Read Tests - Printed Media

Lower seek times are better.

Seek Times - Pressed CD 74:40.02
Drive Random Full
AOpen DDW8800 122ms 188ms
ASUS DRW-0802P 127ms 296ms
Gigabyte GO-W0808A 116ms 232ms
LG GSA-4120B 125ms 242ms
MSI DR12-A 84ms 153ms
Nu Tech DDW-082 113ms 160ms
Plextor 712A 112ms 165ms
Sony DRU-530A 86ms 155ms
Sony DRU-700A 119ms 245ms
Toshiba SD-R5272 110ms 169ms

Seek Times - DVD 4.38GB
Drive Random Full
AOpen DDW8800 114ms 272ms
ASUS DRW-0802P 130ms 312ms
Gigabyte GO-W0808A 102ms 194ms
LG GSA-4120B 94ms 195ms
MSI DR12-A 106ms 224ms
Nu Tech DDW-082 99ms 171ms
Plextor 712A 107ms 259ms
Sony DRU-530A 129ms 204ms
Sony DRU-700A 121ms 231ms
Toshiba SD-R5272 97ms 180ms

Read - Pressed CD
Drive Average Read Length
AOpen DDW8800 31.35X 79:57.71
ASUS DRW-0802P 30.89X 79:57.71
Gigabyte GO-W0808A 30.12X 79:57.71
LG GSA-4120B 32.50X 79:57.71
MSI DR12-A 31.81X 79:57.71
Nu Tech DDW-082 33.22X 79:57.71
Plextor 712A 33.25X 79:57.71
Sony DRU-530A 31.80X 79:57.71
Sony DRU-700A 31.06X 79:57.71
Toshiba SD-R5272 31.22X 79:57.71

Read - DVDR
Drive Average Read Length
AOpen DDW8800 3.75X 4.38GB
ASUS DRW-0802P 6.27X 4.38GB
Gigabyte GO-W0808A 6.16X 4.38GB
LG GSA-4120B 7.58X 4.38GB
MSI DR12-A 8.22X 4.38GB
Nu Tech DDW-082 6.53X 4.38GB
Plextor 712A 6.21X 4.38GB
Sony DRU-530A 5.79X 4.38GB
Sony DRU-700A 6.20X 4.38GB
Toshiba SD-R5272 6.61X 4.38GB

Read - Pressed DVD Video
Drive Average Read Length
AOpen DDW8800 3.44X 7.88GB
ASUS DRW-0802P 6.34X 7.88GB
Gigabyte GO-W0808A 6.31X 7.88GB
LG GSA-4120B 6.88X 7.88GB
MSI DR12-A 6.84X 7.88GB
Nu Tech DDW-082 4.30X 7.88GB
Plextor 712A 6.18X 7.88GB
Sony DRU-530A 6.45X 7.88GB
Sony DRU-700A 5.88X 7.88GB
Toshiba SD-R5272 6.44X 7.88GB

In our reading and seek time tests, the DR12-A comes out a very fast burner. Unfortunately, we fear that these fast reads may not represent high quality reading. If the benchmarks on the previous pages are any indication, the DR12-A probably has some issues reading discs correctly with this firmware.

Burn Tests DVD-R Media Final Thoughts
Comments Locked

6 Comments

View All Comments

  • KristopherKubicki - Monday, July 19, 2004 - link

    >Looking at your results, you probably got a faulty drive. Did you talk to MSI at all about these results?

    The drive isnt ready yet, its preproduction apparently.

    Kristopher
  • Ian@CDRlabs - Monday, July 19, 2004 - link

    I have to agree with Belzer here. Why are you saying that the drive is "similar" to the Plextor? I've said this to you many times in the past: same chipset != same drive

    Looking at your results, you probably got a faulty drive. Did you talk to MSI at all about these results?
  • KristopherKubicki - Saturday, July 17, 2004 - link

    PrinceGaz:

    The drive name is actually identified on the drive, not in software. We suspect the reason it came up as GENERIC is due to such an early firmware revision that MSI does not even have the drive labeled yet internally. They OEM to other people, and also use other people to OEM the drive too. If MSI is building the drive for a different client, it would make sense that they do not label a name onto their development model yet.

    Kristopher
  • PrinceGaz - Saturday, July 17, 2004 - link

    My CD-RW drive originally appeared as "ATAPI CD-RW 52XMax" in Device Manager before I updated the firmware (very similar to the "GENERIC DVD RW 12XMax" of that DVD burner).

    I guess this happens because initially when a drive is released, no burning software knows about the new drive so they just have it appear to the system as a generic device with certain basic features.

    Later firmware identifies it correctly but you need updated burning software for it to recognise the drive correctly. The generic names are just a stopgap to allow it to be used until that updated software is available.
  • KristopherKubicki - Saturday, July 17, 2004 - link

    >Yes that would be a great idea...if you want to f*ck up the drive. Same chipset != same drive or even "fairly similar" or "essentially identical". Besides the Plextor doesn't support bitsetting either so it would be pointless even trying...

    I didnt say do it. In either case, i missed your review of the drive - sorry. I think i got the message across, "dont buy this drive".

    If you think i've got so much nonsense and crap in here, why dont you point it out? We had this discussion about the chipsets before, but for the time being lets just not talk about that for now. What other errors are so marvelous in this review that you can't bring yourself to read it all the way through to the conclusion?

    Kristopher
  • Belzer - Saturday, July 17, 2004 - link

    "There are no official booktype setting capabilities for this drive. Since the drive is fairly similar to the Plextor PX-712A, it may be possible for creative users to flash an unofficial PX-712 firmware onto the drive and enable unsupported booktype functionality."

    Yes that would be a great idea...if you want to f*ck up the drive. Same chipset != same drive or even "fairly similar" or "essentially identical". Besides the Plextor doesn't support bitsetting either so it would be pointless even trying...

    "Here is how the burner performed using Verbatim 8X DVD-R discs. These were the only discs that we could find which would burn 8X DVD-R on the burner."
    Doesn't look like it's burning at 8x on the graph...

    Then there are a couple of more errors/stupid things I don't even bother to comment. Everytime I read an AT optical drive review I'm surprised it's possible to have so much nonsense and wrong crap in one review.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now