Summary The Plextor PlexWriter 40/12/40A is a great CD burner. It is crippled by the included software, however it can still flawlessly burn a CD faster than you can get your shoes on, and still has a moderate price tag! If you have an 8/4/32 drive, now would be a great time for you to upgrade. And those without CD Burners, this would be a great place to jump into the fray, because they cannot get much faster than this. If you have ever studied exponential growth, you know what I mean. Introduction While everyone else was announcing their 32x drives, Plextor quietly released their 40x drive, completely skipping the release of a 32x, all in the name of better performance. Today I will be looking at the Plextor PlexWriter 40/12/40A, the fastest drive on the market today.
Does it do justice to the Plextor name? Read on to find out. What’s In The Box. Plextor PlexWriter 40/12/40A. Many Detailed Instruction books. Master/Slave ATAPI Cable. Adaptec Easy CD Creator 5.1/Plextor Manager 2000 CD.
4 Mounting Screws. Bent Paperclip for Manual CD Tray Ejection. 1 700MB CD-R, 1 10x 650MB CD-RW.
Extra Jumper Construction The front panel is simple, no extra LEDs, only one button, and the standard audio output jack. Charcoal cy font download. My favorite part is the CD tray; it’s black, and at first glance, nobody knows about it but me.
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The volume knob is black, which is a change from earlier models, but I don’t really have an opinion on it; I never use it. This drive does away with the rear fan that has been found in some recent Plextor models. The drive tray is very solid. The tray motor is as slow as ever, but it pops out immediately once the button is pressed, which is something I like when it comes to CD-ROM drives. Also, this drive is very quiet, I never heard a peep out of it; a welcome change from my loud DVD drive. Installation: Installation was a snap. The included screws save me at least 5 minutes of screw-searching time.
European inland waters (French and Holland canals, Switzerland/Italian lakes, Lake Balaton, Valence, Tisza, River Rheine/Main, Berlin Lakes, Mittellandkanal, Dortmund-Ems-Kanal, Austrian Danube River).
In fact, the hardest part was enabling DMA, and Windows XP did that automatically. The PlexWriter comes with a 66 page Installation And Users Manual, which covers every point including connecting the audio cables, enabling/disabling DMA, inserting a CD into the CD tray, and how fast the LED is blinking at any given time. Software The PlexWriter 40/12/40A comes with Adaptec Easy CD Creator 5.1, Adaptec DirectCD, Plextor LiquidPlayer, and Plextor Manager 2000. I personally dislike Easy CD Creator. I am more of a fan of Nero – Burning Rom.
Plextor Plexwriter Download
I have never liked Liquid Audio, so I do not find it advantageous to include LiquidPlayer. The Plextor Manager 2000 will play, rip, burn, and copy CDs.
This PlexWriter has you covered in case you have not already installed your own favorite audio software. I could not test Plextor Manager 2000, because it does not support Windows XP. Plextor recommends that if you are using Windows XP, you should not install Plextor Manager 2000. It comes with 4 separate programs, listed below. MVP 2000: No thanks, I’d rather use Winamp for my audio playback.
Audio Capture 2000: Oh, the myriad choices! Choose either.WAV or.WMP.
DiscDupe 2000: Burn CD Images to CDs. AudioFS: Makes Audio CD Tracks appear as.wav files in Explorer.
Media Speed Type Burn Time 700MB CD-R 40x Data 3:37 700MB CD-R 24x Audio 4:10 650MB CD-RW 12x Data 7:00 650MB CD-RW 12x Erase 6:52 Technology The first bit of technology used in the 40/12/40A is BURN-Proof. Short for Buffer UnderRuN-Proof, Burn-Proof allows the drive to momentarily pause the CD burning process in order to refill the drive’s internal buffer. These stops cannot be noticed, and protect you from ruining a CD. Through all my experience with Plextor drives (with BURN-Proof), I have never made a coaster. The second, and most exciting, innovation is called PoweRec-II. PoweRec is a Plextor-specific technology that tests the CD-R/RW to find its maximum burning speed. In its second generation, PoweRec-II is allows you to burn at maximum speed, and maximum quality, on just about any speed-rated disk.
This is reflected in my testing below. Performance It might be the software, the media, or just burning a CD at that high speed, but most of the time I burned a CD, afterwards, I would be alerted that I had averted a buffer under-run at least once. I never made one coaster, thanks to BURNProof. The drive has been out for a month now, and 40x media is nowhere to be found.
Even 32x media is hard to find! So, I tested this drive with different kinds of 16x and 24x media, and the drive burned flawlessly at 40x, thanks to PowerRec-II. This was the same with the CD-RW media provided, it was rated 4x-10x, but it burned at 12x fine. These numbers are incredible! Making a CD in 3 and a half minutes is a beautiful thing to witness. Nero calculates the burn time automatically, so I used it to time my results.
These are only my individual results, yours may vary depending on how fast your computer is, and what software you use. (For stats on the test machine,.) Conclusion: The Plextor PlexWriter 40/12/40A is a great CD burner. It is crippled by the included software, however it can still flawlessly burn a CD faster than you can get your shoes on, and still has a moderate price tag! If you have an 8/4/32 drive, now would be a great time for you to upgrade.
And those without CD Burners, this would be a great place to jump into the fray, because they cannot get much faster than this. If you have ever studied exponential growth, you know what I mean.
Summary The Plextor PlexWriter PX-708A is currently the fastest DVD+/-RW drive on the market with its 8X DVD+R write performance. We experienced no problems burning content to any of our test media and were able to heavily multi-task while doing so. The included software suite is very robust and complete compared to other DVD writers on the market. It should be a while until we see the next generation of dual format DVD writers hit the market so if you have been waiting to make a DVD writer purchase, now is the time and the PX-708A is what you will want. Introduction While other manufacturers were quickly producing their own dual format DVD writers, Plextor took their time bringing the PX-708A to market, all in the name of better performance.
The PX-708A is capable of writing DVD+R media at a blazing fast 8X and +RW media at 4X speeds making it the fastest consumer based DVD writer currently on the market. The PX-708A is also capable of writing CD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW formats. Add to the mix a robust software package, a one year warranty and a reliable burn and good things truly come to those that wait. Features and Design Plextor is currently selling two internal DVD writers: the and the PX-708A.
Both drives can read and write DVD+R/RW formats. The the PX-708A is capable of writing both +/- formats and does it at faster speeds, which makes it cost about $45-$50 more than the PX-504A. Here is a comparison of the two drives. Formats PX-504A PX708A DVD+R 4X 8X DVD+RW 2.4X 4X DVD-R – 4X DVD-RW – 2X CD-R 16X 40X CD-RW 10X 24X DVD-ROM 12X 12X CD-ROM 40X 40X When compared to the fastest DVD+/- drive available from TDK, Pioneer, Sony and NEC, the PX-708A is capable of faster write speeds on both the DVD+R/RW and CD-R/RW fronts.
And while the PX-708A might have been to market later than their competitors, the benefit is all yours. If you look at the software packages of other DVD Writers you will notice that either Nero 5 or Easy CD Creator 5 DVD Edition is what you get for burning software.
Plextor was able to package Roxio’s Easy CD and DVD Creator 6 with the PX-708A as well as PhotoSuite 5 SE and Dant’z Retrospect trial version. Also included in the PX-708A package is an IDE cable and a blank DVD+R media disc. There is no audio cable or +/- RW media with the writer. Apple users will have to skip the PX-708A and opt for Plextor’s PX-708UF external drive which has the same specs as their internal drive but with Apple support. Plextor did the same thing with their PX-504 drives.
If you have a black computer case and would like to find a matching DVD writer, the Plextor PX-708A is also available with a black faceplate. The Plextor PX-708A features Buffer Under Run Proof technology to prevent buffer underrun errors as well as Plextor’s PoweRec writing error reduction control, which is designed for stable recording at maximum speed. The PX-708A features a 2MB memory buffer which is typical for most DVD writers, but we would have liked to have seen a larger memory buffer, especially for Plextor’s top-of-the-line writer. For complete drive specifications please click on the links above and below the review.
Performance In our transfer rate tests it was clear that the PX-708A had a significant advantage over the TDK 440i and Plextor PX-504A nearly doubling the speed of the other two drives. But when it came to our writing and reading tests, the PX-708A just barely held an edge over the competition. On the smaller size files the PX-708A was only slightly faster, but on the larger files and directories, the PX-708A showed its true performance difference. System Configurations: Windows XP Pro; Athlon 1700+; Abit AT7 Max 2; 512MB DDR 333MHz; PNY GeforceFX 500 video adapter. Use and Testing Installation of the PX-708A drive is as basic as any other CD-ROM or CD-Writer drive. For best performance we recommend installing the PX-708A on its own IDE cable if available or as the master drive if there is more than one drive sharing the same IDE cable. We also recommend downloading any updates to the included Easy CD Creator software to help improve stability and performance.
Plextor Plexwriter
We noticed that the tray on the PX-708A opens and closes considerably faster than on previous Plextor products, a feature we would like to see more of. The first thing you will want to do after installing the PX-708A is to head on over to Plextor’s website and download their latest Firmware update. We noticed faster writing times and better media compatibility after upgrading our test drive. In our previous tests we had problems with buffer under run errors on the drive, but experienced no ill-fated attempts at writing media with the PX-708A; even while surfing the web. In our transfer rate tests it was clear that the PX-708A had a significant advantage over the and nearly doubling the speed of the other two drives. But when it came to our writing and reading tests, the PX-708A just barely held an edge over the competition. It seemed liked the PX-708A would write at the 8X speed reaching 99% completed in record times, but then would just hang there for several seconds before completely finishing the process.
Hopefully a future firmware update will address this problem. But in any case, the PX-708A still proved to write at record speeds.
In Easy CD Creator 6 and Nero CD-DVD Speed we reached the 8X rating of the PX-708A drive. For complete test results please click on the tab and link above and below this review.
Plextor Plexwriter Scsi
Conclusion The Plextor PlexWriter PX-708A is currently the fastest DVD+/-RW drive on the market with its 8X DVD+R write performance. We experienced no problems burning content to any of our test media and were able to heavily multi-task while doing so.
The included software suite is very robust and complete compared to other DVD writers on the market. It should be a while until we see the next generation of dual format DVD writers hit the market so if you have been waiting to make a DVD writer purchase, now is the time and the PX-708A is what you will want.
When burning a CD-ROM, most CD-RW or CD-R drive users are afraid even to breathe on the system for fear of the dreaded buffer underrun error. Such a glitch in the process means a waste of half an hour and another useless coaster. Enter the Plextor PlexWriter 12/10/32A ($300 street). Not only does this internal ATAPI drive offer an unprecedented combination of speed (12X write, 10X rewrite, and 32X read), but it's also the first to implement Sanyo's BURN-Proof (Buffer UnderRun Proof) technology, which ensures fault-tolerant CD burning. The buffer underrun occurs when the CD-RW drive's write buffer cannot be filled fast enough with the data from the source drive.
When there's no more data to write in the drive's buffer, the CD-burning process comes to a premature halt. Often the cause is the interruption of the CPU by another application or by other system resources contending for the same data bus.
In the event of buffer underrun, the BURN-Proof feature remedies the problem in three steps. First, the technology stops the burn.
Second, it waits for the buffer to refill. And third, it locates the last written frame in the spiral track and resumes the recording process. The Plextor drive also increases the chances of a successful burn with its media-detection feature, which identifies the type of blank media and adjusts the CD writing strategy according to the media's specification. In testing, the Plextor drive successfully burned a CD at 12X while i-Bench 1.5 was running in the backgrounda Web-based test that taxes the CPU and hard drive heavily. If such a stress can run while a CD is burning, casually browsing the Web should not even cause the Plextor drive to blink.
None of the CD-RW drives we reviewed in our last round-up (March 21) passed this test. You can easily overlook the Plextor drive's rich set of other features in the shadow of the BURN-Proof technology. The drive is the first 10X rewritable drive in the market and is capable of 24X (maximum) Digital Audio Extraction (DAE). And the Flash ROM makes the drive upgradable via the Internet. The software bundle includes Adaptec EasyCD Creator 4 and PlextorManager 2000.
The latter offers many utilities, including Music Video Producer 2000 (MVP 2000), which has the ability to decode various media formats including AVI, CDA, MPEG, MP3, Red Book audio, WAV, and WMA. Considering the Plextor PlexWriter 12/10/32A's speed, fault-tolerance features, and the solid software bundle, we have difficulty in recommending any other CD-RW drive to mainstream users.