detail information
| Posted by | Dennis |
| Posted on | 17/06/02 16:15 |
Positive Points:
- Combo drive!
- Two year full-warranty (only valid in Europe, Middle-East and Africa)
- On-site Collect and Return Service (only for EU-Countries + Norway and Switzerland)
- Supports 20x Z-CLV writing
- Supports 10x CLV re-writing
- Supports 40x CAV reading
- Supports 12x CAV reading of DVD's
- 2MB buffer plus BURN-Proof
- Good features:
- PoweRec II
- VariRec Recording
- Good software package:
- Ahead's Nero Burning Rom
- CyberLink PowerDVD XP
- Plextor's PlexTools
- Excellent DAE speeds (almost 42x)
- Good DAE quality
- Excellent read speeds with certain copy-protected discs
- Supports UDMA 33
- Supports DAO-RAW writing
- Supports overburning (up to 94 minutes)
- Supports writing of 8cm discs
- Supports reading and writing of CD-Text
- Supports reading and writing of full SubChannel Data
- Supports CloneCD's 'Amplify Weak Sectors' option
- Could back-up SafeDisc 2 (before version 2.51.021)
- Could partially back-up SafeDisc v2.51.021
- Drive is very quiet when reading and writing disc. Tray is also very quiet.
Negative Points:
- 'Correct EFM Encoding' not fully supported
- Cannot fully overburn (up to 99 minutes)
- Cannot read 99 minute discs (will fail at about 94 minutes)
- Mount Rainier format not supported
The PleXCombo PX-320A drive is Plextor's first drive that can read DVD discs and is thus their first attempt to infiltrate the DVD market. To keep things short, they've succeeded in doing this. The combo drive performed very well in all of our tests and we simply loved it. The combo drive supports all major features like DAO-RAW writing, overburning, CD-Text, SubChannel Data reading, UDMA33, etc.
When it came to reading discs the drive performed as expected. It was fast and had no problems reading the disc at maximum speed. The drive is limited to 32x when reading CD-ReWriteable media but this is no major disadvantage, and even very good when you keep in mind that other combo drives are a lot slower with CD-ReWriteable media. When reading DVD discs the drive also had no problems reaching the claimed 12x (16.2MB/s) but it is limited to 2x when reading DVD-Video. This is no disadvantage when viewing a DVD movie (since 2x means the drive is very quiet) but it could a disadvantage be when you want to use this drive for ripping DVD-video's. And last but not least the PleXCombo's DAE abilities were excellent. Plextor drives are known for their high DAE speeds and this combo drive is no exception.
When it came to reading and writing data copy-protections, the drive produced some various results. It was very slow with the LaserLock protection but, on the other hand, it was extremely fast when reading the (popular) SafeDisc protection. The drive went through the error sectors as if they weren't even there. The PleXCombo PX-320A had no problems writing the SafeDisc 2 protection but couldn't create a perfect back-up with the SafeDisc v2.51.021 protection. Although the back-up did work in a lot of recorders, it failed in very picky drives such as the Toshiba SD-M1502. When we enabled CloneCD's 'Amplify Weak Sectors' option the drive created perfect back-ups.
The price of the PleXCombo PX-320A is listed as $229,- (EUR 250,-) on the Plextor America website but on PriceWatch.com) you can find it for about $178,- (EUR 198,-). Of course this is a steep price and you might consider buying a 'standard' Plextor PX-W4012A and a cheap DVD-ROM drive, but if you haven't got much space in your case then the PleXCombo PX-320A is definitely the perfect solution.
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