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[shpankey]

Bought this Samsung SD-616 16x DVD Drive and installed it this afternoon. My old Thompson drive (which was a replacement Microsoft had used) was in absolutely flawless working order, but after a friend came over and played Fight Night 2004 and mentioned how much longer my boxer took to load than on his Xbox, I decided to investigate. Turns out, he had a Samsung Drive, I had the Thompson, so we reasoned that was the problem. So I did some research and found that there was an even better aftermarket drive that was supposed to be even faster than the default Samsung DVD drive.

Anyways, here are the times both of these drives scored. Please also note I had done the Xbox ATA 100 Cable Upgrade which was already in place for both DVD's (it was actually the first thing I did to try to get my system to load faster, which did yield a small improvement (about 2-3 seconds faster).

Anyways, for those with Madden 2004 on Xbox, please (if you would be so kind) try this out and time the seconds it takes to load with a watch or something. Using Madden 2004, Home team Tennessee Titans, visiting team Detroit Lions. Loading times...

Stock Default Thompson DVD Drive
23 seconds

Aftermarket Samsung SD-616 DVD Drive
12 seconds

Pretty impressive I thought. Even my wife, who was watching me do it and take the times said "wow". Heh. Anyways, I was wondering if any of you could also time it and report back here? Also report which DVD drive you have (there's a picture floating around somewhere which shows you how to tell them apart easily).

 

[truesayian]

haha.. after reading this all i can say is get a life..

 

[Fusebox]

Good findings, wonder how it compares to running it off the HD.

 

[BuddyC]

haha.. after reading this all i can say is get a life..

you're the one posting on a video game message board.

that's some cool stuff shpankey. how much was the drive? you just swap it out, right?

 

[shpankey]

Yeah, the drive I bought was already pre-modded. It wasn't to hard to swap them out. It cost $64, shipping an all.

 

[golem]

where can u get it for 64 premodded??

 

[impirius]

Answer the man's question!

 

[tenchir]

Hmmm, I heard using that drive won't let you play original disc game...... Is it true or false?

 

[The Shadow]

Hmmm, I heard using that drive won't let you play original disc game...... Is it true or false?

False. You have to have the right drive model and you have to flash it with the right firmware but assuming you have both, it'll play original Xbox disks.

 

[golem]

yeah, that drive is almost impossible to get normally becuase it can be used in xbox's... dammit where is shpankey!

 

[Joe]

Bought this Samsung SD-616 16x DVD Drive

he got it on ebay, he has it linked.

 

[miyuru]

Wow, that's some seriously awesome moddage!

 

[golem]

rats

 

[shpankey]

he got it on ebay, he has it linked.

::nods::

Thanks. I was on the phone with a friend and hadn't the chance to check the thread.

which firmware is needed ?

Why not just buy it already modded? Save you the trouble of flashing it and all that other stuff.

 

[shpankey]

Yeah, that's not all you have to do... I think there is some soldering involved to. Hit up Google, there's some online tutorials on how to do it. I am not savvy enough to try all that stuff.

 

[jedimike]

Interesting... I know divineo was selling "official" replacement Samsungs, but they wanted $119 + s/h for them. Might as well just get a new Xbox.

 

[shpankey]

You should be able to get a much better deal on eBay. Although the drive I got wasn't one of the official Samsung drives.

 

[element]

the tutorial had like sawing crap and stuff. did you have to do that?

 

[shpankey]

the tutorial had like sawing crap and stuff. did you have to do that?

It wasn't sawing. I just took a pair of those clipper things (used for cutting speaker wires etc) and clipped off a couple plastic thingies. I had no idea I was gonna have to do that, until I tried to put the drive in and noticed they weren't letting the drive sit down where it needed to go. This also ended up nullifying one of the 5 case screws btw... but no biggie as there are 4 others.

If I had to do it over again though, I'd get a drive that already had the faceplate on it... that took me awhile to figure out. But now that I know how to do it, it's really easy. It's just there isn't much info out there on how to change the faceplates of the DVD drives heh.

I should also mention this (for anyone thinking of doing this). In the end, after all is said and done, the new drive sets in the Xbox a small bit... which makes the drive not flush (it's only a little though) with the system. But that may bother some people.

 

[Cubsfan23]

haha.. after reading this all i can say is get a life..

This guy is so cool. I can’t believe he’s a virgin!

 

[shpankey]

Thought I would update this thread as I got another new Xbox that had a Phillips DVD drive in it, so I tested it as well. This time I tested the before and after of switching out the stock cable (ATA33) to an ATA100 cable. Interesting results. Anyways, same situation as before (Madden 2004, Home team Tennessee Titans, visiting team Detroit Lions). This test was run 3 times and the first test time was thrown out. Here are those loading times...


Stock Default Phillips DVD Drive - Stock ATA33 Cable - 18 secs
Stock Default Phillips DVD Drive - Aftermarket ATA100 Cable - 18 secs

Interesting. There is no decrease with the loading time, as some people claim. Here are the other loading times from before again for comparison (using the Madden load test again)....

Stock Default Thompson DVD Drive - Aftermarket ATA100 Cable - 23 seconds

Aftermarket Samsung SD-616T 16x DVD Drive - Aftermarket ATA100 Cable - 12 seconds

..Sorry I never got to test the before after of the cables on the other drives, but I doubt it would have changed, as the Phillips test shows it made no difference. Obviously though, your DVD Drive definitely makes a difference. The Stock Phillips is faster than the Stock Thompson, and the aftermarket drive blows them both away. I wish I had a Stock Samsung drive to test also. I would like to see if the myth is true about it being much faster.

One thing I would like to note, for those thinking of getting the 16x aftermarket Samsung... the drive doesn't fit right in the Xbox. It will set in inset in your Xbox a bit, and you can tell. Looking straight on at your Xbox, the drive's faceplate is not flush with the Xbox's front face. Also, you have to do some sawing on your Xbox to make it fit, and you will also have to leave out one of the 5 main screws. I do not recommend it. I didn't like it or how it looked when I was done. I ended up selling it on eBay... even though it was blazing fast... I just didn't like it. It may not bother most people though, as it's kind of a little thing that I doubt would bother anyone else.

Lastly.. if anyone has a default Samsung Drive and a copy of Madden 2004, could you run this test for me? Please run the test 3 times and do not count your first tests time. I would like to see how much faster the Sammy drive really is.

P.S. I might add, all of these Xbox's have all coincidentally had Segate hard drives in them (as apposed to Western Digital's). Which may or may not have made a difference.

 

[DarkGiygas]

This guy is so cool. I can’t believe he’s a virgin!

Plus, he thinks hes a DragonBall Z character! All the cool kids are doing it nowadays!

 

[Wario64]

haha.. after reading this all i can say is get a life..

 

[miyuru]

MY NEW GOD

 

[Shogmaster]

Sigh.... How many more years will it take before kiddies realise that naming their handles after Dragon Ball characters is like asking for abuse......

 

[shpankey]

I'm lost here.

 

[Shogmaster]

I'm lost here.

It's your thread, silly.

 

[seismologist]

seems like it would be less hassle to just get a modchip and play games off the HD

 

[Shompola]

I dont have madden, isnt there some other game you want to test instead? I do have samsung drive.

 

[shpankey]

Well, it's kind of too late for that, as I don't have the other Xbox anymore. It's the only test I did before I got rid of it.

 

[Shogmaster]

Well, it's kind of too late for that, as I don't have the other Xbox anymore. It's the only test I did before I got rid of it.

Now I'm lost.

 

[crawlingpeter]

i have a thompson drive.. so it is considerably slower than the other two stock drives?

 

[shpankey]

Now I'm lost.

I was responding to Shompola's post.

i have a thompson drive.. so it is considerably slower than the other two stock drives?

Well, in my limited test, it was 5 seconds slower than the Phillips on that Madden load test. We don't know how fast or slow the Stock Samsung drive is. Although that was not a very conclusive test really.