Plextor has always been known to make really great CDRW drives and today I take a look at their PlexWriter 40/12/40A. The PlexWriter drive features a black CD-holder tray which has found to reduce C1 error rates. They have optimized the PCB circuits near the power supply to help decrease noise and provide clean power to the drive. The PlexWriter 40/12/40A features the most advanced design and engineering, including BURN-proof technology.
BURN-proof technology prevents buffer under run errors so you can multi-task while recording a CD. The PlexWriter 40/12/40A also features PowerRec II which is a sophisticated media strategy that guarantees recording results across a brand base of certifited media. A unique feature calibrates the drive to each media disc to ensure the highest quality write operation using Zone-CLV servo positioning. This process produces the highest quality written disc possible.
“Buffer-UnderRuN-Proof Technology” was patented by Sanyo Electric Co. to prevent Buffer UnderRuns. BURN-Proof™ is accomplished by a combination of drive hardware, firmware, and supported writing software. This technology makes it possible for the user to write and multitask on their PC, where previously they could not. Lower performance PCs benefit by being able to perform high-speed recording, and do not have to suspend their work, close applications, or remove network connectivity when they are recording.
PoweRec technology is something relatively new from Plextor. PoweRec stands for Plextor Optimized Writing Error Reduction Control. PoweRec identifies the media when it is inserted and compares it to a list of media stored in the firmware.
The firmware includes a large database of supported media. This database includes a lot of information about the media including its maximum speed. Because Plextor can’t test all media and include it in the firmware they have added another solution.
The drive will run a Optical Power Calibration test, which checks the characteristics and current conditions of the media which will decide the best laser power and speed for the media. The drive will also monitor the media on the fly while it is writing to ensure the best data transfer possible. Plextor has taken the original PoweRec technology and made it even better. PoweRec II adds the ability to test the write quality of the zone it has completed. If the drive feels the write quality was good enough, it will increase the speed and laser power and continue writing. If not, the drive will continue writing at the same speed.
VariRec lets users adjust the laser power for discs that allow for some manual audio quality. A setting of 0 is what the OPC (Optical Power Calibration) believes the laser power should be for the blank disc you’ve got in the drive. VariRec lets you play with the relative settings of the laser power (-2, -1, 0, +1, +2) so users can do some comparison tests on their high-end audio equipment to find the best setting for the type of media you have on hand.
The box of the CDRW is really nice looking, sporting all of its features and specifications. The inside of the box has the CDRW all bundled up in some Styrofoam and there is a box for all of the accessories.
- Plextor PlexWriter PX-W4012TA CD-RW Drive
- Plextor PlexWriter 40/12/40A Manual
- ATAPI Drive Installation Manual/Poster
- Plextor PlexWriter ATAPI Software CD – Revision 1.11
- 1 Plextor 80 minute CD-R Disc
- 1 Plextor 74 minute High Speed 4x-12x CD-RW Disc
- IDE Cable
- Bag of screws, jumpers and emergency eject tool
The front of the CDRW says PlexWriter 40/12/40A, it also has the logo for BURN-proof on it. The LED for the CDRW is a dual amber and green which light up depending on what the CDRW is doing at the time. This CDRW runs pretty cool so there is no fan on the back of the drive like there is on some of the older models. The CDRW ships with no DMA jumper installed which means the drive is set to Ultra DMA. This setting should work in most cases, so you don’t have to do anything. In some cases a computer may lock up with Ultra DMA enabled. If this happens you can change it to Multiwood DMA mode by installing the jumper across the pins to the left of the mode jumper.
The PlexWriter 40/12/40A comes with a Verbatim 80 minute 40x CD-R in a slim jewel case and a 74 minute 10x CD-RW in a regular jewel case. I find it a little odd that this CDRW is able to write at 12x but only a 10x CD-RW is included. We will have to see if this drive is able to rewrite at 12x. The drive also comes with a manual and quick start guide, it seems that most companies in the hardware industry are starting to provide these quick start manuals which I really like. I don’t think you or I should have to dig through a big manual to find the little bit of information we need to get up and running quickly.
The top and bottom of the drive are really nothing special, the top just has the sticker with the serial # and other information such as manufacture date and firmware revision. I am wondering if and when a company is going to make a drive with a window in it.
This CDRW comes bundled with a few software titles, including: Easy CD Creator 5.1 which is Roxio’s main burning software; DirectCD 5.1 which is Roxio’s packet writing software, it will allow you to drag and drop files to burn; Plextor Liquid Player which is a custom version of Liquid Audio’s Liquid Player; Stomp Click’N Design 3D which is a cool program allowing you to make custom labels for your CD; and Plextor Manager 2000 which lets you create and listen to audio CDs
I used Nero’s Infotool to check out this CDRW in detail. As you can see it has a read speed of 40x, a write speed of 40x, and is tray loading. The firmware revision is 1.02 which is the newest one available from Plextor. The drive was made on 5/10/02 and uses a 4MB buffer. It is able to read CD-Rs, CD-RWs, Video CDs, CD Text, CD+G, and C2 errors. It is able to write to CD-Rs, CD-RWs, and has Buffer under run protection (BURN-proof)
I wanted to do some synthetic benchmarks so I loaded up Nero’s CD Speed v 1.0 and started to test. I first put in a generic CD-R and ran the benchmark. The average read time for this disk was around 32x and maxed out at 42.53x. You can see that the seek times at random was 117 ms and the full seek time was 211 ms, the full seek time was a little high but not unbearable.
I then went ahead and ran the burn simulation in the Nero CD speed. Because of PowerRec II the drive would not burn this CD-R faster than 32x because this CD was not in the drives database as 40x compatible. Unfortunately I used the 40x CD-R that came with the drive on another test that I ran and did not have any others. We will see in the real world testing later that you don’t need 40x media to burn at 40x.
Finally I used Nero CD Speed to do the write test on a CD-RW disk. The drive was able to burn at 12x the entire time and did not step up in speeds. The drive at this speed is very quiet and takes about double the time it does compared to the 40x. I don’t use CDRW media much but we will see later that it also does well in the real world testing.
I went ahead and compiled a 700MB CD and simulated a burn at 40x and it burned with no problem at all in 3 minutes and 8 seconds. The first time I did the burn I did not touch the computer, the second time I tried I heavily used my computer and saw the BURN-proof light go on and the CD burned successfully. I really love BURN-proof because I don’t have to just sit and watch my computer go I can keep on using it. I was a little worried that I would not be able to burn at 40x with the cheap media that I had but I tried with 2 differant no-name blank CD-Rs and had no problem at all burning at 40x. The PlexWriter 40/12/40A comes with one 40x CD-R which the drive liked better however it is not necessary.
I then put in a CDRW and burned a 650MB file to it the processes took 6 minutes and 18 seconds. This burn was a lot quieter than the CD-R because it was only burning at 12x. The entire burn is basically done at 12x as there is no need to work up to that speed like there is at 40x.
After I finished burning with the CDRW I went ahead and erased it, which took only 18 seconds. I don’t use CD-RW media very often because it is much more expensive than CD-Rs but if you want the ability to write and rewrite you are going to love this drive because it does both the writing and erasing very quickly.
Conclusion
This is my first time using a Plextor CDRW and I really like it. Before this I had only used Lite-On drives and find this Plextor drive to be of higher quality. Moving up from my 16x I could really see the boost in speed, as I was able to burn a complete CD much faster than before. With all the technology that Plextor packs into this little drive it makes it a great product which can rise above all other CD-RW companies in the race for the fastest and highest quality burn.
It took me only a little over 3 minutes to burn a full 80 minute CD ant 40x and only a little over 6 minutes to burn a CD-RW at 12x. I thought I might have some problems burning at 40x with generic CD-Rs, but I tried 3 different brands and all of them worked perfectly fine.
The only thing I do not like about this drive is that is a little loud. Because it has to speed up so much and burn so fast it does create a noticeable amount of noise. Also Plextor has come out with a 48x drive, which is a little faster than this one.
Overall I’m very happy with this product and am going to give it a 9/10 and award it the OCmodshop Seal of Approval. You can find this drive on Pricewatch for around $100 for the retail version. I would like to thank Plextor for sending this drive over for review.
Pros
- 40x burning
- Good software included
- Media included
- Instructions included
Cons
- 48x version now available
- It’s a little loud