detail information

In this part of the review we'll take a look at the Plextor PX-W4012TU's CD-ReWriting abilities. For the packet writing tests we used Ahead's InCD version 3.31.0 and for the erase tests Elaborate Bytes' CloneCD version 4.0.1.9.

Packet Writing:

We formatted a Plextor 650MB CD-RW disc which was delivered with the Plextor PX-W4012TU package. We used InCD to format the disc and measured the time it took from inserting the disc in the recorder until it was successfully formatted:

In the table below we compare the achieved write times to other drives we've previously reviewed. For the re-write tests we created a file folder containing various files and which had a total size of 400MB (419.742.820 bytes):

The Plextor PX-W4012TU performed as expected for a 12x CD-RW drive. It was however quite slow when formatting the disc with InCD. When writing the data the drive was just as fast as the Lite-On LTR32123S drive getting an average write speed of 9.97x. The erase times with CloneCD were good. Not the fastest we've seen but certainly not the slowest:

Plextor PX-W4012TU erasing CD-RW disc

After erasing the CD-RW disc with CloneCD we wrote the same test data again but now with Nero Burning Rom. In the screenshot below you can see that the Plextor PX-W4012TU needs 4 minutes and 16 seconds to write the test data:

Conclusion:

We can be short with our conclusions.. The Plextor PX-W4012TU performed very well (as expected) and achieves the same results as other 12x drives we've reviewed. The drive was a little slow when formatting the CD-ReWriteable disc with InCD but only about 10 seconds. Unfortunately the Plextor drive does not support the 'Mount Rainier' format so we couldn't test this:

"..The Mount Rainier function will be the new standard for easier use with CD-RW, to be implemented in Windows based operating systems. Plextor will release a firmware upgrade for the units that are Mount Rainier compatible, such as W4012TA/TU. This will be done when the Mount Rainier standard becomes officially released by Microsoft Corporation.."

On the next page of our Plextor PX-W4012TU review we've summed up our tests results with various media...