Testing speed of CD Rom drive

[Simon Pleasants]

Is there any way of testing the actual speeds of a cd rom drive? I
know that all are marketed with a figure of something like 52x and 56x
etc but I know from past experience that some makes and even models
are slightly quicker than others. There are also other differences,
such as when reading audio cds, different buffer sizes etc.

Once before I stumbled across something which tested the drives (hard
drives as well) and gave me a readout of the results but I have never
been able to find it since.

We run XP Pro, 2000 and 98SE. Can anyone help with this?

Simon

[johnf]

Yiu can try http://www.softnews.ro/public/cat/3/7/3-7-19.shtml
& download the free "Nero CD Speed 1.02g" benchmarker.

--
Johnf

> Is there any way of testing the actual speeds of a cd rom drive? I
> know that all are marketed with a figure of something like 52x and 56x
> etc but I know from past experience that some makes and even models
> are slightly quicker than others. There are also other differences,
> such as when reading audio cds, different buffer sizes etc.
>
> Once before I stumbled across something which tested the drives (hard
> drives as well) and gave me a readout of the results but I have never
> been able to find it since.
>
> We run XP Pro, 2000 and 98SE. Can anyone help with this?
>
> Simon

[Simon Pleasants]

On Thu, 03 Jul 2003 12:20:32 GMT, "johnf" >
wrote:

>Yiu can try http://www.softnews.ro/public/cat/3/7/3-7-19.shtml
>& download the free "Nero CD Speed 1.02g" benchmarker.

Very good utility, thanks. Just a few questions that it raises,
however:

1. One of the tests is for CPU usage. How much is this dependent
on the CPU of the machine on which it is run? For example I will be
testing two 48x24x48x drives of different makes, one attached to a
2.4Ghz Pentium and the other to a 750Mhz Athlon. If the one attached
to the 750Mhz processor shows a much greater CPU usage can I say that
this is because the drive is more processor intensive or just that it
is attached to a much less capable system.

(It should be noted that the 750Mhz machine has 128mb RAM and runs
Win98SE whereas the 2.4Ghz machine has 512Mb RAM and runs WinXP so
there are also other factors)

2. The test includes a burst test. Two drives of a similar
nature give what appear to be dramatically different results. One is
an LG DVD/CD 16x/48x and the other an LG 48x24x48x and they are
installed on the same machine. Other than that their performance is
relatively similar (the CDRW is probably slightly better). Would a
higher or lower number be better for the burst figure.

Any help appreciated.