Toshiba SD-R5472

The SD-R5472 model from Toshiba has a standard plain design of the front panel, too. The faceplate on our sample is black, but white-colored models are also available. An Eject button and a LED indicator are the only things you find on the front panel. On the rear panel of the drive there are interface and power connectors, a jumper with pins to set the device’s status on an IDE channel, and analog and digital audio outputs. The drive’s specification follows below:

• CD read speed: 48x max
• DVD read speed: 16x
• CD-R write speed: 48x max
• CD-RW write speed: 32x max
• DVD write speeds:
  • 16x (DVD+R and DVD-R)
  • 4x (DVD-R DL)
  • 6x (DVD+R DL)
  • 8x (DVD+RW and DVD-RW)
• Supported DVD and CD formats: CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, Photo CD, CD-ROM XA Multi-Session, Audio CD, CD Text, CD-Extra, CD-Plus, CD-I, VideoCD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-Video, DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+R DL (Version 1.0), DVD-RW
• Buffer: 2 megabytes
• Access time: 110 milliseconds (CD), 130 milliseconds (DVD)
• Interface: IDE/ATAPI
• Dimensions: 148 x 42.3 x 184mm
• Weight: 0.77kg

The average retail price of this model is $47.

Testbed and Methods

We used the following programs and utilities to explore the operational parameters of the drives:

• Nero CD-DVD Speed 4.04
• Nero Info Tool 3.01
• Nero Burning ROM version 6.6.0.16
• Nero CD DAE 0.4B
• Andre Wiethoff Exact Audio Copy (EAC) version 0.95 prebeta 5
• Nic Wilson DVDINFOPro 4.22
• Ziff Davis Media CD WinBench 99 version 1.1.1.

The testbed was configured like follows:

• Intel Bonanza D875PBZ mainboard
• Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz CPU
• IBM DTLA-307015 15GB hard disk drive
• GeForce2 MX400 64MB graphics card
• 512MB DDR SDRAM
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 1 and DirectX 9.0b.

I tested the drives in the same state as I had received them (or as you would have them right after the purchase).