TDK CyClone 12/10/32 IDE CDR-W - Page 2

Data Tests

Test Method:
- SCSI Mechanic v3.0: This was used to compare the TDK's I/O performance against other various CDR-W drives (see charts). We used a pressed CD containing PlexTools v1.05 for all of the tests.
- CD Speed 99 v0.75 was also used to check the drive performance with pressed CDs. For that test we used PlexTools v1.05 original CD.

- SCSI Mechanic v3.0 results:

As you can see from the graph above, the TDK drive performed very well in all tests. It produced the best Random I/O (690kb/s) and Same Sector I/O (12924kb/s) test results. The PleXWriter PX-W1210A produced the best Sequential (3680kb/s) and second best Same Sector (12904kb/s) I/O test results. The differences are miniscule and both drives are almost equal in the tests.

- CD Speed 99 v0.75 results:

Using CD Speed 0.75, we can see that the TDK and Plextor drives have identical performance results. How can this be possible? Don't forget that both drives share the same components.

However in the seek time results, the TDK CyClone drive improves upon the Plextor drive. This could possibly be explained due to the TDK having a newer hardware revision (TLA#202) than the Plextor (TLA#000) drive. The Sanyo drive does however beat both drives since it has the lowest seek times.

Verdict of data (pressedCDs) tests:
The TDK CyClone 12/10/32 is a very good performer for a CDR-W drive. In our tests it has the same performance compared with to the PleXWriter PX-W1210A. That is something we expected as both drives share the same components. The TDK's average reading speed using PlexTools v1.05 was 25.00x; PX-W1210A had nearly the same reading speed of 24.98x. The TDK had better seek times than compared to the PX-W1210A; this as we said earlier could be due to the newer mechanism. In the SCSI Mechanic tests, the TDK CyClone took the first place from both of its competitors. The drive delivered an average sequential reading result of 3.688Mb/s, which is the same result that the PX-W1210A returned. Both drives handled cache management very well and outperformed the Sanyo drive. Overall, the TDK CyClone drive will not disappoint you, as it seems to deliver the best current reading performance that you can get from current CDR-W drives.