Yamaha CRW2100ix FireWire CDR-W- Page 6

CDR Tests

The Yamaha CRW2100ix supports 16x writing (even partial). The specifications state: Writing: 1X, 2X, 4X, 8X, 12X (CLV), 16X (12X-16X Partial CAV). As you understand, partial CAV is not as fast as full 16x CLV would be (theoretically). According to Yamaha the difference in time would have been less than 15sec which is confirmed by comparing the YAMAHA with the 16x CLV drive from Sanyo (CRD-BP4) which supports full 16x CLV writing... (actually both drives gave us the same times when burned 74min cds!).

As you already know if you read CDRINFO tests, the newest CD Speed 99 v0.8 has build-in write tests for testing the writer's recording speed! If you insert a blank CD and press the start button you will see that the drive will start recording in start from 12.36x and at the 14mins climbs up to 16x and continues till the end. According to CD Speed the average writing speed of the Yamaha CRW2100xi is 15.36x:

- Procedure:
We tested the Yamaha CRW2100xi with the software that supports it and with several media:

- Software used: Nero v5.1.1.8 /  CloneCD v3.0.0.7 / Ez CD Creator 4.0d-s25
- Media: Princo 74 & 80min / Ricoh Platinum 74 & 80min / Mitsui Gold & SG / TDK 74 & 80 min / Verbatim 74min / Verbatim HS RW / YAMAHA HS RW media

- CD-R Tests:
The Yamaha CRW2100xi comes with Ez CD Creator v4.0d-s25. We got the latest update to 4.0e and we made some burns with it. The Ez CD Creator worked ok at most cases but it becomes very sensitive when the multitasking time comes. If you push the system it won't be able to continue writing. On the other hand Nero 5.1.1.8 manages to be very solid and you must push your system pretty hard to make a buffer underrun. Remember that the drive doesn't support any kind of anti-coaster technology as the competition does (BURN-Proof or JustLink).

For most of our tests we used Nero v5.1.1.8. We made a Data CD job with data slight higher than 74mins (74:03:65). We burned the same job with all 4 CDR-W drives:

The CRW2100xi gave us 1 sec less than the other two models' burning times (404sec). The Average CPU usage is the smallest (5%) of all.

- 80min CDs:
As in the previous benchmark we created a DataCD with Nero 5.1.1.8 and used the same media for all burns:

As we saw before with the 74min CDs, all 3 drives had minimal timing differences between them. The Yamaha CRW2100ix & CRW2100E finished the task in 438 secs, 1 less than the SCSI model.

- 16x writing with 80min CDs:

No significant difference here either. With the 80 min cds there is a gap of 1secs between FireWire/SCSI/IDE models with the FireWire to come first. The above times are a bit higher than the one Yamaha gives, since they include the lead-in and lead-out writing times.

- Overburning Tests:
The CRW2100xi can burn up to 92:28 min CDs without any problems. We used 90min CDs (from Medea International) and by using Nero we burned them up to 92:28 mins without any problem at 16x (6:44mins). The drive refuses to write more than 92:29 mins which means that you cannot use the drive for writing full 99min (or higher) CDs.

- AudioCD Tests:
We created several Audio CDs (including CD-Text). All of the CDs we created, were tested with the Plextor PX-40TS and Plextor's CD-Text compatible CD player. From what we saw, everything worked just fine.

- CloneCD Tests:
Yamaha supports DAO-RAW since v1.0h firmware revision. In order to use the Yamaha 2100E/S/ix you need to get the v2.8.4.1 version (or later) of CloneCD which fully supports the drive. Notice that the DAO-RAW works perfectly and will help you backup your favorite protected CDs with most current CD protection expect SD2 protected CDs...You still need a Philips based recorder to back it up.

- Buffer Underrun tests:
It's clear so far that the drive doesn't support any kind of anti-coaster technology. According to Yamaha the combination of 8mb buffer and LSI chipsets will prevent any buffer underrun. Could this be true? Yes and no.

The OEM/retail package of CRW2100x series arrives with Ez CD Creator v4.0d-s25, which supports 16x-writing speed. It worked ok for most tests except the ones for buffer underruns. It's weakness it's obvious when you will start to multitask several applications. On the other hand Nero seems very stable, at least when burning at 16x from HD, even when you start "pressing" your PC.

Even if the FireWire protocol helps the situation A LOT, the lack of an anticoaster technology will provide you with a serious number of coasters if you try to push your luck hard. When the going gets tough, both NERO and EZ CD CREATOR seem very unstable when it comes the time for CD-to-CD copy; especially for AudioCD duplicate. Again Nero works slightly better but a coaster is on the way if HEAVY multitasking starts. We used 2 drives : Plextor PX-40TS on the SCSI adapter (DAWI) for several on the fly copies with Nero,(no problem until we pushed TOO hard) and the Hitachi GD7500 DVD (ATAPI) as a source in the second case. In the later case, when we opened 2-3 applications, the machine gave us buffer underruns. That means that high-speed writing really needs anti-coaster technologies - such as existing BURN-Proof or JustLink (or a fast SCSI drive like Plextor PX-40TS or better)

Verdict of CDR Results:
The Yamaha CRW2100xi performed very well in most of our CDR Tests. The drive supports 16x-writing speed, which even though is not full 16x (15.67x average), works very good. The 8mb buffer and the proper software will generally protect you from buffer underruns, but don't expect miracles. With normal use (Internet Surfing, Word, Excel) the drive will work at 16x without any problems. Problems will appear when you start opening too many memory aggressive applications (EVEN if you have a SCSI reader). If you open applications that use the HD very much you will probably get a coaster too. The drive supports DAO-RAW, and users will find it useful. Last but not least the drive supports overburning and goes up to 92:28 mins.