Test machine

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

Hardware:

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R (Intel P35 chipset with ICH9R)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
• RAM: 4 GB (2*2GB) OCZ PC2-6400U CL5 XTC OCZ2G8004GK
• GFX: Sapphire HD 3850 Ultimate  512MB PCIe
• Sound: Onboard Realtek HD Audio controller
• Hard disk: Samsung HD103UJ
• PSU: BeQuiet Dark Power Pro P7-450W
• Operating System: Windows XP Professional (32 bit) with SP3

Installed software:

For conducting our various tests, we will be using the following applications.

• Nero CD/DVD Speed
• Nero InfoTool
• Slysoft CloneCD
• Exact Audio Copy
• DVD Fab

System setup:

The Optiarc AD-7240S was connected to one of the SATA ports on the motherboard’s ICH9R controller with the controller set to AHCI mode. And another screenshot from Nero InfoTool:

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Optiarc AD-7240S supports the main media groups. The drive came shipped with firmware version 1.01. Drive internals: Now let’s take a look at the Optiarc AD-7240S internal layout.

Internal PCB and drive mechanism

Features and techniques

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PI/PIF Disc quality scanning

Just like previous drives, the Optiarc AD-7240S also supports Disc Quality Scanning with Nero CD-Speed/Disk Speed. However you should be aware that the results of these scans usually show different results than those made with other drives.

16x CAV scan

BookType (Bitsetting):

The Optiarc AD-7240S supports permanent and temporary changes of the booktype for DVD+R DL media using applications like Nero Burning Rom, Nero CD Speed or Imgburn. Changing the booktype on DVD+R or DVD+RW is not supported.

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 DL with BookType DVD-ROM

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

Writing technique

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Now it’s time to take a closer look at the write technology used by the Optiarc AD-7240S. For these tests we used CD-Speed and wrote a full disc at the drive’s maximum speed.

CD Recordable:

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7240S, it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 48x.

The Optiarc AD-7240S uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 48X. This gives an average speed of 35.13x and a total writing time of 2 minutes and 58 seconds. For comparison we have made the following table: As we can see, the speed of the Optiarc AD-7240S was about average when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7240S, it should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 32x.

The Optiarc AD-7240S uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 32X. This gives an average speed of 24.75x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 58 seconds. For comparison we have made the following table: As we can see, the Optiarc AD-7240S was a little slower than most other drives when writing 32x CD-RW media.

24x DVD+R/-R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7240S, it should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 24x. According to Sony Optiarc, media from Taiyo Yuden (DVD-R: TYG03 and DVD+R: YUDEN000 T03) is the only recommended media suitable for this burning rate at the moment. Also the drive’s Auto Strategy function independently checks the quality of the media in advance to prevent burning errors and automatically adapts the media’s write speed to compensate for quality fluctuation. Thus in favour of the burning result, 24x speed is not always possible.

DVD+R

The Optiarc AD-7240S uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write DVD+R at its maximum speed of 24X. This gives an average speed of 17.53x and a total writing time of 4 minutes and 11 seconds.

DVD-R

The Optiarc AD-7240S uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write DVD-R at its maximum speed of 24X. This gives an average speed of 17.58x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 57 seconds. For comparison we have made the following table: As we can see from our table, the Optiarc AD-7240S was by far the fastest drive when writing our test DVD±R media. The noise level at 24x was quite acceptable too and can be compared to that of the AD-7201S at 16x speed.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7240S, it should be able to write DVD+RW at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Optiarc AD-7240S uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 7.74x and a total writing time of 7 minutes and 52 seconds. For comparison we have made the following table: The Optiarc AD-7240S provided an average speed when writing our test DVD+RW media.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7240S, it should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Optiarc AD-7240S uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average speed of 6.00x and a total writing time of 10 minutes and 6 seconds. For comparison we have made the following table: The Optiarc AD-7240S gave an average speed when writing DVD-RW media.

8x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7240S, it should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 12x. Unfortunately our media was only supported at 8x speed.

The Optiarc AD-7240S uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at 8X. This gives an average speed of 6.21x and a total writing time of 19 minutes and 18 seconds.

8x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7240S, it should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 8x. Again our media was only supported at 8x speed

The Optiarc AD-7240S uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at 8X. This gives an average speed of 6.19x and a total writing time of 19 minutes and 19 seconds. For comparison we have made the following table: The Optiarc AD-7240S was the slowest drive when writing double layer media at 8x.

12x DVD-RAM writing speed

According to the specifications of the Optiarc AD-7240S, it should be able to write DVD-RAM at a maximum speed of 12x. Unfortunately the drive could only be tested with 5x DVD-RAM media due to the unavailability of 12x DVD-RAM media in Europe

The Optiarc AD-7240S uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at 5X. This results in an average speed of 4.85x and a total writing time of 11 minutes and 29 seconds. We were unable to measure the speed of the drive with 12x media; however the speed with 5x media met our expectations.

Summary:

The Optiarc AD-7240S has a good writing performance on CD-R media and an excellent performance on DVD±R media. Let’s head on to the next page where we will check reading performance….

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