Test machine

For this review we will be using a computer with the following configuration:

Hardware:

• Motherboard: ASUSTeK P5K (Intel P35 chipset)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
• RAM: 4 GB OCZ Platinum dual channel kit DDR2 800
• GFX: BFG nVidia 8800GTS (640 Megabytes GDDR3 HDCP compliant)
• Sound: Onboard Realtek ALC882 HD audio controller
• Hard disk: 2X 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (SATA 2)
• Case: ThermalTake Armor (silver)
• PSU: Enermax Liberty 620W
• Display: Samsung Syncmaster CX226BW 22” widescreen (HDCP compliant)
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit)

System setup:

The HP DVD-1035i was connected to a IDE channel on the motherboards ICH9 IDE controller. As we can see from the above screenshot, Nero InfoTool reports the HP DVD-1035i as a UDMA4 device.

And another screenshot from Nero InfoTool:

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the HP DVD-1035i supports DVD-RAM read/write. The drive came shipped with firmware version FH22.

Installed software:

• Nero Burning ROM 8
• Nero CD/DVD Speed
• Nero InfoTool
• Slysoft CloneCD
• Exact Audio Copy
• KProbe

Our review PC has Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit installed.

Features and techniques

Software Bundle:

Now let’s take a look at the supplied software bundle. Please note, we may not use any of this software in this review.

The supplied software CD-ROM

In the above screenshot we see the available install options

• Drive user manual
• Nero 7 Essentials
• Adobe reader
• View readme text file

View the drive manual selection screen

Drive manual language selection screen

The Nero 7 Essentials install screen

Nero 7 Essentials offers, the following applications.

• Nero 7 Express Essentials
• Nero Showtime 3 Essentials
• Nero Vision 4 Essentials
• Nero Recode 2 Essentials
• Nero InCD 5 Essentials
• Nero PhotoShow Express 4

The software bundle is very good, up to date and should provide a good starting point for any new user as well as the more advanced user.

Disc Quality Scanning:

The HP DVD-1035i can be used along with KProbe or Nero CD-Speed for “Disc Quality Scanning”.

Disc Quality Scan at 4x scanning speed using CD-Speed.

Disc Quality Scan at 4x scanning speed using KProbe.

The HP DVD-1035i could be considered a useful drive for Disc Quality Scanning. The results seem fairly consistent with those of a Lite-On drive scanning at 4x

BookType (Bitsetting):

The HP DVD-1035i supports fully automatic bit-setting and supports Bit-Setting on DVD+R/RW/+R DL media types.

Here is how you could check if your discs are really written with DVD-ROM book type:

Start Nero CD-DVD Speed and click the Disc info button and you should get something like this:

DVD+R with BookType DVD-ROM

DVD+RW with BookType DVD-ROM

DVD+R DL with BookType DVD-ROM

Another quick test is to start Nero CD-Speed and look at the disc information:

Writing technique

Now it’s time to take a closer look at the write technology used by the HP DVD-1035i:

For these tests we used CD-Speed and wrote a full disc at the drives maximum speed.

CD Recordable:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035i, it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 48x.

The HP DVD-1035i uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 48X. This gives an average speed of 37.43x and a total writing time of 2 minutes and 37 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the HP DVD-1035i was the fastest drive when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035I, it should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 32x.

The HP DVD-1035i uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 32X. This gives an average speed of 24.93x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 42 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the HP DVD-1035i was one of the slowest drives when writing CD-RW media.

20x DVD+R/-R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035i, it should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 20x.

DVD+R

The HP DVD-1035i uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 20X. This gives an average speed of 14.70x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 4 seconds.

DVD-R

The HP DVD-1035i uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 20X. This gives an average speed of 14.72x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 9 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see from our table, the HP DVD-1035i was one of the fastest drives when writing DVD±R media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035i, it should be able to write DVD+RW at a maximum speed of 8x.

The HP DVD-1035i uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 7.20x and a total writing time of 8 minutes and 7 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The HP DVD-1035i was about average at writing our test DVD+RW media.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035i, it should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The HP DVD-1035i uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average speed of 5.71x and a total writing time of 10 minutes and 49 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The HP DVD-1035i was the slowest drive when writing DVD-RW media.

8x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035i, it should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 8x.

The HP DVD-1035i uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 6.76x and a total writing time of 18 minutes and 7 seconds.

8x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035i, it should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 8x.

The HP DVD-1035i uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 6.77x and a total writing time of 18 minutes and 43 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The HP DVD-1035i was about average when writing double layer media.

12x DVD-RAM writing speed:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035i, it should be able to write DVD-RAM at a maximum speed of 12x.

The HP DVD-1035i uses P-CAV, (Partial Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 12X. This gives an average speed of 10.00x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 56 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The HP DVD-1035i was the slowest drive when writing DVD-RAM media.

Summary:

There is no doubt that the HP DVD-1035i has excellent writing performance. CD-R writing speed was the fastest we have seen and DVD R writing performance was also very good.

Let’s head on to the next page where we will check reading performance….