Nu Tech DDW-081: More DVD+R madness

Specifications

Below is a quick overview of specifications on the drive. The Nu Tech website has the specifications listed as well:

Nu Tech DDW-081
Interface	IDE
CD Write Speed	40X, 32X, 24X (CAV) 16X, 12X, 8X, 4X (CLV)
CD Rewrite Speed	10X, 8X, 4X (CLV)
CD Read Speed	40X Max (CAV)
DVD+R Write Speed	8X, 4X, 2X (CLV)
DVD+RW Rewrite Speed	4X, 2.4X (CLV)
DVD Read Speed	12X Max (CAV)
Supported Modes	DAO / DAO-RAW 16 & 96 TAO SAO / SAO 16 & 96 Packet Write MultiSession
Supported Formats	DVD+R (DAO, incremental, seq) DVD+RW (random) CD-R, CD-RW, CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-ROM XA, Mixed Mode, CD Extra Photo CD, CD Text, Bootable CD, UDF
Access Time	CD: 120ms DVD: 120ms
Buffer	2MB

Specifications on the DDW-081 are better than average, considering it only does one format. The 40X CDR speeds were not standard out of the box, so we had to run a utility to upgrade our CD burn speeds from 32X. Fortunately, all new burners should have this already enabled. Furthermore, we felt the CDRW speed is slightly weak, at only 10X. Our DDW-081 supports 8X DVD+R, but as we will see, it cannot write 8X on 4X media like the Plextor 708A. More confusion was thrown into the fray when we noticed that Nu Tech's specifications on their website were not similar over the entire product description. We contacted them to update their webpage, and confirmed with them that the above specifications are in fact the “official” specs.

However, we do like the lower access times on the drive. Many of the drives that we have seen have access times in excess of 180ms, and as we will see in the benchmark, the DDW-081's access times are actually a little bit better, in the 100-110ms range.

Underrun technology is backed by Seamless Link, which is commonly associated with BenQ for some reason. Quite naturally though, it's actually Philips' technology; a component of the Nexperia chipset that QSI/Nu Tech uses in this burner.

At the original time of publication, we had a beta firmware for our drive that still recognized the drive manufacturer as QSI. Two updates later and a separate firmware tool for 40X CDR speed, we were finally up to date with the Nu Tech BX03 firmware. We were a bit surprised that Nu Tech released two firmware updates within a week of each other, especially since the drive itself is only a month old.

Here we can see a few more specifications about the drive. Our first InfoTool capture is using the original firmware shipped to us from Nu Tech. As you can see, the drive is still labeled as QSI and only uses 32X write capabilities.