Reading performance

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

• DVD-ROM 16x
• CD-ROM 48x

Pressed discs:

For this test we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing the Roxio Media Creator 7.5 Install CD that is close to 75 minutes in length. Below you will see the produced result:

The Optiarc AD-7240S reached 46.61x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below. The Optiarc AD-7240S showed a good performance when reading our test CD-ROM media. However seek times seem to be a little high.

CD Recordable discs:

For this test we used a Verbatim Super AZO Crystal 52x CD-R that has been fully written with Nero CD-Speed.

The Optiarc AD-7240S reached 48.00x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below. The Optiarc AD-7240S was among the fastest drives in terms of speed with our CD-R test disc however the full seek times were higher than those of other drives.

CD Re-writable discs:

Again, we used a disc that was fully written with Nero CD-Speed; this time we used a Verbatim Ultra Speed (32X) CD-RW disc made by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation.

The Optiarc AD-7240S reached 40.00x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below. The Optiarc AD-7240S was quite fast reading CD-RW media, but seek times were a little slow again.

100 minute CD-R:

The Optiarc AD-7240S had no problems reading our 100 minute test CD-R, where it reached 48x.

Audio – Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the Optiarc AD-7240S, again we used Nero CD-Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used contains a little less data than the disc used for the other tests, to be exact it’s just above 75 minutes in length (75:06:70).

The Optiarc AD-7240S reached 48.41x when reading our test audio disc. Let’s compare it with some drives below. Due to the read speed being limited to about 40x, the Optiarc AD-7240S was in the group of slower drives when reading our test Audio CD.

Advanced audio – DAE quality test:

Before we move on to testing DVD read speeds, we will take a last audio test, and this time we used the “Advanced DAE Quality Test” feature in CD-Speed. For this test we used a CD-R media from Verbatim.

The extraction quality is excellent and the Optiarc gives a good average speed when extracting audio. However it cannot read data from the Leadin or Leadout.

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.

Pressed DVD Video:

For our DVD reading performance tests we are going to start with 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 OTP)

The Optiarc AD-7240S is not riplocked and read our single layer disc at 16x and our double layer test discs at 12x The Optiarc AD-7240S was about average when reading our test DVD-Video test discs.

DVD – DVD+R/RW:

For this test we used a Verbatim 16X DVD+R and a RICOH 8X DVD+RW with about 4.4GB of data. Below are the results:

DVD+R

DVD+RW

The Optiarc AD-7240S was good when reading our test DVD+R media and also when reading our test DVD+RW media.

DVD – DVD-R/RW:

For this test we used a Verbatim 16X DVD-R disc and a Verbatim 6X DVD-RW disc filled with about 4.4GB of data. Our test results are found below:

DVD-R

DVD-RW

There are hardly any differences in the speed, compared to reading the DVD+R/RW discs. Once again the Optiarc AD-7240S was good when reading our test DVD-R and DVD-RW media.

DVD±R DL discs:

DVD+R DL:

The Optiarc AD-7240S read our DVD+R DL test disc at 12x reading speed.

DVD-R DL:

The Optiarc AD-7240S read our DVD-R DL test disc at 12x reading speed.

DVD-RAM:

The Optiarc AD-7240S is supposed to read DVD-RAM discs at 12x. Due to the unavailability of 12x DVD-RAM media in Europe, we could only use 5x DVD-RAM media that was read back at 5x.

Summary:

The Optiarc AD-7240S gives a stable performance reading all kinds of media. While it might not be the fastest drive, it’s not really slow either. Now let’s head over to the next page where we will test CD-R/RW writing performance……

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