there are many softwere utilities that determine the speed of the drive.
one of the best is CD-tach.

1X cd drive = 150 KB per second

there fore  24X cd drive = 24 * 150 = 3600 kb per second

most drives dont run at the actual drive speed (my 32X cd drive transfer
rate was 2.5 mb per second)

if you want the fastest drives around you should take a look at kenwood's
new 52x drive

sami

> How would one identify the speed (4X,8X 36X, etc.) of a cd-rom, if there
> are no markings on the unit? Is there some software that can determine
> this?
>
> I would  think you could determine the speed in kbytes per second, with
> the appropriate software, but how
> does this translate into actual drive speed designation?
>
> Thanks;  John
>
> Capt. John M. Zyla
> http://www.smart.net/~captzyla
>
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