PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Choosing the Optimum Burn Speed for Your Drive and Media

A recent CD burner generally works well at its maximum rated speed, at least if you use high-quality blank discs. If you have an older CD burner, don’t assume that you can use its fastest speed, even if your burning software tests a disc and claims that it is writable at the highest speed. With older CD burners, burning at higher speeds is generally less reliable than burning at lower speeds, both because faster burning is more likely to generate errors while writing, particularly with marginal discs, and because the CD writer’s buffer, whatever its size, empties faster at higher burning speeds. For example, when writing at 12X (1800 KB/s), a 512 KB buffer stores only about one-quarter of a second’s worth of data. Any interruption in the data stream longer than that generates a coaster (unless the drive has BURN-Proof or a similar technology). Larger buffers and lower write speeds minimize the chance of buffer underruns and ruined discs.

But slow equals reliable is by no means a universal truth. Burning at a slower speed is sometimes less reliable. For example, we used one no-name 32X CD writer that wrote most discs reliably at 32X or 24X, some discs reliably at 16X, and very few discs reliably at slower than 16X. The optimal burning speed depends on numerous factors, particularly the combination of drive, firmware revision, and disc.

Tip

With very few exceptions, discs certified for a higher speed can be burned reliably in ...