LG GSA-4082B Super-Multi DVD±RW/RAM review at CDRLabs

April 28, 2004

CDRLabs
has tested LG's latest 8x/4x/3x DVD±R/RW/RAM writer, the GSA-4082B. Comparing
the GSA-4082B with LG's last model, the GSA-4081B, the main difference is that
the DVD-R/RW max write speed has now increased from 4x/2x to 8x/4x.

Part of the conclusion
of the review

Writing DVD's wasn't a
problem for the GSA-4082B. With its 8x DVD±R writing speeds, the drive was
able to write 4GB of data in less than nine minutes. While this is a big
improvement over LG's earlier "Super-Multi" drives, it wasn't enough to
top the drive from Pioneer. The GSA-4082B also performed relatively well
with other types of recordable DVD media, thanks to its 4x DVD±RW and 3x
DVD-RAM writing speeds. Of course, speed isn't everything. The GSA-4082B's
writing quality was pretty good. However, there is room for improvement,
especially with Verbatim's 8x DVD+R media. Also keep in mind that the
GSA-4082B doesn't have the ability to write to 4x DVD±R media at 8x. While
this is becoming less important as more 8x media becomes available, it's
still a nice feature to have.

…

On
the other hand, the GSA-4082B didn't perform as well as I would have liked
in our CD reading and writing tests. While the drive had no problems
meeting LG's claims, it was one of the slower 8x DVD writers we've
reviewed. In our tests, it reached a maximum speed of 32x with pressed and
CD-R media, but slowed to 24x when reading CD-RW discs and ripping audio
CD's. This is pretty slow considering most new DVD writers can read both
data and audio CD's at 40x. With its 24x CD-R and 16x CD-RW writing
speeds, the GSA-4082B also trailed behind the drives from the competition
in our CD writing tests. Nevertheless, its writing quality was very
good.

CDRLabs gives the LG GSA-4082B an
overall 8 out of 10 points. You can read the complete review here.

Source: CDRLabs