Testing the drive

We recently upgraded our hardware test bed to allow for a more stable and powerful workhorse.
Albatron 865PE Pro II
Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz 800FSB
4 x 512 DDR OCZ PC3200 EL
Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache
Windows XP SP1
Using DVD/CD Speed 2.01, we had run a battery of read, write and rewrite tests on the drive.

Our drives CD and read speeds were very similar to the Plextor 8X 708A. We noticed that CD seek times were a little higher than average, but on the other hand, DVD speeds were significantly lower. The 110ms seek time for DVD+R/W's is almost 1/3 of the Plextor 708A seeks. Our tests find the Nu Tech DDW-081 about 15% - 20% faster seeking than the Pioneer A06.


Label Rating Average Transfer Seek Random Seek 1/3 Seek Full Media Length
Ritek 97m31s01f (Cyanine AZO) 52X CDR 31.48X 101ms 110ms 160ms 69.59.51 CAV
Mitsubishi 97m23s24f 24X CDRW 20.41X 103ms 113ms 170ms 74.41.01 CAV
YUDEN000T01 4X DVD+R 6.17X 103ms 120ms 172ms 4.38GB CLV
MCC 002 8X DVD+R 6.22X 96ms 116ms 170ms 4.38GB CAV
Ricoh RICOHJPN 2.4X DVD+RW 6.22X 109ms 120ms 182ms 4.38GB CLV

Unfortunately, near the end of a long burn or read, the drive began to rattle slightly. Although it does not seem critical, at least not yet, there is some concern that this rattle could damage the media or the drive. The eject time of the unit is a little slow — around 12.13 seconds.

Nexperia PNX7850: Powering the Nu Tech DDW-081 Burning
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  • edbiegler - Thursday, April 1, 2004 - link

    Just bought one tonight. $99 at Computer Sonics in Seattle (Southcenter) The sales guy said the new firmware WILL support -R and +R at 8X. I haven't been home to try yet, but why would he fib. I'm running an AMD Athalon 650 w/ Win XP. Will keep you posted on success (or failure)

    Ed
  • edbiegler - Thursday, April 1, 2004 - link

  • KristopherKubicki - Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - link

    Thanks for the info Murse.

    Here is some updated information concerning Ricoh Disks.


    Media Information
    Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
    Media code/Manufacturer ID RICOHJPNR01
    Format Capacity Not Formatted
    Free Blocks 405405696
    Free Capacity 4.38GB(4.70GB)
    Book Type DVD+R
    Media Type DVD+R
    Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
    Available Write Descriptor CLV 8.0x 11080KBps
    Available Write Descriptor CLV 6.0x 8310KBps
    Available Write Descriptor CLV 4.0x 5540KBps
    Available Write Descriptor CLV 2.4x 3324KBps
    Linear Density Blank Disc
    Track Density Unknown
    Number of Layers 1

    This was a Ricoh Labeled 4X that I pulled out of Best Buy yesterday. I have put the benchmark on the website.

    Kristopher
  • Murse - Monday, October 27, 2003 - link

    Nu Tech bitsetting utility available. No word yet on if it works. It was supplied by QSI in Taiwan.

    http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=13245
  • Anonymous User - Friday, October 24, 2003 - link

    The only place I could find the MCC 002 media was at Amazon.com. Was $58.99 for a 20 pack. Almost twice the price as the Memorex!

    Could someone post links to 4X media that is a good and is resonably priced?
  • Anonymous User - Friday, October 24, 2003 - link

    livewarehouse has this drive for $139 including 3 day shipping >>


    http://store.yahoo.com/livewarehouse/dvnt33460.htm...
  • Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link

    For everyone above, I copied the wrong DiskInfo for the MMC disk. It should be:

    Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
    Media code/Manufacturer ID MCC 002
    Format Capacity 4.38GB(4.70GB)
    Book Type DVD+R
    Media Type DVD+R
    Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
    Available Write Descriptor CLV 8.0x 11080KBps
    Available Write Descriptor CLV 4.0x 5540KBps
    Available Write Descriptor CLV 2.4x 3324KBps
    Data area starting sector 30000h
    Data area end sector 23053Fh
    Linear Density 0.267um/bit
    Track Density 0.74um/track
    Number of Layers 1


    Cheers,

    Kristopher
  • Murse - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link

    Nevermind...just copy and paste the link from #15 and it will take you to the right price. Their site is kind of screwy, after adding it to my cart, I had to hit "update" to get it to stay in there.
  • Murse - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link

    I ordered one from unitedmicro and it's waiting for me at home now. To get the $139 ($132 + 7 ship) you have to go through pricewatch. Their site lists it as $145 + ship. Navigate to DVD-ROM from the pricewatch home page, then search for "DDW 081" and the listing for unitedmicro should come up. Then navigate to unitedmicro through pricewatch. WARNING: Their resellerrating is very bad, but they are $20 cheaper than everywhere else, so I took a chance. They shipped it pretty quickly (although not the same day as ordered), but I haven't inspected the package yet. Good luck.
  • Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link

    There is some contradictory information on the Nu Tech website as to the CD-RW speed of the DDW-081. The specs for the DDW-081(http://www.nuniverse.com/1_english/3_products/01_i... state the CD-RW speed is 10X. However, Nu Tech's news release on the DDW-081 ( http://www.nuniverse.com/1_english/2_new/01_01_new... states "The DDW-081 supports 8X DVD+Write/4X DVD+ReWrite 16X DVD-ROM/40X CD-Write/24X CD-ReWrite/48X CD-ROM." Furthermore, the Philips refernence literature mentioned above (http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/acrobat/lite... states the CD-RW speed is also 24x. If the drive at present only supports CD-RW at 10x, I'm wondering if a future firmware update will upgrade it to 24x?

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