Burning Speeds

[RedsunsFC]

I have an TEAC W12EB: It can burn CD-Rs with 12x speed. But I wonder, if it's recommend to burn dc games with 12x? Or is a lower speed better? If yes, which speed is the best for burning dc games and does it really make any difference if I burn the games with 12x, 8x or 4x? Or should I use alway the max. speed?
I've read through the forum about this, but alway heard different thinks, like: "1x is the best" or "it doesn't matter which speed".
So guys post your recommend burning speeds and why.

[sixdsix]

To me it really depends on your HDD speed, and your RAM. I have 320 MB of RAM and a very fast HDD. I have never had a problem burning at 8x. I recommend if you have less than 128 MB of RAM, to stick with 4x just to be safe. If you have an older HDD and under 64 MB of RAB, I would use 2x.

I don't recommend burning DC games at 16x. Let me know what works best for you!

gl

[RedsunsFC]

Does it really depend on the RAM? I've 128MB Ram and dunno really if my HDD is fast or not, but I've burned everything I've ever burned with 12x (even audio cds and psx games). I think you wanna point me to the bufferunderrun prob, but I have burnproof, or is it useless for burning dc games? Honestly, I haven't burn one so far, I don't even own dc, but I will buy one tomorrow

[sixdsix]

RAM DOES make a difference. DC's I have found to be a bit more sensitive than Audio..

And if you are getting a DC tomorrow.. Make sure it's a pre-October 2000 one!

(search the forum)

[Wayne]

Sixdsix, not to contradict, but I was running an AMD K6-2/450 with 64mb and burned at 8x almost exclusively for six months or so (after I upgraded my CDRW to an 8x).

I was also using UDMA-33 connections on the 5400 rpm hard drives.

It had issues with buffer-underruns only when I had a program running that took up too much of the hard drive's time.

Of course in the past week, I've graduated to an AMD Duron 800, UDMA-66, 256mb and a month or so ago I upgraded my HD to a 7200 rpm Seagate 30gb Barrracuda.

[TheMaskedm0m0]

Steps for a successful burn at higher speeds:

1) Make sure all applications and ####tup items are closed and disabled. No web surfing, no listening to WinAmp, no nothing! Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del, nothing but Explorer and Systray should be in there.

2) ##### the specs on your on CD-RW and make sure it has a nice large buffer size and if it has Burn-Proof.

3) If you have an IDE CD-RW make sure it does not sit on the same channel, cable, as any device like a hard drive. Having a setup like that only complicates things.

4) Make sure you are using burning software that returns little if no Buffer Underrun errors. Roxio/Adaptec's Easy CD Creator almost never has a BU error.

5) Once you have confirmed the above steps you may proceed to burn at 8x or 10x. I have burned at 12x with no errors. So go read a book or the newspaper while the CD is being burnt.

~The Masked M0M0~

[sixdsix]

Wayne (26-07-2001 00:25):
Sixdsix, not to contradict, but I was running an AMD K6-2/450 with 64mb and burned at 8x almost exclusively for six months or so (after I upgraded my CDRW to an 8x).

I was also using UDMA-33 connections on the 5400 rpm hard drives.

It had issues with buffer-underruns only when I had a program running that took up too much of the hard drive's time.

Of course in the past week, I've graduated to an AMD Duron 800, UDMA-66, 256mb and a month or so ago I upgraded my HD to a 7200 rpm Seagate 30gb Barrracuda.

No problem! That's what a forum is all about, eh?

I know that RAM isn't a sole factor in a good burn, but with the more you have the safer you are? Agreed? Like you said before, ##### your email and it could bomb yer burn... Nevertheless.. Sounds like you got a nice system now... That Duron 800 is a brilliant chip. I would choose that chip over 90% of any Intel chips as of now...

And Momo.. good post!

[Wayne]

Yeah you're right. I would've preferred the motherboard with the UDMA-100 capability (I got FIC AZ11, but the AZ11e has a different chipset and higher capability IDE ports).

I've heard of one concern with this motherboard though - one person on the FIC forums has stated to make his machine stable where it wouldn't lock up, he had to set the memory to "HOST" (100mHz) instead of "HOST+33" (133mHz). I may end up having to drop my ram speed down a bit.

Now, back to the subject of burning speeds....

[sixdsix]

Wayne.. I had a similar problem; although even MORE off the beaten path... But, I found that I had two different speed RAM chips... one was 100mHz and the other was 133mHz... I removed the 100mHz and it made a huge difference...

[Wayne]

Well, I've only got one stick of 256meg, so....

[TheMaskedm0m0]

Wayne: So upgrade, I'm currently at 640 megs of RAM, and it only cost me about $70 (Bought 2 256meg stick and already had a 128meg stick in my box).

www.EMSComputing.com, about the cheapest memory on the planet, besides PriceWatch.

~The Masked M0M0~

[Wayne]

TheMaskedm0m0 (28-07-2001 19:09):
Wayne: So upgrade, I'm currently at 640 megs of RAM, and it only cost me about $70 (Bought 2 256meg stick and already had a 128meg stick in my box).

You kidding? 256meg WAS an upgrade. I was originally using 64meg and replaced it with 256meg when I upgraded my motherboard and processor.

I paid 35.00 for the 256meg too.

[sixdsix]

Oh yea? Well, I remember when 2 MB SIMMS cost $200...

Guess that shows my age.

(For you other old schoolers, remember when HDD space was a buck a meg?)

lol

[Wayne]

A buck a meg?? I remember when it was $10-15 bucks per meg!

I had a 20mb Seagate ST-225 MFM hard drive in my first PC-XT clone in 1987 and it added $200-300 to the cost of the machine. Of course that little 4.0mHz 8088 processor-based system cost me $1600 back then...