For these tests we will use Nero CD/DVD-Speed to read various CD and DVD’s, including audio discs and DVD-media. As already mentioned in the introduction, this drive supports:

• DVD-ROM : 16x
• CD-R/ROM: 48x (with Turbo Boost activated. Without Turbo Boost 40x. See Turbo Boost Function on page 2.)

Pressed discs:

For this test we used an original pressed CD-ROM disc containing about 69 minutes in length. We will test the drive without Turbo Boost activated:

The Sony DRX-830U reached 38.36x. Let’s compare the result with other drives performance in the table below:

The Sony DRX-830U is not the fastest drive when reading pressed CD-ROMs, however, seek times are low.

CD-Recordable Discs:  

For this test we used a Data CD-R that was made using Nero CD-DVD Speed “create data disc”. The disc we used was a Taiyo Yuden 48x certified CD-R disc.

The Sony DRX-830U reached 41.79x when reading a full CD-R disc. Now let us compare the result to some other drives:

The Sony DRX-830U performed much better on recordable discs, seek times were once again low.

CD-Rewritable discs: 

Again, we made a Data CD with Nero CD-DVD Speed “create data disc”. This time we used a Memorex Ultra Speed (24X) CD-RW disc made by Infodisc Technology Co., Ltd.

The drive reads CD-RW discs at 40x speed. Check how this compares to other drives below.

The Sony DRX-830U performed on average at reading CD-RW and seek times are good.

Audio – Digital Audio Extraction

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the Sony DRX-830U, again we used Nero CD-DVD Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is 72 minutes in length (72:01.33).

The Sony DRX-830U reached 40x reading Audio-CD. Now let us compare the result with other drives:

The Sony DRX-830U performed average on the Audio-CD with respectable seek times.

DVD reading performance:

Again, we will use Nero CD-Speed to measure the reading performance, this time for various types of DVD discs. The drive should read pressed single layer DVD-discs at 16X.

DVD – DVD-Video:

For our DVD reading performance tests we are going to start with a single and Double Layered DVD video discs. While only 1X speed is required to watch DVD movies, it’s useful to be able to read the discs at higher speeds if you’re going to extract (rip) the content of the disc to your hard drive.

DVD-Video Single Layer

 
DVD-Video Double Layer

The Sony DRX-830U reads a pressed DVD-Video at up to 16x for a Single Layer disc. However the drive only reads a Double Layer disc at 8x.

The Sony DRX-830U performed very well with our DVD-Video Single Layer and slow on Double Layer read tests.

DVD+R and DVD+RW:

For this test we used a Taiyo Yuden (unbranded) T03 16x DVD+R and a RiData (Ricoh) 8x DVD+RW with 4.38GB of data. (Thanks to Rima.com and Advanced Media/Ritek USA for sending us this media.) Below are the results:

DVD+R

DVD+RW

The drive is locked and performed below average on DVD+R/RW discs. Now let us see how it will perform on DVD-R/RW.

DVD–R and DVD-RW:  

For this test we used a RiData (RITEKF1) 16X DVD-R disc and a RiData (RITEKW06) 6X DVD-RW disc filled with 4.38GB of data. (Thanks Advanced Media/Ritek USA for sending us this media.)  Below are the results of these tests:

DVD-R

 
DVD-RW

There are hardly any differences compared to reading the DVD+R/RW discs. The drive reads DVD-R disc at 12x speed and the DVD-RW disc at 8x speed.

The drive performed slow when reading DVD-R and DVD-RW discs.

DVD – DVD±R DL:  

For this test we used a Verbatim 8x DVD+R DL and a Verbatim DVD-R DL disc both filled with 4.38GB of data. (Thanks to Verbatim USA for sending us these media.) Our test results are found below:

DVD+R DL

 
DVD-R DL

Again the drive is locked and reads DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL at 8x speed.

DVD – DVD-RAM:   

For this test we used a Maxell 12x DVD-RAM filled with 4.27GB of data. Our test results are found below:

DVD-RAM 

The Sony DRX-830U reads DVD-RAM at 12x in 5:35 minutes without any problem.   

Overall thoughts:

The Sony DRX-830U although is not the fastest reader but it proved reliable.

But now it’s time to head on to a more interesting part: Writing CD-R and CD-RW discs…