Combo and superdrive speeds

[mad jew]

I've had a bit of a look around and become utterly confused between the different specs everyone gives for CD and DVD burners. If I were to buy a G5 iMac, would the superdrive option burn CDs at the same speed as the regular combo drive? Is the same true for reading CDs and DVDs too?

Thanks for any input.

 

[jsw]

• Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW): reads DVDs at up to 8x speed, writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed, writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed, reads CDs at up to 24x speed
• SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW): writes DVD-R discs at up to 4x speed, reads DVDs at up to 8x speed, writes CD-R discs at up to 16x speed, writes CD-RW discs at up to 8x speed, reads CDs at up to 24x speed

Looks like read speeds are the same, but the Combo writes CDs faster.

 

[mad jew]

• Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW): reads DVDs at up to 8x speed, writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed, writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed, reads CDs at up to 24x speed
• SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW): writes DVD-R discs at up to 4x speed, reads DVDs at up to 8x speed, writes CD-R discs at up to 16x speed, writes CD-RW discs at up to 8x speed, reads CDs at up to 24x speed

Looks like read speeds are the same, but the Combo writes CDs faster.

Thanks jsw, that was quick. What does the speed thing mean? Is a 4x speed DVD the same as a 4x speed CD?