I used two software packages, CDSpeed, and DVDSpeed (both available here) ,as well as using SiSoft Sandra's Drive Index test, to evaluate the read speeds.

Just for a refresher, here is my standard testbed:

• Asus CUSL2 Intel i815 mainboard

• Intel P3-700 @ 1001mhz, courtesy of OverclockWarehouse

• Mushkin PC150 128meg SDRAM DIMM

• Plextor 8x20 SCSI CD-R (w/ Adaptec 2930c controller)

• Maxtor DiamondMax UDMA66 13.6G IDE HDD

• Hercules Prophet3D DDR/DVI Geforce AGP card

• Windows Millineum OS

First off, CDSpeed tests, both using the same CD (CD1 of the OLD OLD OLD game 7th Guest....don't ask why) :)

While not a completely full CD, you can see how much faster the Aopen's speed scales. Had it been a full 74 minute CD, it would have (according to the progression of the graph) hit it's max rated 40x CD speed, while the Toshiba seems to peak at 20x and sit there. Taking a look at the right hand side CPU utilization numbers, you can see the Toshiba unit is soaking up considerable amounts of CPU time as the read speeds increase, to a maximum of 38%, while the Aopen maxes at a whopping 6%.

Next page: DVD Speed 99

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