A performance comparison between a recently proposed novel technique known as fast orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (FOFDM) and conventional orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is undertaken over unamplified, intensity-modulated, and direct-detected directly modulated laser-based optical signals. Key transceiver parameters, such as the maximum achievable transmission capacity and the digital-to-analog/analog-to-digital converter (DAC/ADC) effects are explored thoroughly. It is shown that, similarly to conventional OFDM, the least complex and bandwidth efficient FOFDM can support up to ∼20 Gb/s over 500 m worst-case multimode fiber (MMF) links having 3 dB effective bandwidths of ∼200 MHz × km. For compensation of the DAC/ADC roll-off, a power-loading (PL) algorithm is adopted, leading to an FOFDM system improvement of ∼4 dB. FOFDM and conventional OFDM give similar optimum DAC/ADC parameters over 500 m worst-case MMF, while over 50 km single-mode fiber a maximum deviation of only ∼1 dB in clipping ratio is observed due to the imperfect chromatic dispersion compensation caused by one-tap equalizers.