Our friends over at CDRLabs got hold of a pre-release sample of this latest offering from BenQ. One of the things they look at, is the drives ability to write at 16x with 8x media.
| Of course, the big question here is whether or not to upgrade to a 16x DVD+RW drive like the DW1600. If you already own an 8x DVD writer, don't expect your writing times to be cut in half. The time saved by going from 8x to 16x isn't as great as the jump from 4x to 8x. However, on average you're going to shave a good 2 to 3 minutes off the total writing time. Those that already own a 12x DVD writer are going to have to think very hard about upgrading though. Compared to the Plextor PX-712A, the DW1600 was only 15 seconds faster. Unless you need support for things like DVD+R DL, I don't really see a need to upgrade. Another hurdle for the DW1600 is the lack of 16x DVD+R media. According to industry sources, discs rated at this speed won't hit store shelves for a few more months. Fortunately, BenQ has prepared for this and has given the DW1600 the ability to write to select 8x DVD+R media at 16x. For the most part, this worked pretty well in our tests. However, there is still room for some improvement as there were a few instances where the writing quality wasn't as good as I would have liked. Nevertheless, BenQ is working hard to improve this while adding support for even more media. |
Head on over to the
CDRLabs site in order to read the
whole article. There is also a thread started in
our BenQ Forum. Check our preview of the BenQ
DW1600 here.
Source: CDRLabs
