- Writing Performance

The ASUS DRW-1608P drive supports up to 16X±R (CAV), 8X+RW (ZCLV) with the upcoming firmware upgrade, 6X-RW (CLV) and up to 6X±R DL (CLV).

Now lets have a look at the writing strategies of the reviewed drive.

• DVD+R media @ 16X

The ASUS DRW-1604P uses the CAV recording strategy and produced the above graph. Though the graph may seem a little strange, it sure gave some good burns...

• DVD-R media @ 16X

The same strategy is used with DVD-R media. In this case we have fewer fluctuations in speed.

• DVD+R media @ 12X

At the 12X speed, the drive's writing strategy is Zone-CLV, with three zones (6X->8X->12X). The average writing speed is 9.81X

• DVD-R media @ 12X

Again, same strategy, same zones...What catches the eye here is that when using -R media, the graph is smoother. The average writing speed is 10.07X.

• DVD+R media @ 8X

The drive's writing strategy with +R media at 8X is Zone-CLV, with an average writing speed of 7.73X

• DVD-R media @ 8X

Same strategy, faster writing with -R media..average writing speed is 7.85X. As you can see, the differences are negligeble.

• DVD+RW media @ 4X

The writing strategy here is CLV, straight smooth graph, all the way to the completion of the writing. Average writing speed is 4.02X. Notice here, that with the DVD+RW media, the drive manages to write the media, at 4X max speed. As stated earlier in this review, 8X burning speed will become available through a firmware revision which will be out soon.

• DVD-RW media @ 6X

The writing strategy here confirms the 6X writing speed with DVD-RW media, using CLV and with an average speed of 6.03X.

- Burning Tests

We burned 4315MB of data on various DVD±R, DVD±RW media. We used the maximum allowed writing speed for each disc.

• DVD-R/-RW media

Best time was achieved with Maxell 16X DVD-R media, burned at 16X, in 5:54mins. Notice that most 8x media were burned at 12X and as the time indicates, this is not virtual speed, since for example, Maxell 8X media finished in 7:02 which is the average time a 12X disc would take to burn. Worst case senario: 3A media, which is most probably not present in the drives media list.

• DVD+R/+RW media

Writing to DVD+R media at 16X speeds and 8X as well, we can see in the above table that burning times are quite satisfactory, no major ups and downs here. All at normal levels.

- Comparison with other drives

Writing times for DVD±R media, the ASUS drive was slightly behind the Plextor PX-716A. With DVD±RW media, the drive was again a good performer but overall, the Plextor drive had the most consistent performance.

- DVD Overburning Tests

Using Nero CD-DVD Speed, we tested to see if the drive can overburn using DVD+R and DVD-R media. Unfortunately, the drive does not support overburning, giving the following error with all inserted media.

• DVD-R media

• DVD+R media

DVD+MRW Tests

The drive doesn't support the Mount Rainier feature