The Artec Dual DVD±R/RW Drive
A Quality DVD±R/RW for Less

By,Jeff Bouton
March 17, 2004

When it comes to CD and DVD writers, the market is filled with quality models from a wide array of manufacturers.  This wasn't always the case, however.  Just a few years back, when it was time to purchase a recordable drive, there were only a few top models, with other manufacturers trying to break into the market with cheaper, sometimes less reliable products.  Today, all of that has changed. 

While the CD/DVD writer market is still driven by front runners like Pioneer, Sony, TDK and Plextor, their lead has been shortened by a number of viable, sometimes economical alternatives.  Other manufacturers, such as LG, Lite-On and Artec focus on offering quality recorders while cutting some of the costs associated with the bigger name manufacturers.  Often times we find that theses companies can compete on the same level as the major brands, yet they are able to do this while keeping the costs down, sometimes dramatically.

Today we are going to take a look at a competitively priced dual format DVD writer from Artec, aptly named theArtec Dual DVD+R/RW drive.  This is a rather ordinary looking drive on the outside, but boasts a hefty 8MB cache and 8X/4X write speeds that make it an attractive alternative for the cost conscious consumer.

Specifications of the Artec Dual DVD±R/RW Drive What Can This Drive Do?  A Lot!

Quality & Setup of theArtec Dual DVD±R/RW Drive Nothing to Stare at, But Loaded With Features.

The Artec Dual DVD+R/RW drive came with a simple, yet complete package.  The drive included a Quick Installation Guide, 80-wire ribbon cable and an audio cable for connecting the drive directly to a sound card.  The retail package included several software titles as well, including Sonic RecordNow, Sonic DLA, WinDVD and WinDVD Creator.  Artec did a decent job of including software to not only record CDs and DVDs, but to cover a broad spectrum of CD/DVD recording and authoring.  For basic recording, Artec included RecordNow which is a recording package for creating and duplicating CDs and DVDs, while Sonic DLA is used for adding Drag & Drop (packet writing) functionality.  The Sonic titles may be less desirable than more popular recording suites, such as Nero Burning ROM, which they included with their52X CDRWthat we reviewed in June, or Roxio Easy CD Creator, however, we found them to be an adequate addition to this competitively priced package.  Also included was a copy of InterVideo's WinDVD Cinema which includes full versions of WinDVD for DVD movie playback and WinDVD Creator for DVD authoring and recording.  We should also note that this drive does not come with any blank media.  A blank CD-R and DVD is a common staple with CD/DVD burners, but Artec opted to leave these items out.

The drive itself holds no surprises on the outside.  The unit is the typical beige color commonly used for these types of drives.  The CD tray is solid black which helps enhance the accuracy of the burn by absorbing any reflected rays of laser light.  The rear of the drive was also typical, including connections for Analog and Digital audio outputs as well as IDE and power.  The drive mode selector ranges between Cable Select, Master, and Slave.  Like we said, the outside held no surprises.  The inside, on the other hand, is what really matters.

The Artec Dual DVD+R/RW drive supports 8X/4X DVD+R/RW and 4X/2X DVD-R/RW write/rewrite speeds while read speeds are rated at 12X for both formats.  CD-R/RW write/rewrite speeds are rated for 24X/10X with a top read speed of 40X.  Another strong point is the drive sports a hefty 8MB buffer that should help improve performance while reducing the chance of buffer under run errors during the writing process.

HH Test System and Benchmarks

The Artec Dual DVD±R/RW Drive
A Quality DVD±R/RW for Less

By, Jeff Bouton
March 17, 2004

HotHardware Test Systems It's Snappy

To help give us an idea of the Artec Dual DVD's performance, we ran a series of common tests to paint a clear performance picture.  As with any test, however, without a frame of reference, the results can be somewhat ambiguous.  So we ran the same tests on a Plextor PX-708UF dual format drive for comparison.  We also wanted to note that while the Plextor drive supports both FireWire and USB 2.0, we completed all of our tests while connected through USB 2.0.

CD-ROM Performance Tests - Artec Dual DVD±R/RW Drive Speeding Things Along

Nero InfoTool:

To start things off we ran Nero InfoTool to give a clear breakdown of the Artec Dual DVD±R/RW's feature set. 

Artec DVD±R/RW

PLEXTOR PX-708UF

Essentially the Artec Dual DVD drive offers the same overall feature set as the better known competitor, minus Mt Rainier support.  While Mt Rainier allows for easy drag and drop functionality, it needs to be natively supported by the OS to be utilized.  Since this is not yet available with most of today's OSes, this isn't a major strike against this otherwise capable drive.

SiSoft SANDRA Pro 4:

We ran the Sandra CD/DVD test module with a CD data disk and DVD data disk to test the read performance capabilities of each drive.  For Sandra's CD data tests, the benchmark utility requires a CD with large files be inserted.  For this test we used a CD with a single AVI file that was almost 700MB in size. For the DVD data test, a DVD+R disk with 4GB of AVI files was used. 

Read Performance - CD Data

Artec DVD±R/RW

PLEXTOR PX-708UF

With the CD data read test, the Artec drive was only able to hit a buffered read speed of 925KB/s compared to the Plextor drive which peaked at 21MB/s.  We should also note that the Average access time of the Artec drive was significantly slower than the Plextor drive, hitting 743 ms compared to 428 ms.  These two factors gave the Plextor drive a slight lead in the overall results.

Read Performance - DVD Data

Artec DVD±R/RW

PLEXTOR PX-708UF

With DVD data read testing, the performance gap continued, with the Artec drive falling just short of 1MB/s buffered reads compared to 20MB/s with the comparison drive.  The Artec drive also suffered from poor Average Access Times, hitting 628 ms compared to the Plextor drive at a snappier 328 ms.  Nonetheless, these performance gaps only resulted in minor differences in overall scores.

More Nero Tests

The Artec Dual DVD±R/RW Drive
A Quality DVD±R/RW for Less

By, Jeff Bouton
March 17, 2004

CD/DVD Write Tests - Artec Dual DVD±R/RW Drive The Burning Question...

Nero CD-R & DVD±R Write Tests:

Next we ran a series of write tests, recording 703MBs of MP3s to a CD-R and 4GBs of AVIs to both a DVD-R and DVD+R. Below is a grid that breaks down the results for each drive.
 

Nero CD DAE Test:

Our last test focused on both drive's performance related to digital audio extraction, the rate at which the drive can copy the files of an Audio CD to the hard drive.

Artec DVD±R/RW

PLEXTOR PX-708UF

With digital audio extraction, the Artec drive was only 15 seconds slower than the Plextor drive and utilized only 1% of the CPU compared to the Plextor's 3% utilization.  When it comes to audio extraction, this is a solid performer while using minimal CPU cycles.

We must say, that while the Artec Dual DVD±R/RW performed slightly slower than the Plextor PX-708UF, it was competitive by and large.  We failed to realize any real benefits of the larger 8MB buffer, however, it should make buffer underruns a very rare occurrence.  But when all is said and done, this drive still managed to compete with the higher priced drive, the only major difference being with 4X DVD write speeds that may be a media issue possibly correctable with a firmware update.

Ultimately, if you are looking to purchase an economical DVD writer that supports multiple formats, the Artec Dual DVD±R/RW is an good alternative to a premium model.  The drive may suffer in some areas of performance, but overall it functioned well.  We found the Artec Dual DVD±R/RW selling for around $130 at several online retailers, while the Plextor 708A, the internal equivalent to the PX-708UF we used for testing, hovered around $175.  If you need a capable DVD±R/RW drive for less, the performance and features of the Artec Dual DVD±R/RW show that it is worth considering.

We give the Artec Dual DVD±R/RW Drive a Hot Hardware Heat Meter Rating of a 7.5.

Discuss This Article in Hardware's PC Hardware Forum!