Asus DRW-0804P - Page 14

Conclusion

The latest Asus dual dvd writer is labeled and identified as the DRW-804P. The retail package was complete except for the inclusion of blank media. The drive supports both DVD+R and DVD-R writable format at the maximum current available speed of 8X, while for the rewritable format, the writing speed is 4X, and finally, the Asus drive is a CD-R writer with maximum supported writing speed of 24X.

Through the CD-R reading tests, the drive proved fast with quite acceptable reported speeds but had increased seek times. In all the reading tests, the Asus drive managed to surpass the manufacturer's specification for maximum reading speed while on the error correction tests, the overall performance could be considered as good since the drive finished all the tests without problems.

In the DVD reading tests, the drive reported results that met and slightly surpassed the manufacturer's specifications. The seek times, although high, just like in the CD reading tests, a factor that could be considered as a negative for the drive. On the other hand, the performance of the drive during the DVD error correction tests was quite acceptable as the Asus drive managed to finish all error correction tests without reading problems, meaning that the drive can be safely used a a reader for defective and old DVD discs.

A weak feature of the Asus writer was its inability to make working backups of protected games. The image making process of all tested media was not fast but not the slowest we have experienced. The resulting games backups were fully playable up to version 2.8v of Safedisc on the Asus drive itself, but the same media could not play on other drives.

In the DAE tests, the Asus drive proved fast with a high average ripping speed of about 27X and it was awarded with a good quality score by NeroCDSpeed advanced DAE quality check. The Asus drive could not handle the KEY2Audio protected audio disc but had no problems with the CDS200 protected disc.

For CD-R writing, the drive uses P-CAV strategy and supports 24X maximum writing speed. Since the maximum supported speed is lower than the competition, we didn't experience compatibility problems at the maximum writing speed with all tested media. The drive wrote almost all media with similar times while the quality measurement of the burned discs was quite acceptable, without C2 errors and low C1C2 errors.

In the DVD writing tasks, the Asus drive showed that media compatibility is restricted. NeroBurningRom was used for the writing tasks and most of the tested media reported 4X maximum writing speed despite some being certified for 8X maximum writing. Despite this, the drive managed to write a few media at 8X. Their quality measurements were quite acceptable and all burned media was fully readable.

The drive is already available on the market at prices between $95~120.