Best CD/DVD burner? SATA LG Super Multi DVD is slow.

[HartlessOne2000]

I'm a total noob and I just built a new system. Asus x58 Sabertooth with an i7 950 (wish I would have got the i7 2600...) - GeForce GTX460 anyway, after running the PerformanceTest 7.0, I found out my CD/DVD drive: LG model: GH22NS50 22X Internal SATA Super Multi DVD Drive OEM performed very poorly. I'm not sure if I have a bad drive or if this model is just cheap...Is there any CD/DVD ratings/reviews availalbe? Or can anyone tell me a model that they own that performs really well.

Thanks!

[David (PassMark)]

The speed of an optical drive depends on a lot on the media. They do very badly on discs with lots of small files that involve a lot of seeking on the disk.

So you might want to try the test with a collection of different media before deciding your drive is bad.

[wonderwrench]

A pressed Windows Vista or 7 DVD seems to give good results for me.
Depending on the drive tested I get CD marks between 900 and 1100.

Bill

[HartlessOne2000]

wonderwrench,
Thanks for you comments. I've ran the test on a "Shrink wrapped" new copy Windows 7 DVD (not sure if that is the same as "Pressed"?). My "CD Mark" is 131.9 and my "CD-Read" is 1.08...I used the "Compare results" and selected a few similar desktops and my scores were really low compared to them (most over 500). I would be very happy with your scores of between 900 and 1100. What brand is your drive?

passmark,
I ran the test on a Quicken 2010 DVD and the scores went up to a "CD Mark" of 183 and a "CD-Read" of 1.5. So there is some difference with different different disks...but I think this drive is "slow"...Can an optical drive be "cleaned" or "tuned"? Is there a brand you recommend? on any other recommendations?

Thanks - HartlessOne2000

[David (PassMark)]

Another option is to use "CDMaker" software

It generates a number of large files that can be then burnt to CD, DVD or BD.

If it is still slow then there isn't a great deal that can be adjusted or tuned. The only significant setting you can play with is the IDE/ATA access mode.

From device manager you can check to ensure you are not using PIO mode and are using the fast DMA (e.g. Ultra DMA mode 5)


And maybe also check to see if there is a firmware update available.