I have two different PCs. One, a P4 2.8E, 512MB RAM, SIS Chipset, with a Plextor PX-708, Sony 1633 DVD-ROM (Liteon 167T) and WD250GB hard drive.

The second, a P4 3.0E, 512MB Dual Channel, i875 Chipset, with Plextor PX-712A and Sony 1633. Western Digital 120GB and WD160GB hard drives. One hard drive is connected via SATA.

I record movies and TV shows from my Tivo with my Pioneer DVR-225 DVD-R/W recorder. I then rip the DVD into TMPGEnc Express to be converted from 544x480 (Pioneer feature for DVDs with 2 or more hours of video) to 720 x 480. I just ripped a DVD a few minutes ago and noticed that it ripped 2 hours of video in about 5 mins.

I thought it was a bit strange since I ripped a DVD with my PC with SiS chipset Wednesday night and it took almost an hour. So, I put the same DVD that I ripped in 5 minutes today on the 875 PC into the SiS PC and there's a huge difference in rip time, 5 minutes versus one hour.

Can anyone explain why there is such a huge difference in rip times between the two drives. Does the PX-712A read that much faster than a PX-708A? Or, is there something wrong in my SiS system that's causing such a disparity?

Both systems are configured almost identically. Media is Memorex DVD-RW, DVD Identifier Reports it as Ritek RITEKW01

Yes the 712A drive does read faster than the 708A drive. 708A is locked at 2x speed I believe. If you want to rip faster with the 708A you would have to hold the eject button for about 10-15 seconds. The 708A manual has the procedure on how to unlock the 2x speed. I don't rip with my 708A drive. My Toshiba DVD-ROM's do all the fast ripping for me.

Some have said ripping with a dvd burner wouldn't wear out the laser and others have said it could. In my opinion why take a chance.

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PLEXTOR 708A DVDRW
PIONEER 107D DVDRW
LITEON 811 DVDRW
TOSHIBA (2)1612 DVD-ROM
PLEXTOR 48X24X48 CDRW
PENT 4 HT 3.00C, 800 FSB, PENT 4 2.40 533 FSB
ASUS MOBO's P4P800SE (2)
1GB CRUCIAL PC3200 MEMORY, 1GB CRUCIAL PC2700
WESTERN DIGITAL 36GB RAPTOR HARD DRIVE
MAXTOR 200 GB HARD DRIVE
MAXTOR (2)250 GB HARD DRIVEs
MAXTOR 200 GB SATA HARD DRIVE
MAXTOR (2)120 GB HARD DRIVEs
MAXTOR 60 GB HARD DRIVE
ANTEC TRUE POWER430 WATT
ANTEC SLK2650 CASE, ANTEC SLK2600AMB CASE
CANOPUS ADVC-100 ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERTER
MAXTOR ATA -133 PCI CONTROLLER CARD

Problem solved. I just need to finalize the disc on my Pioneer Recorder in order for my DVD-ROM drive to read it. The rip speed is pretty good too.

I suppose I'll be putting a lot less strain on my Plextor drives now that I have that problem resolved.