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LG 32x10x40 CD-RW

My own burner is a LG , this Korean manufacturer is getting to be a serious Heavy Weight in the electronics industry , whilst Lite-on is relatively new to me , as I have only seen this brand make a name for itself in the last year or so here in Australia .

To test both drives I will be using Nero CD speed and Clone CD to read, and write test bot drives using Sid Meirs Civilization Game CD.

It took 15minutes 42seconds , for the LG to read the CD to my HDD , using Clone CD , Easy CD Creator 5 Basic ( bundled software with the drive ) failed to copy Sid Meirs Civilization . To write the image file to CD took 3minutes 23seconds , and Clone made a perfect working copy . The CD used in testing with Nero CD speed was my Suzi Quatro ( music ) CD  .

Lite-On 32x12x40 CD-RW

The lite-on brand is Taiwanese , with ( to the best of my knowledge ) the drives actually being manufactured in mainland China . Lets take a look at how it performs with Nero CD speed .

Time to copy Sid Meirs Civilization to my HDD , Time = 10mintutes and 01seconds , time to copy the image file from my HDD to CD =  2minutes and 45seconds . Again the bundled software Nero 5 , failed to copy Sid Meirs Civilization .

Conclusion :

Taking benchmark software results as the end all be all would be a mistake , looking at the Nero CD Speed results , you can see that both drives come very close in the overall results , but when it actually came to copying a CD to my HDD as an image file and then burning a CD from it , the Lite-On CD-RW  just wiped the floor with the LG on both counts . ( AGE of Kings , one of the most copy protected CD's ever , took 14minutes 22seconds to read and 2minutes 46seconds to write with the Lite-On , and some 24minutes to do 1% with my old LG32x8x4 )

I dont think I need to say anything about Nero , you either like it or dont , Easy CD creator has also been around for a while , and not to many people may be familiar with it , but Easy CD creator has its own following among Music lovers . The one feature ( new to Easy CD creator ) is the Drag and Drop feature , its as easy as it sounds folks , just pop a empty CD onto your burner and format it for the Drag and Drop feature and thats all you have to do , to save files etc to CD , drag and drop , and the file is automatically burned to CD . Both these CD-RW are the same price , and I have to honestly say that the Lite-On 32x12x40 is a tempting , awfully tempting upgrade from my old Burner .

Both drives worked flawlessly , were extremely quiet , and refused to do a buffer under run , both drives simply stopped copying with a message that they were unable to continue , without stuffing up the CD , one simply continues to add files / software to the CD but in smaller chunks without turning the CD into a drink coaster . I was impressed by both drives , but the Lite-On is so much faster at both reading and writing that there really was no contest , for the same $ the Lite-On wins hands down .

The sofware that comes with both drives are lacking in there ability to copy Protected CD's , this is where Clone CD comes into its own , its free to download and can be used without being registered , but if you dont register it , your burn rate will be restricted to 1x or 2x , I forget ( registered Clone CD ) , but your read speed will still be at maximum . Either way you will end up looking for 3rd party software to do some of your chores with , not that Nero or Easy CD creator aren't good , its just that they are a little lacking to be the , end all be all burning software . My vote has to go to Easy CD creator , for its Drag and Drop function , as it makes storing files etc , just way to easy for us all , only problem , its bundled with the LG . Both drives are good , the software is also good , final choice is your's folks .