From the results we obtained, you can see that the CD-S500 is somewhat faster than the CD-S400 40x drive it's destined to replace as ASUS' speediest offering.
Everything from access times to the Quake2 full install times were reduced with the 50x drive, although it's interesting to note that the gap from 32x to 40x produced a larger performance jump than the move from 40x to 50x in the real world test results.
Overall, the CD-S500 didn't necessarily blow us away, but it did deliver on the promise of more speed under all circumstances.
Speed hides a lot of flaws during hardware testing, but during the evaluation by the staff of the CD-S500 a popular theme surfaced from several testers: "What the hell is all that noise?"
The penalty for the 10,400rpm spindle speed that the CD-S500 offers showed itself clearly under our subjective noise threshold testing. Without a doubt, the 50x drive is the loudest peripheral we've ever heard. Louder than a hobby model helicopter, louder than those wonderful gas-powered leaf blowers we love so much in California, louder almost than Sharky's munching when his beloved Pinkdot meals arrive. (Sharky's a little like Howard Hughes, the guy rarely leaves his flat)
The noise that the CD-S500 generates sounds like a large variable speed electric fan that's positioned within the ATX case. To be fair, the actual noise irritation level with the drive isn't all that high. It's not an unpleasant or irritating sound, it's just that readers contemplating the purchase of one of these rockets need to know that you WILL hear it when it runs. When it's not spinning, let's say after a game level has loaded, or when it's done installing an app, the 50x is as quiet as any other drive.
But when it is spinning….good lord you better pray the wife doesn't give you a "John Bobbitt haircut" after it wakes her out of bed at 2:00am…
On a side note, the ASUS CD-S400 40x drive we used for comparison testing makes the same sort of sounds, but at a lower decibel level than the 50x model does. Users seeking the best balance of power along with noise suppression are probably better off with the ASUS CD-S400 40x drive ($57).
In summation, we can overlook the CD-S500's noise in order to reap the speed benefits it produces for those massive game installs that we all have to put up with. But it doesn't change the fact that the noise of the drive is large, especially if you're running an overclocked system that's equipped with four or five small to medium fans already in the case. For most of the Sharky Extreme staffers, the CD-S500's benefits outweigh it's loud disposition. It's a small price to pay for getting more actual gaming in each day….
