Just to clear it up - the nero toolkit does not burn CD's, or much of anything.
The CDSpeed just tests the media (cd's dvds) to see what kind they are, whether they are writeable or rewritable, and whats the maximum speed at which you can burn them
DriveSpeed tests the speed of the cd/dvd drive, what types it can burn, what manufacturer, and junk like that.
As for an alternative, I would say NO to ImgBurn. I only use it for burning ISO's and other cd/dvd images. I use Infrarecorder. It is better for general data or file storage.
Infrarecorder can be found here ->
http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net