Performance in CD WinBench 99

I tested the drives in CD WinBench 99 using a molded CD and two its copies on a CD-R and a CD-RW. Since the Sony DW-D22A can work with CDs in two modes, I will use two speeds (40x and 48x) in CD WinBench 99 and in some Nero CD-DVD Speed tests.

• LG GSA-4082B: CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW
• LG GSA-4160B: CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW
• Sony DW-D22A 40x: CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW
• Sony DW-D22A 48x: CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW

In the screenshots above you can see that the LG GSA-4082B, the slowest model among the tested drives, reads the three test discs without problems. The other drive from LG also draws an almost perfect data-transfer graph. The Sony DW-D22A had problems reading the final stretch of the molded CD and had to reduce its read speed in every mode.

The Sony DW-D22A has got a higher CD WinMark score with every type of the medium. Well, it should obviously be the best at its maximum speed, but we also see its advantage when its performance should roughly equal that of the LG GSA-4160B.

Between the two drives from LG there?s little difference. The formally faster GSA-4160B has even a worse performance score with the CD-RW disc than the GSA-4082B drive. The performance of the Sony DW-D22A with the CD-ROM disc was slower at 48x speed, probably because it stumbled a little at the final portion of the disc. With the CD-RW disc, the CD WinMark scores are practically the same at both speeds; it means the max speed of the Sony drive is no more than 40x with CD-RW media.

As for the other tests, you may note the bigger access time of the Sony DW-D22A in comparison with the LG drives. This difference mostly concerns the CD-ROM disc where the Sony had some problems at reading, though.