-- Impressions and Conclusions
-- Page: 1 2
The SW-216 incorporates not just the Just Link and Just Speed
technology, they also include the A.R.S
(Acoustic Noise Reduction System) and A.B.S. (Automatic Ball
Balancing System). The A.R.S helps in reducing drive noise by
using a 'muffler' effect to channel air while spinning at high
speeds. The A.B.S is used to lower vibration noise from a
un-balanced CD media. With both these implemented, the drive
is supposed to be quieter than anything you've heard. From our
initial testing, noise was not really an issue. Our 60mm fan
on the heatsink was louder than anything else. Read on
more of Samsungs Optical Drive Technology on their website.
We'll check some of the
speeds on the drive itself and see how this drive does. Our
test rig is the same, IWill KK266 with the trusty 800mhz TBird.
It runs with Win98SE and the drive itself is set to DMA for maximum
speed. We'll check a few things using the Nero CDSpeed
program, which comes with Nero 5.5 Tool Kit.
I went ahead and ripped a
678 meg image from a Half Life cd. Burned it with both a
Plextor (thanks brutal!) and the Samsung. Since a majority of
people believe Plextor is probably the best in the optical drive
market, this should give you a good sense of where the SW-216
stands. Drives are set to DMA (16.6MB/s) for both
drives. Here are some burn speeds and DAE quality test scores
from our tests. We used a full image of Half Life as our test
image. Here are some marks burning the full cd:
|
Plextor
16X10X32 |
Samsung
16X10X32 |
| CDR |
2m 32s |
2m 40s |
| CDRW |
3m 08s |
3m 30s |
Burn Speed
|
Plextor
16X10X32 |
Samsung
16X10X32 |
| Speed |
17.01x |
17.45x |
| DAE Quality |
10 |
10 |
| Random Seek
Time |
132ms |
103ms |
Nero CD Speed 2000
The Samsung is
not to bad in overall performance. Through the testing process of the Samsung,
we tried to overload the system to create a buffer underrun. It
happened twice actually while we were messing with the system while it
was burning. The Just Link technology kicked in and prevented us
from burning a coaster.
With the added
features of Just Link and Just Speed, the Samsung is a best buy in our
books. Of course, not to beat a dead horse to death, the price
tag of under 100 dollars is great to boot.
Thanks to
Samsung for sending us this test unit, give this unit a try, you'll
probably be surprised by the performance.
Pros:
- Not too loud
- Fast performance
- Nice software package
- Very Affordable!
- Just Link and Just Speed Technology
Cons:
- CDRW performance a bit behind Plextor, but who burns CDRWs
constantly anyway? : )
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