1. Introduction
PleXWriter
PX-W2410A IDE CDR-W - Page
1
- Introduction:
has
been an important player at the high speed recording arena. The previous 12x
and 16x Plextor Recorders were judged, by many people, as a 'best buy' since
the majority of users met a great performance at an attractive price. On the
other hand, Plextor has stopped a long time ago leading the CDR-writing race
while it prefers to follow step-by-step the writing speed race leader Sanyo,
with similar (at least in specs) models. The Sanyo 24x has been out for quite
sometime, while it now seems, it's time to find out if the users who have
been patient for the Plextor's new proposal at 24x writing speed have (or
will be) rewarded.
Plextor's
announcement for the PX-W2410A contained important news. First of, the drive
supported all available writing speeds and second, it includes a 2 year-warranty
(NOTE: only applied for European users). No other manufacturer
has offered so far, such a long time-period warranty! Plextor is the first
company to move into this path, since all other manufacturers will start offering
2 years of warranty after 2002. This will be forced by the EU law-system for
all peripheral manufacturers.
- Features:
Plextor is using Zone-CLV in order to achieve the maximum speed of 24x.
Other companies that have introduced this technique in the past were Sanyo
and Ricoh. Plextor has also developed a similar to those companies, CD-Recording
quality control mechanism called PoweRec II for monitoring the writing
quality and reducing the writing speed accordingly. Last, but not least, as
with the previous Plextor models, the model offers BURN-Proof as the main
anti-buffer underrun technology.
The
drive supports: 1X, 4X, 12X, 16X (CLV) and 20X, 24X Zone-CLV writing speeds.
The Sanyo/TDK offers only 24x and LiteOn also offers 20x/24x as the maximum
writing speeds. Another difference is the addition of two extra MB for drive's
buffer size which is now up to 4MB. Plextor said that in their tests, 4MB
worked better than 2MB, probably because less buffer underruns have occurred.
Finally, there are no more jumper hacks to get the desired DMA33 connection
mode since now it's officially supported.
The drive supports the following writing modes: Track-at-Once,
Disc-at-Once, Session-at-Once, Multisession, and variable/fixed packet writing.
The main difference between the variable/fixed packet writing modes is that,
Variable packet writing is used only on CD-R media. Because packets need to
be erased and overwritten, CD-RW will use fixed packet size...
- The New features:
(Constant Linear Velocity) is the recording technology
used from Plextor in order to achieve both 20x and 24x recording speeds. When
a recorder uses the Zone CLV recording method, the CD is divided into 3 zones
from the inner to the outer side of the CD, in which the recording speed varies
but it's always constant (CLV). The recording process starts at the beginning
of the disc at a constant speed in the first zone. After a pre-defined time
(when the next zone starts) the recording automatically elevates to a higher
speed. At the speed switching point, BURN-Proof technology is used to assure
a fast, reliable transition with no loss of data. The following graph shows
the exact details:
The Plextor PX-W2410A starts recording at 16x in the lead-in
area till 6mins. After that, it shifts the speed up to 20x and at 16minutes
finally elevates it to 24x and stays there until the end. The speed-change points
(6-16mins) are not clear if they are fixed or vary according to the recording
media, since Plextor denied providing a clear answer. The official posted information
is "...The write strategy for each area is a result of testing and investigation
of the media in the technical lab..." gives an answer but this seems
not as a clear one. The writing speeds inside the CD-Recording zones can change
according to the quality of the used media as "PoweRec II" technology
investigates and then defines.
is used from the Plextor PX-W2410A in order to ensure the best writing quality
performance at any writing speed. PoweRec are the first name from the following
words "Plextor Optimised Writing Error Reduction
Control".
All Plextor CD-RW drives contain a media catalogue of all certified
media, listed by manufacturer and part number. This catalog is stored in the
drive's ROM and is used to set the appropriate "Write Strategy'' for the
disc being recorded. The PoweRec technology will identify and test the target
disc and select an optimised writing strategy for this media. Running OPC will
overcome the varieties in dye characteristics over the disc. During writing,
real-time write quality monitoring, ensures the best write quality for the selected
speed. Additional, PoweRec II will act similarly for speed and area switching
in Zone CLV recordings. The writing quality at the end of a zone will determine
the recording speed in the next zone. Click here
to see how the "PoweRec II" logical diagram works.
We have made several questions to Plextor in order to clarify
some technical aspects of the "PoweRec II", which were NOT answered
since Plextor feels it's industrial and confidential information :(
- The package:
We
got the European retail package which contains: the drive itself, an electronic
PDF manual with 16 languages, an RMA request form, a registration card, a quick
installation guide, 2 blank CDs - one 24x recordable and one HS-RW erasable,
an IDE cable, an audio cable and mounting screws. Plextor has changed the main
recording software from WinOnCD and moved to the popular Nero 5.5. The package
also contains the known "PlexTools" CD which was upgraded to v1.09
and now contains also the 16 languages PDF manuals, Nero 5.5.3.5 and InCD v2.26.1
as the main CDR software.
The front of the PleXWriter PX-W2410A is the same as introduced
with the previous IDE models. The drive contains the "24/10/40", "BPRec"
and the "High Speed" logos and with a quick look gives the possible
buyer an idea about the drive's capabilities:
In the back of the drive, you will notice the addition of an
"extra fan" that no other 20x or 24x recorder had before. You will
also find the power connector, the IDE cable connector, jumpers for setting
up the MASTER/SLAVE/CABLE select status and finally, the analog/SPDIF connectors:
- Installation:
The
Plextor PX-W2410A was installed as a Master in the primary IDE BUS. The drive
worked in UDMA-33 model ,which is now officially supported from Plextor. After
booting, it identified itself as a "PLEXTOR CD-R PX-W2410A".
We unchecked the Auto Insert notification, checked DMA and rebooted.
The drive was a July 2001 model with firmware revision v1.00
and TLA#0000 hardware revision. We used Nero v5.5.2.4, CloneCD v3.0.5.1, PadusDJ
v3.50.799 and Ahead InCD v2.26 for the recording tests.
-
Test Machine:
WinMe OS
Soyo 7VCA
Celeron II 566 over clocked to 850 MHz
128MB SDRAM PC 133
WD 18GB UDMA 66
Quantum Fireball EX 6.4 GB UDMA 33
DAWI 2975 - PCI (ULTRA) SCSI Host Adapter
Sanyo CRD-BP1500 firmware vHg.35
TDK CyClone 241040 firmware v6h.35
LiteOn LTR-24101B firmware v5S01
PleXWriter PX-W2410A firmware v1.00
2. Data Tests
PleXWriter
PX-W2410A IDE CDR-W - Page
2
Data Tests
Test Method:
- SCSI Mechanic v3.0x: This was used to compare the Plextor's
I/O performance against other various CDR-W drives (see charts). We used a pressed
CD containing PlexTools v1.08 for all of the tests.
- Nero CD Speed v0.83b was also used to check the drive's performance
with pressed CDs. For that test, we also used the PlexTools v1.08 pressed CD.
- SCSI Mechanic v3.0x results:
The PleXWriter PX-W2410A seems to be a great perfomer, but into
SCSI Mechanic tests got the second place behind LiteOn LTR-24102B. The drive's
"Average Sequential I/O" is only 11kb/s lower than the LiteOn drive,
which isn't really a noticable difference, under normal use. The drive's long
seek times doesn't help it reach the top at the "Average Random I/O"
test, and stays second with 720Kb/s, but far above the Sanyo & TDK drives.
Finally into the same sector test even if it manages to get almost 22.34Mb/s,
stays behind the LiteOn LTR-24102B, which figures at the top with an awesome
26.1MB/s.
- Nero CD Speed v0.83 results: (click
here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
Using Nero CD Speed 0.83b, we have major changes from the SCSI
Mechanic test. Here the PleXWriter PX-W2410A is the king with 31.8X average
reading speed and LiteOn stays second with 0.92X performance gap. Usualy our
test results from both Nero CD Speed and SCSI Mechanic tests are the same but
this time were not...
Into the average seek times test, Plextor gets the last, and
worse, position with 155secs random seek time. The LiteOn is the top performer
with only 90secs random seek time and both Sanyo and TDK drives gets the second
and third place.
- PSX Pressed Media
In order to fulfil user requests, we have included a test with mixed mode
CDs (mainly PSX). For this test we used the PSX game 'NBA Jam Extreme' and we
ripped the image to HD with CloneCD. We measured the reading times and the PleXWriter
PX-W2410A seems the definite choice for someone who wants to have fast PSX images
ripped into his HD:
- CDR Media: (click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
The PleXWriter PX-W2410A again climbs at the first place, but
with a pretty low performance gap of 0.32X, among the four tested drives.
3. RW reading tests
PleXWriter
PX-W2410A IDE CDR-W- Page
3
RW reading tests
- Nero CD Speed v0.83b Test: (Click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
For the RW tests, we used TDK's HS-RW media. The Plextor drive
got the second place after both Sanyo and above TDK and LiteOn drives, with
25.36X:
CloneCD Reading
Tests
- Procedure:
We used CloneCD (v3.0.5.1) and 5 original CDs - Euro 2000 (SafeDisc 1),
No One Lives For Ever (SafeDisc 2), Rally Masters (LaserLock 1), Desperados
(LaserLock 2) and V-Rally 2 Expert (SecuROM 2) - in order to test the reading
time of PleXWriter PX-W2410A. We have also tested the reading performance with
backups of the original CDs, since reading speeds vary between an original and
a backup copy. For comparison reasons we also added the results of the already
tested TDK CyClone 241040, Sanyo CRD-BP1500P and LiteOn LTR-24102B. The following
screenshot shows the Plextor's reading/writing capabilities:
- SafeDisc 1/2 Results:
The PleXWriter PX-W2410A is slightly faster than the rest 3
drives. However its performance is far away from what Plextor has shown into
its previous models, since now the PX-W2410A needs almost 1hour to make an image
of SD1/2 protected CDs, when the PX-W1610A needed only 2 mins :(
With SafeDisc 2 protected CDs, PleXWriter seems
to be worse than LiteOn and Sanyo drives and gets the third place, using the
original copy, and takes the last place with the backup disc.
LaserLock 1/2 Results:
This was the most weird test. As you can see the drive doesn't
have any numbers posted since when we enabled the "Bad Scanner Sector"
option, the drive gave up reading ,when displaying "Searhing for errors"
message, and sometimes we had a blue screen from Windows (Windows Protection
Error). We have witnessed the same effect with LiteOn 24x, only using the original
CD however. We are not sure if the problem lies in the software or in the drive...
As soon we have more news will update the review.
We had exactly the same strange effect with LaserLock 2 protected CDs as
with LaserLock 1 CDs...
SecuROM Results
The PleXWriter PX-W2410A supports reading/writing of SubChannel
data from both Data/Audio tracks. However, compared to the LiteOn 24x drive,
it reads them quite slow (9:35mins for image).
4. DAE Tests
PleXWriter
PX-W2410A IDE CDR-W-
Page 4
DAE Tests
Test Method:
We used CD DAE 99 v0.21 beta and EAC v0.9 prebeta 11 software in order to
check the DAE performance of the PleXWriter PX-W2410A with various AudioCDs
(both pressed and CDR). The posted DAE results are the average of both applications,
but the CPU usage was only taken from CD DAE 99, since EAC occupies the system
a lot more. As a last note, we used the "BURST" reading mode of EAC.
We made a full CD Rip starting from the first to the last track of the CD. The
Average DAE reported speed along with the CPU Usage is displayed in the test
graphs.
- DAE features:
We
used EAC v0.9 prebeta 11 to examine the drive's features. As the program reported,
the drive does "Caching" data, "Accurate Stream" and "C2
Error info". The specifications state that the drive can reach up to 40x
DAE (max) with both pressed and CDR media.
- Pressed AudioCD results: (click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
The DAE ripping speed of PleXWriter PX-W2410A is superb and outperforms
any other 24x CD-RW drive, reaching 30.1X average DAE ripping speed:
- CDR AudioCD Results: (click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
During those tests, we faced the most important <bug> of the drive.
First we used our usual test discs -made from Taiyo Yuden, which were used in
many previous tests without any problems. The drive failed to recognize the
contents of the disc! We then tried another test disc, written on a different
recorder than the first one, which was a different brand (Verbatim). This time
Plextor did recognize the disc with no problems. However our test results weren't
much satisfactory, since the drive reached only 32x
(max) DAE ripping speed. We tried again making a another AudioCDR -this time
from Ricoh, and Plextor PX-W2410A performed very good and reached 30x average
ripping speed:
From futher testing we noticed that the drive denied recognize almost all
Taiyo Yuden inserted media, which the PX-W2410A drive had burned...We also saw
problems recognizing our test disc for the "BAD DAE Tests" - made
from Princo.
- Advanced DAE Quality
The PleXWriter PX-W2410A, completed the Nero CD Speed "Advanced
DAE test" successfully and it got 100 (perfect) quality score. Also as
Nero CD Speed reports the drive supports reading of CD-Text and from thelead
in/out area. The tested disc came from Mitsui SG Ultra II 74min 24x.
Despite the good results with the Mitsui media we done additional
tests with Ricoh 74min 24x media. This time the results were slight different.
How? Lets see the first picture. This time Plextor makes 100 score BUT with
only 24.08X average reading speed.
Let's try again to read the same media. This time the drive reads with maximum
speed but now produces a lot of data errors...
Which test result we should take as the most accurate for our tests?..We
don't know. There seems to be something that needs fixing since it's not possible
with different media (written from the same drive) getting so different results
(we are talking about a Plextor drive here...)
- Bad CDR Media results
Despite the fact that Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test stretches
drive's mechanism to the max, we decided to do real life tests with a scratched
disc. The disc was dirty, and with some light scratches, enough in order to
cause problems to most of the tested drives. We have used CD DAE 99 software
to rip the whole disc (756539616 sectors) and the results were very interesting:
|
|
Average Speed (X)
|
Errors
|
Errors Of Total Disc (%)
|
|
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
|
16.4
|
28103
|
almost 0
|
|
TDK CyClone 241040
|
14.4
|
0
|
0
|
|
LiteOn LTR-24101B
|
22.9
|
1
|
0
|
|
PleXWriter PX-W2410A
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
As the tests showed, the Plextor drive failed to recognize our
CDR media for the specific test. The same media have been used for performing
other tests and till today no other drive had ever failed at least recognizing
it....
- Ripping 90 and 99min CDs
As we can see from the above graphs, the PleXWriter PX-W2410A
has no problem reading 90min CDs. However it failed reading our 99min test disc...
5. CDR Tests - Page 1
PleXWriter
PX-W2410A IDE CDR-W - Page
5
CDR Tests - Page 1
The PleXWriter PX-W2410A is the 6th recorder, following Sanyo
BP1500, Ricoh MP7200, Ricoh MP9200, Acer 2010 and LiteOn LTR-24102B that supports
Zone-CLV writing technology. The drive uses Zone-CLV to achieve both 20x and
24x writing speeds. We used Nero CD Speed 0.83 build-in writing test in order
to test the drive's writing performance at the maximum (24x) writing speed.
As
Nero CD Speed revealed, the drive starts writing at 16x (CLV), jumps to 20x
(CLV) at 6min, climbs up to 24x (CLV) at 16min and continues to write at this
speed until the end of the burn. The average writing speed of 24x (Zone-CLV)
writing speed setting is around 22.77x making it slightly slower than LiteOn
LTR-24102B by 0.01X! Both drive are faster than Sanyo and TDK 24x recorders,
from what our tests showed in specific CDR media (Ricoh 80min 24x).
The
drive doesn't reduce the writing speed with low quality media, like JustSpeed,
but as Plextor explains the drive monitors the quality of the produced CDs and
will adjust the writing speed accordingly. From our media tests, you are allowed
to write even up to 24x with 16x and 12x certified CDs but the recording will
happen in 16x/20x writing speed instead. Actually in one case the drive dropped
its recording speed down to 4x/12x with 8cm/business cards CDs, as Nero reported.
- Procedure
We
tested the PleXWriter PX-W2410A with Nero v5.5.2.4, CloneCD v3.0.5.1 and Padus
DJ v3.50.799 software.
We used many different brands and types of media: Verbatim 16x, Mitsui 16x
& 24x, Prodisc 16x, Ricoh 8x & 24x, TDK D-View 12x, Princo 16x, Maxell
16x, Taiyo Yuden 24x, SKC 74/80min 16x, Imation 80min 16x and Verbatim/TDK 74min
HS-RW media.
We did notice some problems -coasters- with Imation 80min 16x media at 24x
(max). At the 20x writing speed no problems were occured. We also noticed that
the drive refused to recognize Prodisc NoName 80min (16x) CDs. Plextor does
suggest using only media from their recommendation list which can be found over
here.
- CD-R Tests:
We created a "DataCD" job with data slightly over 74mins (74:03:65).
We burned the same job with all 4 CDR-W drives:
As you can see, the PleXWriter PX-W2410A did made the lower recording
time, 3-4secs faster than the competiton!
Let's see how the drives behave at 20x writing speed. The PleXWriter
PX-W2410A did had the lower recording time at 20x, faster than the Ricoh MP7200/9200
recorders. The drive needs 259secs (4:19mins) 3 less than MP9200, 6secs than
MP7200 and 8secs faster than LiteOn 24x. The CPU Usage is at the same levels
as the competition.
At the maximum writing speed, PleXWriter PX-W2410A is around
10secs faster(!) than Sanyo and TDK recorders and 2secs than the LiteOn drive.
Note that this test result occurred ONLY when using a specific media type (Mitsui
74min 16x) and that with most other media the drive is slightly faster than
the LiteOn (1 or 2 secs).
- 80min CDs:
As with the previous test, we created a DataCD (80:01:47) and used the same
media for all burns:
On this test, the Plextor needed the exact same time like Sanyo
BP1500P, 3 secs less than LiteOn LTR-24102B.
At 20x writing speed, the Plextor drive is again faster than
the competition with 4-6secs advantage. The CPU Usage is around 16%, in the
same levels as the competition.
At the maximum writing speed (24x), the PleXWriter had the exact same time
with LiteOn LTR-24102B. The drive is 7secs faster than TDK CyClone 241040, again
using a specific type of media. The CPU Usage was 17%, which is acceptable.
6. CDR Tests - Page 2
PleXWriter
PX-W2410A IDE CDR-W - Page
6
CDR Tests - Page 2
- Comparison Charts
Let's see how LiteOn's 24x Z-CLV compares against Plextor's 24x
Z-CLV writing speed.
As the above graph shows the LiteOn has the exact same speed
change points, as the Plextor 24x. After all their average recording speed,
according to the Nero CD Speed is only 0.01X. Their differences are minimal
and we advise you to click on the graphs in order see the enlarged pictures
and notice them.
The PleXWriter has more or less the same rotation speeds with
LiteOn LTR-24102B. The drive makes a minimal noise when writing speed jumps
off, and looks even quieter than the Liteon 24x. Let's see now our comparison
chart:
|
CDR-W drives
|
Average Writing Speed (X) with 80min
CD
|
|
Yamaha CRW2200
|
18.44
|
|
Ricoh MP9200
|
19.70
|
|
PleXWriter PX-W2410A
|
22.77
|
|
LiteOn LTR-24102B
|
22.78
|
The following chart illustrates the differences between 20x P-CAV,
20x Z-CLV and 24x Z-CLV writing speeds:
(Note: The above
recording times are the lowest from our media tests)
The PleXWriter PX-W2410A 'steals' the first place from LiteOn LTR-24102B
since its 2 secs faster. The drive is 50secs faster than the Yamaha 2200E, 32secs
than the MP9200 and 2secs faster than the LiteOn LTR-24102B with 74min CDs.
With 80min CDs the time differences are slightly higher, 57secs than the Yamaha
2200E, 33secs than the MP9200 and finally, equal with the LiteOn 24x.
- Overburning Tests:
The PleXWriter PX-W2410A supports overburning up to 94:59mins, as our tests
proved.
- CD-Text Results:
We made several AudioCDs with CD-Text and our tests showed that the drive
can write/write CD-Text format.
- CloneCD Tests:
CloneCD
v3.0.5.1 reports that the drive support the DAO/SAO-RAW writing modes and of
course Burn-Proof anti-coaster technology. From our tests results DAO-RAW writing
works without any problems for SafeDisc 1/2, LaserLock 1/2 and SecuROM 2 protected
CDs.
- SD2 Support:
For the SD2 test we have used the "No One Lives For Ever" and
the "Emperor - Battle for Dune" CD titles. A second SD2 title has
been added in the tests after our viewers request. We used the PleXWriter PX-W2410A
as both reader and writer. The produced backups played flawlessly at the drives
we tried:
|
Worked:
Pioneer DVD-305S
TDK CyClone 241040
Ricoh MP7200
Ricoh MP9200
Plextor PX-W40TS
Yamaha 2100E
LiteOn LTR-24102B
PleXWriter PX-W2410A
LiteOn LTD-163
|
|
The PleXWriter PX-W2410A will make its users happy since it's
supports perfect backups of SD2 protected CDs.
- 8cm mini CDs:
Plextor officialy doesn't support 8cm and mini business cards CDs. During
our tests we tried and burned succesfully one business card CD. The drive made
a lot of noise and gave only 4x and 12x as the available recording speed. We
also made some simulation tests with 8cm CDs. It would be nice for Plextor to
officially support 8cm CDs, since a lot of 8cm Mp3 players are entering the
market in the upcoming few months.
- Buffer Underrun tests:
The PleXWriter PX-W2410A support "BURN-Proof" anti-buffer underrun
protection. The drive has got the Burn-Proof certification from the BURN-Proof
verification center which ensures that the quality of the produced CDs would
be the best possible. We have made several tests and from what we saw the drive
will always keep recording even after opening too many applications (up to the
point, which the PC is almost ready to crash).
7. RW Writing Tests
PleXWriter
PX-W2410A IDE CDR-W - Page
7
RW Writing Tests
We used Nero 5.5.2.4 for writing CDs in maximum RW writing speed
for all the tested drives in 10x HS-RW media. All drives support fully the HS-RW
writing standard:
The Plextor drive needed only 484 secs to finish the task. The
drive is faster than Sanyo/TDK, by 8 and 10secs, and from LiteOn with 3secs
performance gap. The erase time is slightly higher than the competition (60
secs) while the CPU Usage is also low.
- Packet Writing Tests
We used Ahead InCD v2.26.1 for all Packet Writing tests. We used TDK HS-RW
media and we formatted it. The formatted disc revealed 530mbs of free space.
We copied a 403 MB file (403.147 kbs) from a Hard Disk (on the same PC as the
writers) to the formatted RW media-using explorer (we dragged and dropped) we
completed the test twice to eliminate possible time measurement faults and user
errors:
The results shows that the PleXWriter PX-W2410A is the faster
recorder/reader at the packet writing mode. The drive outperformed LiteOn by
only 0.02X at the writing process, and with 5.63X at the reading test.
8. Conclusion
PleXWriter
PX-W2410A IDE CDR-W - Page
8
Conclusion
|
Positive (+)
|
Negative (-)
|
|
- Supports 20x and 24x writing (Z-CLV)
speeds
- "BURN-Proof" anti-coaster technology
- "PoweRec II" quality monitor system
- European retail package offers 2 years of warrantee! Unique feature!!!
- 4MB of Buffer
- Best data reading performance with pressed/cdr media
- Very Good DAE ripping speed
- Very good packet reading/writing performance
- Supports DAO-RAW writing mode
- Can read/write SubChannel Data from Audio/Data tracks
- Can produce perfect SD2 backups!!!
- Supports CD-Text (read/write)
- Supports Overburning (up to 95mins)
- Supports Ultra-DMA 33 connection interface
- Complete retail package - contains Nero 5.5x and 16 languages manual!
- Very low noise when operating - notice how quite is the tray!
- Drive has attached fan
|
- Bigger seek times compared to the competition
- Drive is picky with the inserted Audio CDR media
- DAE quality seems vari with different CDR media
- Recognize problems with specific CDR brands
- Produced coasters with specific CDR media (Imation 80min 16x)
- Failed to recognize 99min CDs
- Failed to recognize Prodisc NoName 80min CDs
- Very bad CloneCD reading speeds :(
- Price higher than competition (+30$)
|
Plextor's name is connected with quality and maximum performance
under all circumstances. The new PX-W2410A model continues this tradition and
is a great performer in many writing/reading tests. The drive seems to be the
fastest recorder ever produced and burns 650Mb under 4mins. The new "PowerRec
II" system ensures maximum writing quality and the 4MB of buffer among
with the BURN-Proof will eliminate possible buffer underruns. The addition of
2 years of warranty (only for European users) gives a big motive to possible
buyers since no other manufacturer has offered it, so far. Finally, the capability
of doing perfect SD2 backup CDs will make many users happy. So is this the drive
that we have all been dreaming off?
We could say yes if the following problems weren't present:
a) the recognition problems of various written AudioCDR media, b) the strange
results with various CDs at the Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE quality test and
c) the very bad CloneCD reading performance. In our opinion the drive needs
more fine tuning in order to correct the above problems. On the other hand,
Plextor has proved that cares about its customers and most possible sooner than
we think, the mentioned problems will be corrected with a newer firmware update.
After all, none was <born> perfect :-)
So how about the competition from LiteOn 24? Both drives ship
the same time in the market but with a starting 30$(+) price gap. Plextor is
faster but LiteOn is cheaper. Plextor has faster but LiteOn better DAE quality.
Both support overburning, SD2 backups and have Nero 5.5x in the retail package.
Which one is the best recorder? Hard to tell. Judge your own needs and decide
which drive fits you better. After all it's YOU who always make the final judgement
:-)