Sony DRU-810A: New Chipset, New Performance
by Purav Sanghani on October 28, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
The Test
Our benchmarks include a few tests to show the performance of each of our test drives. We first use Nero CD-DVD Speed to create a data disc that tests the write capabilities/performance of the drive. We then run a transfer rate test to benchmark the read capabilities as well as verify the data on the disc.
Finally, we use our Plextor PX-712A drive to read the media for PI/PO errors. According to the ECMA standard:
Our test bed:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (2.2Ghz )
Giga-byte GA-K8NXP-SLI
NVIDIA 6600GT SLI Edition (single 128MB card)
1GB (512MBx2) Corsair XMS4400
Plextor PX-712A, Firmware v1.07
Microsoft Windows XP SP2
Nero CD-DVD Speed 4.07
PlexTools Professional XL 3.03
Again, we have taken all of your feedback into consideration and have decided to go back to focusing more on the write quality of each media instead of just the write speeds. Our results are displayed on the following pages. The screenshots are again ZIPed into packages corresponding to the type of media.
Our benchmarks include a few tests to show the performance of each of our test drives. We first use Nero CD-DVD Speed to create a data disc that tests the write capabilities/performance of the drive. We then run a transfer rate test to benchmark the read capabilities as well as verify the data on the disc.
Finally, we use our Plextor PX-712A drive to read the media for PI/PO errors. According to the ECMA standard:
A row of an ECC Block that has at least 1 byte in error constitutes a PI error. In any 8 consecutive ECC Blocks, the total number of PI errors before correction shall not exceed 280.Now, some writers may create discs with more than 208 PI errors and they are not necessarily unreadable, but they are not the best quality discs around.
A row is 182 bytes long where the last 10 bytes contain PI (Parity Inner) information. An ECC block is 208 rows long where the last 16 rows contain the PO (Parity Outer) information. This gives us a maximum possible PI error amount of 208 errors per block, and for 8 blocks after each other, this sum is of course 8 times higher giving a maximum possible amount of 1664 PI errors.
If a row of an ECC Block contains more than 5 erroneous bytes, the row is said to be “PI-uncorrectable” or PIF (Parity Inner Failures).
In any ECC Block, the number of PI-uncorrectable rows should not exceed 4.
Our test bed:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (2.2Ghz )
Giga-byte GA-K8NXP-SLI
NVIDIA 6600GT SLI Edition (single 128MB card)
1GB (512MBx2) Corsair XMS4400
Plextor PX-712A, Firmware v1.07
Microsoft Windows XP SP2
Nero CD-DVD Speed 4.07
PlexTools Professional XL 3.03
Again, we have taken all of your feedback into consideration and have decided to go back to focusing more on the write quality of each media instead of just the write speeds. Our results are displayed on the following pages. The screenshots are again ZIPed into packages corresponding to the type of media.
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18 Comments
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LoneWolf15 - Monday, October 31, 2005 - link
Perhaps because no-one wants to spend $90 going through THREE burners or $120 through FOUR burners before finding the ONE burner that has broad media compatibility with few recording errors, at a decent speed.
Some burners work great --with two brands of media only, and are horrible with the rest. Some burners don't work at their claimed max burn-speed with 90% of the high-speed media out there. Some burners write media well, but read it poorly. And since blank media is rarely manufactured by the vendor on the label (i.e. Verbatim, who has used MCC, Moser Baer, Taiyo Yuden, and perhaps others to supply their media, and this is similar to other vendors' track records) how do you know what media you're getting? The only solution is to get a burner that does a good job with most media.
I don't know about you, but I think reviewing a $30 burner is definitely worth it. And by-the-way, I don't think I've seen a quality burner for less than $40 at this point, and for me that's still money I don't want to piss away.
GoatMonkey - Friday, October 28, 2005 - link
I had been wondering about these questions for a while. Whatever happened to the dream of having a system with no more regular ATA? Why is nobody except Plextor using SATA for the connection?I think I know the answer now that I own the Plextor SATA DVD burner. Virtually no motherboards support it. The drive worked fine for a while, but apparently something changed that doesn't allow the drive to work anymore. It passes the internal test burn, but won't do anything in Windows except read discs.
Maybe if some other companies would make drives like this there would be some BIOS patches to motherboards to allow them to work. Really annoying. I don't want the big fat ribbon cables anymore.
RyanVM - Friday, October 28, 2005 - link
Have you tried getting in touch with Plextor? For as much as you paid for that drive, I'm more than willing to bet they'd replace it.That being said, I'm still waiting for AT to review the PX-716(S)A. How that drive has been out for so long and not gotten a review from them is beyond me.
nullpointerus - Friday, October 28, 2005 - link
I once heard from a tech support rep that while SATA supports removable media drives, there is no standard for media change notification. If that's true, then I don't see how there can be a SATA media-burning standard.Maybe Anandtech could look into this and post a blurb about it in their next DVD burner roundup? I'm sure many people would be interested.
Niv KA - Friday, October 28, 2005 - link
The only thing I have from Sony in my house is an old PS1 and a very old camera(Hi8) that I got from my father when he bought a new DV camera. The PS1 I am happy with,exept it has not been turned on in 2 and a half years(my fault, no time), and the camera, well it works and that is all, I use it frequently, but it is because I can't aford anything better.deathwalker - Friday, October 28, 2005 - link
Well lets see here...Sony $100+, Benq $40...hmm..once again as is the case all the way across the various product lines, Sony trys to command a premium for their name. Bah..humbug. The very reason I don't have any sony products in my home. There products are general OK..but a lot of companies make OK products and for much less $.Stefan - Friday, October 28, 2005 - link
Sony has matched the performance, but I still say that the BenQ 1640 is the best drive available. It has all around great performance and is one of the least expensive units on the market.Darkmatterx76 - Saturday, October 29, 2005 - link
all that and no lightscribe... *sigh* I've been waiting for a good drive with everything plus lightscribe...