What does the x stand for on 32x?

The x on 32x means that, theoretically, this drive is 32 times faster than the original CD-ROM drive. See the transfer rates for exact speeds.

Below is the standard transfer rates and access times of the majority of CD-ROM drives. The below figures are averages, you can expect to find, on each speed of CD-ROM drives, that these averages may be slower or faster than your CD-ROM drive and to where the CD-ROM is accessing the data from the CD-ROM.

DRIVE SPEED	TRANSFER RATE (BPS)	ACCESS TIME (ms)
Single-speed (1x)	153,600	400
Double-speed (2x)	307,200	300
Triple-speed (3x)	460,800	200
Quad-speed (4x)	614,400	150
Six-speed (6x)	921,600	150
Eight-speed (8x)	1,228,800	100
Ten-speed (10x)	1,536,000	100
Twelve-speed (12x)	1,843,200	100
Sixteen-speed (16x)	2,457,600	90
Eighteen-speed (18x)	2,764,800	90
Twenty-four-speed (24x)	3,686,400	90
Thirty-two-speed (32x)	4,915,200	85
One-hundred-speed (100x)	15,360,000	80
CAV drives (12x - 24x)	1,843,200 - 3,686,400	150-90