Optical Drive Performance
Optical drive speeds are specified using an "X-factor." The earliest CD-ROM drives transferred data at a constant 150 KB/s, the same rate used by audio CDs, which is referred to as 1X. Later CD drives used variable speeds, changing the speed according to where the head was positioned on the CD. It's impossible to assign a single speed rating to such a drive, so manufacturers began specifying the maximum speed those drives used. For example, a CD-ROM drive that transfers data at a maximum rate 52 times the 150 KB/s audio CD rate, or 7,800 KB/s, is called a 52X Max drive.
DVD drives use the same kind of speed rating scheme, but the DVD "X-factor" is different. The 1X DVD rate is 1.321 MB/s, which is the data rate required ...
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