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.