Transfer speed?

[geralf]

I have a Samsung DVD-ROM (SD-616Q) which has a poor performance (I think). I used a freeware utility (FreshDiagnose) to benchmark the drive. I got a data transfer rate of about 2.5M Bytes/s. My mainboard is Epox EP8RDA3G with nForce2 chipset. I've updated the mainboards drivers, latest BIOS, and latest firmware in the DVD-ROM. If I switch to DMA data access mode, the transfer rate increases about 500k to about 3MBytes/sec. My computer uses also much longer time to boot if DMA is enabled.

I'm running Win2KPro and CPU is XP2800+ Barton

The above transfer speeds is when reading a commercial DVD.

Could someone please tell me if the transfer speed is as it should be or if there's something not right?

Thanks in advance

Regards
GerhardA

 

[cdogg]

Well, the "x" in your DVD-ROM's speed rating stands for 1.35MB/s. So if you have a 16x DVD-ROM for example, it should max out around 22MB/s.

However, keep in mind that the max transfer speed is just the "max" and not an average. 3MB/s is definitely on the slow side for reading DVD discs. When you benchmarked the drive, did you use different DVD's to get an accurate average? Some DVD's may transfer slower than others due to the way data was saved on it. Also, data DVD's may transfer a lot slower than video DVD's.

I would say your average should be closer to 6x (8MB/s) if not better. And yes, you need to have DMA enabled for the best performance in your drive. You should also have the DVD-ROM drive on the opposite IDE channel as your system partition/HD.

~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind"
[tab][tab]- Aristotle

 

[ceh4702]

I have always wondered if the Cable Length slows down the transfer speed. Ususally they put the optical drives way up near the top. I think the maximum cable length is suppose to be like 18 inches. It would be nice if benchmark software kept track of the rewrites for bad data.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[geralf]

Thanks very much for your confirmation of my suspicion cdogg. I've tried it on two different video dvd's without any dramatic difference in transfer speed. I'm thinking that it might be a mainboard issue, since I've recently bought a new one. I see if I can hook up the old one and see how it runs there. One thing I notice when I select properties of my HDD (In My Computer) (WD120GB w/2 partititions) is that it takes 5 seconds or more before the properties window appears. This is to long to what I know as 'normal'. If you or others have any comments, please post them, since I'm very interested.

Thanks again cdogg!