detail information

Let's check out the drive specifications as mentioned on the Plextor Europe website and as detected with additional software (Nero InfoTool):

Drive Specifications:

The slim line Plextor drive supports all recording formats and of course offers the same Plextor technologies such as PoweRec which we'll get back to later. Let's give you a screenshot of Nero InfoTool first and the detected features of this latest external Plextor drive:

As you can see from the screenshot the Plextor PX-S2410TU has a 2 MB buffer and has firmware 1.00 installed. The slim line drive supports C2 Error Information and the 'Mount Rainier' format. Let's take a closer look at some of the supported features and technologies:

Buffer (Underrun Protection):

Unlike most Plextor recorders, the Plextor PX-S2410TU does not use Plextor's BURN-Proof (Buffer UnderRuN Proof) technology to prevent buffer underruns. The drive simply uses a 'Buffer Underrun Proof Technology' according to the Plextor website. Like mentioned before in the drive specifications, the Plextor PX-S2410TU has a 2 MB buffer on board as you can also see in the screenshot below of the drive's detected features with Nero Burning Rom:

Nero Burning Rom confirms the 2 MB buffer and as you can see the Mount Rainier support is also detected. The drive's buffer underrun protection can be enable and disabled although we would of course never recommend that you disable this feature.

Mount Rainier:

The Plextor PX-W4824TA and PX-W4824TU drives were the first Plextor drives to support the Mount Rainier format and this latest external slim line recorder continues to do so. Here's a small introduction of the CD-MRW format. Click on the Mt. Rainier logo to read our article on the Mt. Rainier format:

"...Mount Rainier enables native OS support of data storage on CD-RW. This makes the technology far easier to use and allows the replacement of the floppy. This is done by having defect management in the drive, by making the drive 2k addressable, by using background formatting, and by standardizing both command set and physical layout. The new standard is promoted by Compaq, Microsoft, Philips, and Sony and is supported by over 40 industry leaders: OS vendors, PC-OEM's, ISV's, chip makers, and media makers.

The purpose of the proposal made by the Mount Rainier group is to make CD-RW easier to use for data storage and interchange. The changes proposed will enable the operating system support of dragging and dropping data to CD-RW discs. Formatting delays will also be eliminated and the use will be comparable to using a hard disk or a floppy..."

PoweRec Technology:

To ensure a quality back-up of your files the Plextor PX-S2410TU drive uses the PoweRec Technology. PoweRec (Plextor Optimised Writing Error Reduction Control) monitors the quality of the disc while burning and will adjust the speed if necessary. You can read a full explanation of the PoweRec technique in this PDF-document.

Write Method:

The Plextor PX-S2410TU uses the Z-CLV write method (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) when writing CD-R's. Z-CLV is used to reduce the rotation speed of the CD-R disc inside the recorder and thus reducing noise and stress on the drive mechanism. During switching writing speeds, the drive's buffer underrun technique takes over preventing buffer underruns. In the screenshot below you can see a test burn done with Nero CD Speed:

In the produced graph you can see that the external Plextor drive starts writing at 10X and immediately increases the write speed to 12X. At the 18-minute mark the speed is increased to 16X and at the 38-minute mark the speed is increased again to 20X. Finally at the 64-minute mark the speed is increased to the maximum write speed of 24X, resulting in an average write speed of 16.88X.

This average speed might not seem as a very fast speed compared to 'normal' recorders (with an average speed of more than 30X or even 40X) but keep in mind that 24X recording for such a small and light weight drive is impressive. Compare the 24X to Plextor's other slim line drive, the PX-208TU for instance, which had a write speed of only 8X!