X OK Copying at 8 X OK Copying at 10 X OK Copying at 12 X OK Copying at 16 X too slow	Copying at 1 X OK Copying at 2 X OK Copying at 4 X OK Copying at 6 X OK Copying at 8 X OK Copying at 10 X OK Copying at 12 X OK Copying at 16 X OK	Copying at 1 X OK Copying at 2 X OK Copying at 4 X OK Copying at 6 X OK Copying at 8 X OK Copying at 10 X OK Copying at 12 X OK Copying at 16 X OK	Copying at 1 X OK Copying at 2 X OK Copying at 4 X OK Copying at 6 X OK Copying at 8 X OK Copying at 10 X OK Copying at 12 X OK Copying at 16 X OK	Copying at 1 X data errors Data Errors: 4031 Copying at 2 X too slow Data Errors: 4403 Copying at 4 X too slow Data Errors: 3994 Copying at 6 X too slow Data Errors: 4042 Copying at 8 X too slow Data Errors: 4066 Copying at 10 X too slow Copying at 12 X too slow Data Errors: 4175 Copying at 16 X too slow
CD Text	Drive cannot read CD Text information	Drive is capable of reading CD Text information	Drive cannot read CD Text information	Drive is capable of reading CD Text information
Subchannel Data	Test 1 Track (01): 01 Relative position (01:05.00): 01:05.00 Absolute position (01:07.00): 01:07.00 Index (5): 5 Test 2 Track (17): 17 Relative position (01:33.00): 01:33.00 Absolute position (33:35.00): 33:35.00 Index (1): 1 Test 3 Track (36): 36 Relative position (00:00.00): 00:00.00 Absolute position (70:02.00): 70:02.00 Index (1): 1
Leadin	Drive cannot read data from the Leadin	Drive can read max. 148 sectors (-00:01.73) from the Leadin	Drive can read max. 145 sectors (-00:01.70) from the Leadin	Drive cannot read data from the Leadin		Drive can read max. 75 sectors (-00:01.00) from the Leadin
Leadout	Drive cannot read data from the Leadout					Drive can read max. 3325 sectors (00:44.25) from the Leadout

The detailed information on the tested parameters is given in the help file to the CDSpeed99 test program. If you don't want to download the utility, then here you can find the HTMl help file.

The Plextor has achieved unusually low scores. Having recorded 5 test discs we failed to get acceptable results.

The Plextor support service hasn't given a clear response yet. I just hope that this problem concerns only the given sample.

Overburn

CD-R	Philips Silver Premium 16x (TY)	Mirex 650 MBytes	Rostok 780 MBytes
AOpen CRW2440	77:04.65	77:19.74	n/a
ASUSTeK CRW-4012A	77:04.28	77:22.01	93:09.40
TEAC W540E	77:03.41	77:23.24	n/a
PhilipsCDRW3210S	77:01.60	77:16.69	93:28.18
TDK CyClone 321040X	77:02.55	77:17.26	93:08.55
Plextor PX-W4012A	77:04.74	77:22.20	93:09.59

Well, at last we have found the flaws of the TEAC drive. The overburn process wasn't stable on all discs. We obtained the results for the Philips and Mirex discs only at the second attempt. Besides, the drive refused to write the Rostok Media longer than 89 minutes. If every byte of a disc is very important for you, you should go with the Plextor. The PX-W41021A shows the best results here.

Reading of a damaged CD

AOpen CRW2440

ASUSTeK CRW-4012A

TEAC CD-W540E

Philips CDRW3210S

TDK CyClone321040X

Plextor PX-W4012A

The TEAC, AOpen and ASUS are best at reading the damaged media. Each of them tries to lift up the speed again after a hard-to-read area. On the contrary, the Plextor PX-W4012A doesn't try to do it and moves toward the end at a slow pace.

Summary and conclusion

A user faces today a very wide choice - whether to get the up-to-date 40x recorder or go with the golden mean - 32x, or even take an inexpensive 24x drive. 48x recorders are expected very soon. But remember that there are no many discs available today on the market which can be burnt at 48x or even 40x.

Our choice is the CD-RW drive TEAC CD-W540E. This is a modern and reliable recorder which will give you the maximum performance and recording quality. At the same time it isn't very demanding for discs and will let you determine a write speed for your CD-Rs.

If the design is very important for you and you are looking for a compromise between the performance and appearance take a look at the TDK and Philips devices. But remember that if you have a mainboard based on the VIA KT133/133A chipset you must set the drive as Secondary Master to avoid possible problems in operation.

ASUSTeK have made a good high-speed drive. If you like this company or if the price of the CRW-4012A looks attractive, do not doubt of purchasing it.

On the one hand, the Plextor shows very high recording quality even at the maximum speed and works very fast with CD-RW discs; on the other hand, it has some bugs. Of course, it is very difficult to be the first, but if the company will harry up with a new firmware version where all bugs will be eliminated, the PX-W4012A can become a very attractive top solution.

Test programs:

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