Transfer Rate Reading Tests

The RICOH MP5316DA supports up to 48X reading speed. Below are the transfer rate graphs along with the comparative results for the Pioneer DVR-108, BenQ DW 1620A and the NEC ND-3500A drive:

The RICOH MP5316DA along with the NEC ND-3500A proved to be the fastest with Pressed CDs and CD-R media. The BenQ DW1620A was the fastest drive with Ultra-Speed CD-RW media.

Comparing the RICOH MP5316DA and the NEC ND-3500A performances, there are bound to be many similarities, so we will comment mostly on any dissimilarities found between them in the course of the review.

Very small differences were reported with pressed single layer DVD-ROM media. All drives performed similarly.

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 MP5316DA's reading performance was not good with this type of disc. We observed the slowest speed compared with the other drives. The Pioneer drive was the fastest.

The RICOH MP5316DA can read DVD±R media up to 16X and DVD±RW up to 8X.

The RICOH MP5316DA reported an average ripping speed of 4912 kb/sec with DVD-Video discs (slightly slower than the NEC ND-3500A that reported 5825 kb/sec), and proved to be slower than all the other drives when it comes to DVD Video ripping. The BenQ drive was the fastest DVD Video ripper.

-Appendix

Nero CD-DVD Speed Graphs

• CD Pressed / CD-R / US-RW
• DVD Pressed SL / DVD Pressed DL / DVD-R / DVD-RW / DVD+R / DVD+RW