:.
Installation .:
The installation of this unit is very easy. Even if you do not have a clue
as to what you are doing, the instructions Samsung provides are so detailed
that you must be brain dead not to comprehend them ;-).
Before you start to tinker with your PC, make sure you
are grounded so that you don't damage your equipment.
Remove your old CD Rom and place the
Samsung SM-332
into the Drive Bay. Adjust the Slave/Master Jumpers according to the
placement you decide for the drive. Connect the
40pin E-IDE cable to the back of the unit and connect
the power cable as well. Then secure the drive by screwing it in to the
Drive Chassis. Now you're done! Turn on
your computer and install the included software. Your drive should be fully
functional now.
:.
Performance .:
If you look above, you can see that the drive took 9
minutes and 22 seconds to create a 783MB CD-R Audio Disk. This is not the
true 32x speed seen here. At the most, the CD should have taken 6 minutes @
32x. The drive is an all-around drive, therefore it cannot be the best in
all categories.
:.
Performance Benchmarks .:
The performance tests will be done with the following configuration and
using Nero Read/Write Tests provided by Ahead Software.
|
Test System Configuration: |
| Processor |
AMD XP 2400+ |
| Motherboard |
Abit AT7-MAX2 |
| RAM |
512 MB DDR PC
2100 |
| Hard Drive(s) |
Maxtor 20GB &
2nd 80GB @ 7200 RPM |
| OS |
Windows XP Pro |
| Video Card |
GeForce 4 Ti 4400 |
| Other |
Toshiba 15x
DVD |
The following test results were taken without any
background applications running and without any startup applications
running.
:.
Read Test AUDIO DISC.:
The read test was with a data CD-Rom of 73:17.10
minutes length. The drive performs at a relatively high speed to begin with
and progressed to about 40.82x at the end of the CD.
|
CD Audio Read Test |
|
CD information: |
|
Type |
Audio |
|
Length |
79:51.65 |
|
Test results: Transfer rate |
|
Average |
10.72x |
|
Start |
10.75x |
|
End |
10.59x |
|
Reading Type |
CLV |
|
Seek Times: |
|
Random |
99
ms |
|
1/3 Seek |
112 ms |
|
Full |
161 ms |
|
Disc Startup Times: |
|
Disc Eject Time |
1.38 sec |
|
Disc Load Time |
1.15 sec |
|
Disc Recognition |
8.31 sec |
As you can see by these results, the drive moves to
40X and above rather quickly. As well, the CD seek times are very fast as
the random seeks averaged only 89ms. The drive also ejects CDs very quickly
at only 1.28 seconds and it only takes 0.98 seconds for the drive to inject
a CD. Here is a picture of the results:
Click to enlarge
:.
Audio Burn Test CD-R.: Now we will
begin the audio burn test on a 40x compatible CD-R disc. The length of the
disc is 75 minutes and the performance will be rated using the Nero Speed
Test software.
|
CD Audio Test (CD-R 32x Disc) |
|
Type |
Audio |
|
Length |
70:04.00 |
|
Test results: Audio Burn Speeds |
|
Samsung SM-332 |
|
Start |
12.30x |
|
Average |
12.02x |
|
End |
12.38x |
|
Seek Times: |
Samsung SM-332 |
Average Other* |
|
Random |
96
ms |
114 ms |
|
1/3 Seek |
102 ms |
131 ms |
|
Full |
167 ms |
210 ms |
*Plextor 16/10/40, Plextor 40/12/40, Samsung
SW-232B
:.
Data Burn Test CD-RW .: The data
burn test was performed on a 32x compatible CD-R disc. The length of the disc
is 80 minutes and the performance will be rated using the Nero Speed Test
software. The files used in the test are, on average, 2 MB in size.
|
CD-RW Write Test |
|
Type |
Data |
|
Length |
79:59.73 |
|
Test results: Data Burn Speeds |
Seek Times: |
|
Start |
9.97x |
Random |
98
ms |
|
Average |
9.99x |
1/3 Seek |
112 ms |
|
End |
9.97x |
Full |
167 ms |
Click to Enlarge
Now I will use Sisoft Sandra 2002 Professional to test
how this drive measures up. The results of this test were generally the same
as the above results: speed was still an issue.
The drives speed performance is quite weak when
considering CD-R write and read speeds. CD-RW write and read speed is
perfectly fine since the drive does maxed out on those tests.
With all these numbers now shown, let's head down
to the concluding page!
| 
