ASUS USA was kind enough to send us their latest Multi Function (X Multi) DVD Burner: the ASUS DRW-1814BLT internal SATA drive. ASUS’ newest DVD burner incorporates DVD-RAM recording, creating a true DVD Multi drive. Single layer 4.7GB DVD burning is supported at 18X max. Double Layer and Dual Layer recording speed is 8X max. DVD Rewritable speeds are 8X max for DVD+RW and 6X max for DVD-RW respectively. DVD-RAM recording is supported at 14X max.  CD-R is recorded at a very fast 48X max and CD-RW at 32X max.
 

In this review we will test the performance of the DRW-1814BLT by running the drive through many tests with a considerable amount of various CD/DVD media.

Company Information

ASUS, a technology-oriented company blessed with one of the world’s top R&D teams, is well known for high-quality and innovative technology.  As a leading provider of 3C (computers, communications and consumer electronics) total solutions, ASUS offers a complete product portfolio to complete in the new millennium.

In 2006, the company shipped 55 million motherboards, which means one in three desktop PCs sold last year was powered by an ASUS motherboard.  Our 2006 revenues reached US$16.5 billion, and is expected to garner US$23 billion in 2007.

ASUS product’s top quality stems from product development.  It’s like learning Chinese Kung-Fu; one must begin with cultivating the “Chi” and inner strength.  Besides innovating cutting-edge features, ASUS engineers also pay special attention to EMI (electromagnetic interference), thermal, acoustics and details that usually go unnoticed to achieve complete customer satisfaction.  ASUS notebooks are the first TCO’99- certified notebooks worldwide. The requirements for this honor include radiation emission control, energy (batter consumption), ecology (environment friendly) and ergonomics.

To succeed in this ultra-competitive industry, great products need to be complimented by speed-to-market, cost and service.  That’s why all 100,000 over employees of ASUS strive for the “ASUS Way of Total Quality Management” to offer the best quality without compromising cost and time-to-market while providing maximum value to all customers through world-class services.

With unyielding commitment to innovation and quality, ASUS won 2,168 awards in 2006, meaning on average, the company received over 5 awards everyday last year.  BusinessWeek ranked ASUS amongst its “InfoTech 100” for the 9^th straight year.  The readers of Tom’s Hardware Guide, the world’s largest IT website, selected ASUS as the best maker of motherboards and graphics cards.  Furthermore, the company is ranked as No.1 in quality products and services by the Wall Street Journal.

Drive Specifications

Multi Function: (X MULTI+LightScribe)

Max Write:  18X DVD+R/8X DVD+RW/6X DVD-RW/8X DVD+R (DL)

Max Write:  48X CD-R/32X CD-RW

Max Read:  16X DVD-ROM/40X CD-ROM

Max Write:  14X DVD-RAM

Over-Speed Burning

Burn 2.4X DVD+R (Double Layer) Disc at 8X Speed

FlextraLink™ Buffer Under-run Errors Prevention Technology

Built-in FlextraLink prevents users from buffer under-run problems and eliminates the creation of unusable discs.  Throughout the recording process, FlextraLink consistently monitors the data buffer status to ensure best recording quality under high-speed operation.

FlextraSpeed™

Built-in FlextraSpeed and AI Auto Speed Adjustment Tech. enhance accuracy and reliability when reading/writing/re-writing across a broad range of certified media in different formats.  FlextraSpeed continuously monitors the recording media and sets the optimal writing speeds to ensure best recording quality.  The ASUS proprietary FlextraSpeed occupies minimal system resources so the PC remains full operational and available for other applications even during recording process.

Superior Stability with DDSSII

The DDSSII technology is designed to minimize the vibration caused by the spindle motor and resonance between components as well as the drive and PC cases.  The ASUS patented DDSSII stabilizes, both horizontally and vertically, the pick-up head, achieving more precise tracking and focusing, while reducing vibration and noise caused by high-revolution spindle motors.

LightScribe

The ASUS DRW-1814BLT as a LightScribe drive enables images to be burned onto LightScribe Discs, both CD and DVD.  Make a label whenever and wherever you want with your PC and burner.  It is Simple, Compatible and Flexible. 

Book type (bitsetting):

Automatic bitsetting is supported by the ASUS DRW-1814BLT.  DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL will burn with the DVD-ROM booktype; the drive will remember these settings so once you have them set you won’t need to change them unless you want to make future changes.

Using Nero CD-DVD Speed we can see that the BookType settings are now set to DVD-ROM.

We can ensure that our discs were truly written with DVD-ROM book type by checking the “Disc Info” section from within Nero CD-DVD Speed.  The information should look like this:

What’s inside the box?

The drive we received was an OEM Drive; the Internal SATA Drive ASUS DRW-1814BLT

Now let’s take a closer look at the drive itself:

Drive Front

Drive Rear

Drive Left

Drive Right

Drive Bottom

Drive Top

Drive Insides