The Benchmarks
Test Bed -
AMD Athlon XP 1900+
Soyo DRAGON Ultra KT333CE
256mb Kingston DDR333
Asus GeForce 3 Deluxe
IBM 60 GB 60GXP "Deathstar" HDD
The software used for the first line of benchmarks, the read tests, was Nero CD Speed. It measures overall read strategy, average read speed, rpms, seek times, and cpu use. This is an effective tool for evaluating how the drive performs as a normal use optical drive. Three read tests on each drive are done: reading a clean pressed disc, reading a clean recorded disc, and reading a scratched pressed disc. The two CDs used are, respectively, "No Limit - Top Dogg" by Snoop Dogg, and "2001" by Dr. Dre.
Read Test 1 - clean, pressed CD
Plextor PX-W4012A
Teac CD-W540E
Lite-On LTR-40125W
The Lite-On comes in first with reading. It starts at a higher speed and ends at a higher speed than both other burners, but keep in mind that the Plextor is only rated to read at 40x. The Teac does not trail noticeably behind the Lite-On, but beats both drives when it comes to seek times. Low seek times mean an overall better responsiveness for general use. Finally, the Plextor holds it's own in cpu use coming in with a definitive first. The Teac trails slightly, and the Lite-On comes in third.