X-bit labs

LG GSA-4163B DVD±RW Dual Layer Burner Review: New Member in a Successful Family (page 4)

Category: Storage

by Vasily Melnik

[ 04/05/2005 | 10:09 PM ]

Performance in CD WinBench 99

The synthetic CD WinBench 99 benchmark comes first.

The new model doesn’t differ from its predecessor in the read speed on inner as well as on outer tracks because they both have the same speed formula for processing CD media. But the access time of the GSA-4163 is 10 milliseconds better, which is an indication of some changes in the drive’s mechanics since the previous model. On the other hand, the new device puts a bigger load on the CPU. The GSA-4163 has a higher overall score anyway because it is a little faster in random data access and has the same linear read speed.

Performance during CD-R Discs Burning

Verbatim Datalife 52x blanks were used for this test.

Both drives take almost the same time to burn a blank at all the tested speeds. The new model is 2-3 seconds slower than the predecessor everywhere but I can’t call this a wide gap. The results are in accordance with the burn speed employed, although I have seen drives perform faster in this test. For example, the Samsung TS-H552B took about 20 seconds less to burn a CD-R blank at 40x speed.

40x Speed

Now let’s see how the new LG reads the disc it has burned at the maximum (40x) speed.

 
Reading the CD-R disc burned at 40x speed:
LG GSA-4163 (left) and LG GSA-4160B (right)

The drives behave similarly in this test: there are no evident slowdowns, but the graph of the GSA-4163 shows that the spindle rotation speed and the data-transfer rate are kind of trembling a little. This trembling is so negligible, however, that you can regard it as a curious feature of the devices rather than the sign of a defect of some sort.

The average read speed of the drives is, like in CD WinBench 99, identical, but the random access time differs. This time the older model is 8 milliseconds faster – that’s a small difference, but it’s a difference all the same. The burst rate of the new model is lower, too. This parameter doesn’t practically affect the real speed of the device, though, while the disc recognition time is a much more important factor. And the GSA-4163 is again inferior to the older model, taking 2 seconds more to recognize a disc. So, the difference between the two devices is rather small, but the GSA-4160 is ahead in random access and in full disc recognition time subtests.