While DVD-RW support varies greatly between the drives in this comparison, all of the drives in this support the 8x speed for DVD+RW media. Media certified for 8x speeds was a bit more difficult to find. The RiData 8x used in this test is actually produced by Ricoh and was properly supported by all but the HP dvd740i drive that ran at a 4x speed.
Even with all of the drives reaching 8x speeds other than the HP, there was a fairly significant difference in write times between the highest and the lowest. Plextor's PX-760A and LGE GSA-4167B were the only two to post times below eight minutes. By contrast, the Pioneer DVR-110 took a full two minutes longer even though it also reached the 8x speed. HP's dvd740i scored almost twice as long due to the 4x recording speed limitation of the media on the drive.
In terms of playback performance, the NEC ND-4570A had the fastest times and was closely followed by the BenQ DW1655. Only the Samsung SH-S162L was able to achieve a 100ms random access time. CPU usage varied widely among the drives, but the Plextor PX-760A overall provided the lowest usage.
