Fall 2004 DVDR Roundup: Dual Layer and 16X DVD+R
by Anand Shimpi & Virginia Lee on November 1, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
MSI DR16-B
MSI's still reigns as the largest OEM optical storage manufacturer, although much of that business is heavily dependent on CDRW drives and not necessarily recorders.| MSI DR16-B 16X DVD-/+RW Drive | |
| Interface | PATA |
| CD Write Speed | 40X, 32X, 24X CAV 16X, 8X, 4X CLV |
| CD Rewrite Speed | 24X ZCLV 16X, 10X, 4X CLV |
| CD Read Speed | 40X MAX CAV |
| DVD-R Write Speed | 16X, 12X, 8X CAV 4X, 2X, 1X |
| DVD-RW Rewrite Speed | 4X, 2X, 1X CLV |
| DVD+R Write Speed | 16X, 12X, 8X CAV 4X, 2.4X |
| DVD+RW Rewrite Speed | 4X, 2.4X CLV |
| DVD+DL Write Speed | 2.4X CLV |
| DVD Read Speed | 16X MAX CAV |
| Supported Modes | DAO / DAO-RAW 16 & 96 TAO SAO / RAW SAO, RAW SAO 16 & 96 Packet Write Multi-Session |
| Supported Formats | DVD+R (DAO, incremental, seq) DVD+RW (random) DVD-R (DAO, incremental, seq) DVD-RW (restricted overwrite) CD-R, CD-RW, CD-ROM, CD-DA, Mixed Mode, CD Extra Photo CD, CD Text, Bootable CD, UDF |
| Access Time | CD: 120ms DVD: 120ms |
| Buffer | 2MB |
Specifications for this drive are right in the middle of the pack. There is nothing neither exceptional nor poor about the table above.
Other MSI designs in the past have revolved around Sanyo chipsets, and we were somewhat hoping for another one when we obtained the DR-16B. The MSI burner had us a little worried the first time we opened it up. Not only does it look identical to the NuTech DDW-162 and the BenQ DW1620, they even have the same QA approval stickers on them!
Click to enlarge.
Make no mistake about it - the NuTech, BenQ and MSI drives are virtually identical with the exception of price and firmware. Referring back to the second page of this article, we may already start to suspect that whichever one of these drives is closest to the OEM manufacturer is likely the one with the better firmware/write descriptors.
Click to enlarge.
Feel free to download the performance graphs for the DR16-B here.
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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?