X-bit labs

MSI DR16-B2 DVD±RW Dual Layer Burner: Repeated Success or New Heights?

Category: Storage

by Vasily Melnik

[ 09/27/2005 | 09:43 PM ]

We would like to introduce to you a new dual layer DVD burner from MSI, which boasts improved speed formula and is positioned as a direct competitor to the BenQ’s latest drive. It is quiet, inexpensive and provides excellent burn quality with most disc formats. Read more in our detailed review now!

Table of contents:

• Closer Look
  
• Technical Specifications
  
• Performance in CD WinBench 99
  
• Performance during CD-R Burning
  
• 40x Speed
  
• 24x Speed
  
• 16x Speed
  
• CD-R Performance Summary
  
• Performance during Work with CD-RW Media
  
• 24x Speed
  
• 32x Speed
  
• Performance during Damaged CD-ROM Disc Reading
  
• Performance during DVD Media Reading
  
• DVD Burn Quality
  
• Single-Write (Non-Rewritable) DVD Media
  
• Rewritable DVD Media
  
• Audio Capturing
  
• Sheep Test
  
• Conclusion
  

The conditions of the modern high-tech market have made it unprofitable for the manufacturers to offer products of one kind only. Once known as a leading maker of mainboards, MSI followed the market trends and took up graphics card and then optical disc drive manufacture, too. MSI’s drives, from obsolete combo-models to advanced multi-format DVD-recorders, were always products of a highest quality.

The company’s previous model, DR-16B, also was received by the users warmly due to its exceptional speed characteristics and high burn quality (this fact is not to be wondered at because the model was based on BenQ’s DW1620 model which was praised by many independent sources and users as one of the best optical drives of its time). But even the most successful products require maybe not fundamental, but constant improvements for the users not to turn to the competitors’ product lines which are updated more regularly. These marketing considerations were the background behind the arrival of the MSI DR16-B2 drive that I am going to test today.

The DR16-B2 differs from the previous model in the improved speed formula alone. This way of making new products has already become a standard policy of many optical drive manufacturers, by the way. You just increase the write/rewrite speeds and correct some noticed errors in the tabled burn strategies, and a new device is ready to go! But after the release it’s now my turn as of a hardware tester.

I’m going to see if the improvements are as substantial as to justify an upgrade. Or maybe the previous model can do equally well? I would also like to inform you that MSI has already released the next model (with the B3 index), but we haven’t yet got a sample for our tests. The B2 and B3 models are positioned as opponents to BenQ’s new product, the DW1640 model. We are going to perform a comparative test session with these new drives to see if MSI is a really worthy opponent to BenQ in the optical drive market. But now let’s get closer to the DR16-B2.