The final part carried over from our previous midrange build is the Sony NEC Optiarc 7170 Serial ATA drive. We could have replaced it with a slightly faster 20x model, but there simply wasn't enough of a performance difference for us to justify buying a replacement model.

The drive's speeds approach those of the fastest drives: DVD-R and +R writes of 18x; DVD+RW and -RW rewrites of 8x and 6x; DVD+R and -R Dual Layer disk writes of 8x; CD-R and -RW writes of 48x and 32x; and DVD-RAM writes of 12X. Best of all, the Optiarc 7170 SATA sells for only $35.

This build's 650i SLI chipset would have natively supported an ATA drive, but who wants wide cables? The difference in price between ATA and SATA versions is typically less than $5.

Test Setup

Benchmarks And Settings