Originally posted by: sniperruff
the "x" rating does not work that way. for example, a 48x burner probably will not burn a cd at half the time as a 24x cd burner.
lets say a burner is 52x, it only burns at 52x around the outer edge (or is it inner?) of a CD.
You're right, but you're also wrong.
You are correct in that a 48x drive will not burn twice as fast as a 24x drive, assuming it's not an uber 48x drive. Your reason is wrong however.
A 12x drive
will burn twice as fast as a 6x drive. The difference there is that newer, faster drives have hit a RPM speed limit for discs. Not just burners either, readers too. Some manufacturers label it as CAV or constant angular velocity, but basically all drives > 40x do it.
Above a certain RPM, discs explode. It's just a simple fact. That RPM is lower than is necessary to achieve 48x on the inner track of a CD assuming a normal design (Not multi-beam, etc.)
You are correct in that only the outer edge hits that maximum speed. It's marketing speak. In the old days, the drives adjusted their angular velocity as the outer edge was reached to ensure a consistent burn speed. Run your burner at a low enough speed now and you'll probably notice the same behavior. From one perspective, these 'newer' drives are simpler. They don't adjust their speed as they burn - it's flat out with regards to RPM. That may be true of all the speeds, I've never honestly tested in a newer drive.
EDIT: And to keep this on topic. You can't really calculate burn times anymore. In the old days, it was disc size / burn speed * 1.1 (to account for lead-in and lead-out). That always got me within a few seconds of the actual time. There's almost no point these days - that formula was when I had a
2x CD-R drive.