NEC ND-6500A

Review Pages

NEC ND-6500A - Page 2

Transfer Rate Reading Tests

- CD Format

The NEC ND-6500A supports up to 24X reading speed (3600kb/sec). Below are the transfer rate graphs along with the comparative results for the LiteOn 832S and the LaCie d2 drive:

The NEC ND-6500A cannot compete with the other two drives when it comes to reading speed, but this was more or less expected since the other two drives support higher reading speeds than the ND-6500A. On the other hand, for a 24X reader, the NEC model performed rather well.

- DVD Format

All three drives can read DVD media discs at 8X. The ND-6500A was the slowest of all and with a significant speed difference. In fact, the ND-6500A is the slowest reader at 8X among all drives that have this as their maximum read speed. On the other hand, as stated in the first page of this review, speed should not be a deciding factor for a drive like this, since it is intended more for professional use where reliability should be the key issue.

The two layers of a PTP DVD-ROM disc are read sequentially with the drive starting reading from the inner part of the disc, which is the beginning of each layer, progressing towards the outer range for each layer. The ND-6500A's reading performance was again not the best with this disc type also.

The first layer of an OTP dual layer DVD-ROM is read exactly the same way as the first layer of the PTP disc we tested previously. The difference here is the reading strategy of the second layer on the disc. The beginning of the second layer is located in the outer part of the disc, so the drive starts reading from the outer tracks towards the inner part of the disc. Again, similar behaviour as before. The NEC burner was the slowest of all three burners.

The ND-6500A can read DVD ±R/±RW media up to 8X. It reported very good reading performace with +R and -R media, but with -RW and +RW media, it was again slower than the other two drives.