DVD-ROM Drives Roundup

CD Winbench99

(Hitachi GD-7500 failed in this test)

Nero CD Speed

Nero DVD Speed

AOpen DVD-1240/AMH

This drive is a good budget solution. It excellently plays DVD-Video discs, finely reads standard CD-ROM discs. On its front panel there are buttons for playing Audio CDs. Unfortunately, the drive operates slowly with CD-R/RW discs, and implements capture of audio tracks with errors. Moreover, the AOpen drive makes quite a lot of noise even at a low speed of operation with CDs. Vibration is not eliminated completely. At last, the drive can get the RPC-1 support by changing its firmware version.

ASUS DVD-E612

This one is a good choice. It excellently reads both CDs and DVDs. Audio tracks are captured rather finely. On its front panel it has buttons for playing Audio CDs which can also be used for changing speed of operation with CDs. Unfortunately, the drive failed to finish reading data from the 780 MBytes CD-R. Thanks to a good speed reduction system in operation with CDs the drive doesn't produce much noise. The ASUS doesn't vibrate either. The device can be turned into the RPC-1 with the help of the jumper.

BTC BDV-212B

This is an average drive. It excellently copes with DVD-Video, but fails in operation with CDs, especially of poor quality. On the front panel it has buttons for Audio CD playback.

The drive is noisy, even at a low speed, but a noise level can be reduced with the help of external programs.

It also vibrates much when works with badly balanced CDs. However, the drive reads them excellently. The device can be turned into the RPC-1 by changing its firmware version.

MSI MS-8212

This drive reads exceptionally well both CDs and DVDs. It copes with capture of audio tracks. Noise can be reduced to an acceptable level with the help of external programs. The vibration protection system works quite well. The drive, however, can be installed only in a horizontal position. From the very beginning this model has the RPC-1 support.

Hitachi GD-7500

On the one hand, the drive excellently copes with operations of audio track capture and can work with DVD-RAMs. On the other hand, it awfully reads low-quality discs. Its noise characteristics are not superb. It trembles noticeably even when working with usual discs. The drive can get the RPC-1 support by changing the firmware version or with a special utility.