detail information

First things first as we check out the contents of the Plextor PX-W4012TU. In the box Plextor send to us we find the following things:

• The Plextor PX-W4012TU drive itself
• Quick installation guide
• Warranty RMA procedure manual
• USB 2.0 connection cable
• External 12V power adapter
• Emergency eject pin
• Nero Burning Rom 5.5 disc containing;
  • Ahead's Nero Burning Rom
  • Ahead's NeroMediaPlayer
  • Ahead's InCD
• PlexTools v1.14 disc including PleXCombo 16-language manual and USB 2.0 driver for Windows 98SE
• Five (!) blank 40x 700MB Plextor CD-R's
  (manufactured by Maxell*)
• One blank 4x-10x 650MB Plextor CD-RW
  (manufactured by unknown company*)

As always with Plextor, a very nice and complete package as we see it. The package includes everything you need to have for a quick start and also includes a generous amount of five (40x) CD-Recordable discs. As with other Plextor drives, this model also includes Nero Burning Rom 5.5 which, as you will know by now, is our personal favourite when it comes to creating your own audio and data compilations. Of course the package does not include any screws or flatcables since the drive is an external model with its own case.

Installation:

Normally we don't discuss the installation of a drive since it's basically the same for each internal drive. Since this Plextor PX-W4012TU is an external model we'll briefly discuss how it's attached. First of all you need to have support for the USB 2.0 standard. Since our motherboard doesn't support this natively we installed a NEC USB 2.0 Controller card which is attached to an empty PCI-slot. Windows XP installed it automatically and afterwards we can find an USB Universal Host Controller on our system.

The Plextor is attached via the USB cable that was delivered with it. Its power supply comes from the 12V power adapter. When Windows XP is running and the drive is turned on via the switch on the back, it's automatically recognized and ready for use. You don't need additional software to use the drive (well at least not under Windows XP since this Operating System already supports USB 2.0). There's no need to set the drive to DMA mode or anything. Just hit the switch and we're good to go.

The manual of the Plextor drive can be found on the PlexTools disc and is very complete and in many different languages. Plextor has included a printed quick installation guide and a printed manual on how you should proceed when you have problems with your drive. For Europe, The Middle-East and Africa Plextor Europe offers a two year warranty on the drive as they do for all their new writer models.

The Drive:

On the front of the black Plextor drive we find the supported speeds (40/12/40), the 'BPRec' (BURN-Proof Recording) logo and the 'High Speed CD ReWriteable' logo. Besides that we have the usual headphone jack, a volume control, disc/busy LED's and of course an eject-button.

The back of drive has some switches and connections which basically are all self-explaining:

1. 12V Power Connector
   To connect the device to the power adaptor.
2. USB Port
   To connect the device to the computer with the USB cable
3. Stereo RCA Jacks
   To connect the device to your sound system (audio cables are not included with the drive and the drive will only send direct audio output to the RCA jacks if it's loaded with an audio disc).
4. Power Switch
   Switch to turn the power of the PlexWriter on and off.
5. Selftest Switch
   To use the diagnostic functions of the PlexWriter (the drive can test itself for possible malfunctions).

The Software:

As briefly mentioned when we listed the package contents, this Plextor drive includes Nero Burning Rom which doesn't really need an introduction. Nero Burning Rom, by many people, is considered to be one of the best software packages around when it comes to your burning needs.

Plextor PlexTools is another well known program and is delivered with European Plextor CD-writers. The program has come a long way since its first introduction and now offers some advanced features. Below a screenshot of PlexTools version 1.14, delivered with the Plextor PX-W4012TU drive:

With PlexTools you can perform various functions with your Plextor drive like copying a disc, Digital Audio Extraction, erase CD-RW discs, etc. PlexTools also has an audio player (which also supports CD-Text) and options to set the advanced features of your Plextor drive:

If you look closely you can see that PlexTools now also has an option 'Hide CD-R Media' just as CloneCD has. Unlike with the previous PlexTools version this option is now fully implemented in PlexTools. We tested this option and it indeed works. We could play a back-up of a SafeDisc v2.51.021 protected game just fine. Although with the PlexTools 'Hide CD-R Media' you first need to insert the disc, access it, hide the media and then start the game since else the disc cannot be seen at all.

From the screenshot you can also see an option called 'Single Session' to only read the first session of a disc. Could be very handy for protected audio discs. Another interesting setting is 'Disable Zone CLV'. Perhaps an indication the Plextor drive will soon also support the P-CAV write method as some of the Lite-On drives now do? We really don't know..

On the next page we'll take a look at the features the Plextor PX-W4012TU...