MSI XA52P CD-RW+DVD-ROM Serial ATA Combo Drive

DVD-ROM Benchmarks More data, more speed?

Nero InfoTool:

Just as in the CD-ROM tests, we used Nero's InfoTool to obtain a detailed description of each drive in DVD mode. For the DVD-ROM comparison, we have chosen to put MSI's XA52P against LiteOn's 16x DVD-ROM and Pioneers 16x unit.  Looking over the three pictures below, one can see that these three drives are all relatively similar.  They support all of the same basic features, the only difference being the types ofreadable media.

XA52P	LiteOn	Pioneer

Just as with the CD-R's, InfoTool read the speed of each drive a little different.  However this time it is not related to safety measures put in place by the manufacturer.  The XA52P is being read as a CD-ROM, thus the 40x, the LiteOn as a 16x/48x EIDE device and the Pioneer as 16x DVD-ROM.  Though the readings are all different, each drive is able to obtain a maximum Read Speed of 16x with a DVD.

For the following set of benchmarks, SpeedRead/SpeedUp was enabled on all applicable drives.  A retail copy of UT2004 SE was used for the data transfer tests and a pressed copy of Dave Matthew Bands: Live in Central Park (disk one) was used for the DVD Movie Test.

SANDRA 4 DVD Test:

XA52P	LiteOn	Pioneer

Overall, the LiteOn and Pioneer handled the test very well, posting scores both in the 11,000 kB/s range.  However, the XA52P did not fair quiet as well, only displaying an end result of 8748 kB/s.

Like the CD tests from earlier in this review, the Green line represents Transfer Rates while the Yellow Line represents Rotation Speed in the Nero DVD Speed tests.

Nero CD-DVD Speed - Data DVD Test:

With a difference of not even 1x separating the group, the LiteOn beat out the two drives with a final average of 11.52x and seek time of 154ms at full stroke.  On the other hand, the MSI took control of the group when it came to Burst Rate with 30 MB/s and a CPU usage of 45% at 8x.

Nero CD-DVD Speed - Movie DVD Test:

XA52P	LiteOn	Pioneer

Unlike the last test, the Pioneer DVD-ROM took center stage here with an average read speed of 8.59x and a Burst Rate of 34 MB/s.  The LiteOn took the cake for seeks times (153ms at full), but the XA52P had the lowest CPU usage again with 14% at 4x.