CDR Tests

Both ASUS and WAITEC drives use Z-CLV for achieving 24x-writing speed. Below is a graph that represents the main differences of ASUS's implementation of Z-CLV writing technology compared to the fastest 24x Z-CLV recorder from Plextor. The graphs show the 24x writing speed for ASUS CRW2410A among with the second 24x writing speed strategy that applies for lower quality media:

ASUS CRW2410S starts writing at 16x (0 mins), shifts to 20x at 6mins, shifts again up to 24x at 16mins and writes at 24x till the end of the disc. The ASUS drive has the same exact shift points with the PleXWriter PX-W2410A only when Ricoh's 74/80min 24x certified CDs are used.

When other media ,such as Taiyo Yuden/Mitsubishi Chemicals are used, a second writing strategy is applied. Now the drive writes at 16x till 15mins, shifts up to 20x at 18mins and up to 24x at 30mins. In that case the average writing speed, according to the Nero CD Speed is only 21.55X. Even ASUS tweak will be appreciated by the average user, it needs improvement since the drive doesn't recognize other media except from Ricoh 24x, which can be written at 24x speed.

In the following table we can see the average writing speed of the TEAC CD-W524E, PleXWriter PX-W2410A and ASUS CRW2410S:

The ASUS CRW2410S has the exact same rotation speeds as the PleXWriter PX-W2410A at the normal 24x writing mode. As the second 24x writing strategy is followed. the drive barely reaches 7000rpm during the entire CD.

- Procedure

We tested the ASUS/WAITEC drives with Nero v5.5.5.6, Ahead InCD v3.12b, CloneCD v3.1.1.0 and, Padus DJ v3.50.799 software. We used various of media for performing our tests: Mitsubishi Chemicals 74/80min 24x certified, Mitsui 74min 24x certified, Taiyo Yuden 74/80min 24x certified, Ricoh 74min 24x certified and Ricoh's 74min HS-RW. Both drives include FlexSS-BP system for reducing writing speed when low quality media are used.

- 74min CD-R Tests

We created a "DataCD" job with data slightly more than 74mins (74:03:65). We burned the same job with all 4 CDR-W drives:

Both ASUS/WAITEC drives need the exact same time (318secs) to end the task, which are 7 sacs higher from Teac's CD-W524E performance. The PleXWriter PX-W2410A needs 313secs and keeps close to the top.

At the maximum writing speed, the ASUS CRW2410S seems to perform better than the WAITEC MEGALUS. The newer firmware revision can explain these performance issues. The lower recording time is achieved with Ricoh's 74min 24x certified media. When other media are used, the ASUS drive is slower than the TEAC CD-W524E by 4-5secs.

- 80min CD-R Tests

In our normal burning tests the 80min CD contains slightly more than 80min data (80:01:47):

Again both ASUS/WAITEC drives are slower than TEAC CD-W524E.

The ASUS CRW2410S is not performing very well with 80mins. The drive seems 13secs slower than TEAC CD-W524E! The WAITEC MEGALUS doesn't seem to be faster than ASUS and needs 261secs to end the task.

- Overburning Tests

After using Nero CD Speed we saw that both drives can overburn up to 93:44 mins.

- CD-Text Results

We created several AudioCDs with CD-Text enabled. Both drives can read/write CD-Text AudioCDs without any problems.

- CloneCD Writing Tests

The CloneCD v3.1.1.0 reports that both drives supports the DAO-RAW feature. We performed our usual tests and we confirmed that the drive supports fully the DAO-RAW writing mode (Safedisc 1.0, LaserLock 1/2 and SecuROM 2). Note that the ASUS CRW2410S ,with 6.36 firmware, supports up to 24x writing speed at DAO-RAW mode, while the WAITEC MEGALUS only 16x.

- SD2 Support
For the SD2 test we used the "No One Lives For Ever", "Max Payne" and "Emperor Battle of Dune" game titles. We used both drives as readers/writers. The produced backups didn't work using the same or any drive we tested with. Therefore, both ASUS CRW2410S/WAITEC MEGALUS cannot produce SD2 working backups.

- 8cm mini CDs

Both ASUS and WAITEC drives, support reading/writing of 8cm CDs.

- Buffer Underrun tests

Both drives support the "BURN-Proof" anti-coaster technology. The drives worked perfectly under all heavy duty cycle attacks attempted by us, and will continue writing even you press ctrl+alt+del.