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The Plextor PX-712A recorder supports 4x DVD±RW and 24x CD-RW re-writing speeds. On this page of our review we'll see how well the Plextor drive can re-write data, how it performs with packet writing and last but not least, we'll take a look at the drive's Mount Rainier performance.

Note: The Plextor PX-712A drive supports 4x for DVD-RW discs but for our review we only had 2x DVD-RW media available. Therefore we have focussed on DVD+RW performance only.

Re-Writing Data:

For our first test we're going to record a DVD-Video compilation to 4x DVD+RW media using the Nero Burning Rom software. In the screenshot below you can see the burn process completed successfully in 14 minutes and 19 seconds:

The Plextor PX-712A performed as expected. The drive was a little faster than some of the other drives we've reviewed (the Plextor PX-708A needed 14m:40s for example). Let's continue with CD-RW performance:

The Plextor's CD-RW performance was also as one would expect. The PX-712A needed 3 minutes and 31 seconds to write the compilation. Once again the drive was a few seconds faster than other drives we've reviewed (the Ridata 8X needed 3m:34s and the Plextor PX-708A needed 3m:40s for example).

Packet Writing:

For our packet writing tests we used Ahead's InCD 4 software and tested both the Plextor's CD-RW and DVD+RW performance. For our first DVD+RW test we set-up a test folder with random data measuring roughly 4.35GB in size. After formatting was complete we measured the time it took for the drive to write the test data. In the table below we've summed up our results:

The Plextor PX-712A's DVD+RW packet writing performance was excellent. It was around 50 seconds faster than the Ridata and Plextor PX-708A drives and achieved an average write speed of exactly 4x.

For our next CD-RW tests we set-up a test folder with random data measuring 400MB in size. We then inserted an empty disc and measured the time it took for the drive to format the disc after which the test data was dragged and dropped to the disc via the Windows Explorer. In the table below you can see the results again:

And once again an excellent result as the Plextor PX-712A was able to beat the previous drives we've reviewed. The average packet writing speed of the Plextor was 18.4x compared to 17.9x for the other two drives we reviewed before.

Mount-Rainier:

To test the Plextor's Mount Rainier performance we again used InCD to write the same folder of test data we used for our CD-RW packet writing test. In the table below you can see an overview of the achieved results:

As you can see the difference between the two Plextor drives is quite big as the PX-708A needed far more time to write the test data to the disc than the PX-712A drive.