Eleven 20x/24x CD Burners

Burning Time And Compatibility

The figures in this chart represent the time a burner takes to burn a 650 MB CD-R, including lead-in and lead-out.

The results show that there are still differences. And this is the time to settle accounts between Z-CLV and P-CAV, because it is the Yamaha CRW3200E which wins, with its burning time of 3 minutes 43 seconds. The best Z-CLV burner is the Hewlett Packard CD24ri, with 3 minutes 55 seconds. The slowest 24x burner is the Sanyo CRD-BP1500P, with 4 minutes 10 seconds. Of the two 20xs, both figures are very much alike and show good performance.

Though the HP CD24ri comes second in the raw performance test for CD-R writing, things are different when it comes to compatibility with the various media tested. In fact, it is the only one to have trouble with a certain type of CD. It took 5 minutes 25 seconds in 24x to burn Hi-Space 80-minute CDs, and what's more, with a non-retrievable error rate of 2.97%! The other types of CD-Rs gave less important differences, though still significant. This proves that the CD24ri needs to be used with certified 24x media of a quality like the Phillips Premium 74. The other burners did not show any differences worth mentioning here.

Burning Time: CD-to-CD Copy

For CD-to-CD copy, the result is pretty much the same as standard burning from hard disk. The Yamaha CRW3200E is the only one to stay below the 4-minute mark, with 3 minutes 55 seconds for a direct copy. Overall, there is a slight increase in burning time of some 5 to 8 seconds for each of the burners. Only the Sony CRX175A-RP showed a significant increase of 18 seconds, which is not normal.