detail information

In this part of our Plextor PX-W4824TU review we'll start testing the reading of normal/unprotected data discs. Let's see how fast the Plextor drive can read data and if it can really reach the claimed 48X. For the tests we used Nero CD Speed v1.01.3 and repeated the tests several times to make sure the results were accurate. The SpeedRead option (to enable the Plextor drive to reach 48X) was enabled via the PlexTools software before each test.

The data read tests are divided into five sections:

• Introduction
• Original/Pressed Discs
• CD-Recordable Media
• CD-ReWriteable Media
• Conclusion

Introduction:

Let's start with a screenshot of the detected Plextor PX-W4824TU read speeds with PlexTools. In the screenshots below you can also see some more information on the drive itself like firmware, interface and access time:

As you can see from the screenshot above this Plextor drive uses firmware version 1.02 and uses the Hi-Speed USB interface. The external Plextor drive has the same low access time of less than 65ms. This is the fastest access times we've ever seen on a drive (compare 65ms for instance to the 120ms for the Plextor PX-W4012A drive).

As you can see from this screenshot the Plextor PX-W4824TU can read all types of discs (Mode 1/2, Audio, CD-RW) at 40X speed. For this review we enabled the SpeedRead option with which it's possible to 'unlock' the drive to reach 48X with Mode 1 data discs.

Original/Pressed Discs:

For the transfer rate tests we used a pressed CD-ROM containing PlexTools v1.05 which was exactly 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below the produced graph with Nero CD Speed:

And of course an overview of the speeds and seek times the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive reached with Nero CD Speed:

In the left screenshot you see that the Plextor PX-W4824TU shows about the same performance as the internal Plextor drive. The drive cannot reach 48X until the 80-minute mark and gets a top read speed of 45.23X. The average read speed was 34.30X. The seek times were however superb and the fastest we've ever seen on an external drive as you can see in the screenshot on the right.

In the table below we compare the achieved times with other drives we've previously reviewed. The Plextor PX-W4824TU of course performs very similar to the Plextor PX-W4824A drive. They're not the fastest readers but their seek times are simply superb:

CD-Recordable Media:

For the transfer rate tests with CD-Recordable Media we again used the PlexTools v1.05 disc only this time we read from a back-up disc. The disc used was a 'That's Write' CD-R certified up to 16X writing and manufactured by Gigastorage. Here's the ATIP information from CDR Identifier:

• ATIP: 97m 28s 12f
  
• Disc Manufacturer: Gigastorage Corp.
  
• Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
  
• Media type: CD-Recordable
  
• Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
  
• Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)

The back-up disc was of course also 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below the produced graph with Nero CD Speed:

An overview of the speeds and seek times the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive reached with the CD-Recordable media using Nero CD Speed:

As expected the external Plextor drive cannot reach 48X but it comes pretty close with a top read speed of 46.77X and an average speed of 35.58X. Again very similar to the internal Plextor model. In the right screenshot you can see that the seek times with CD-Recordable media were amazing, as we also expected.

In the table below we compare the achieved times with other drives we've previously reviewed. The Plextor PX-W4824TU is a little slower than the internal model but it's very close. Both drives are the slowest 48X readers we've reviewed but their seek times are the best we've seen:

CD-ReWriteable Media:

To test the transfer rate with CD-RW discs we again used the "PlexTools v1.05" disc only this time we read from a CD-ReWriteable disc. We created a back-up of the disc using a PleXCombo PX-320A. The disc used was a 'Plextor CD-RW' disc. Here's the ATIP information from CDR Identifier:

• ATIP: 97m 27s 00f
  
• Disc Manufacturer: Disc ID not allowed
  
• Reflective layer: Phase change
  
• Media type: CD-ReWriteable
  
• Recording Speeds: min. 4X - max. 8X
  
• Nominal Capacity: 651.86MB (74m 12s 00f / LBA: 333750)

The CD-RW disc was of course also 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below the produced graph with Nero CD Speed:

A final overview of the speeds and seek times the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive reached with the CD-ReWriteable media using Nero CD Speed:

Again as expected the external Plextor PX-W4824TU drive is limited to 40X reading even when the SpeedRead option is enabled. The top read speed was 41.42X and the average speed was 31.37X. The seek times with CD-ReWriteable media are again the best we've seen.

In the table below we compare the achieved results to some of the reviews we've done previously. The Plextor PX-W4824TU performs very close to the internal model although this time its seek times were a little better:

Conclusion:

The result we got with the external Plextor PX-W4824TU drive were (of course) very similar to the internal model. The achieved read speeds were certainly not the best we've seen but this is because the latest Plextor drives will not reach 48X until the 80-minute mark of the disc and not at the 72 minute mark we use for our tests. This means that the external Plextor drive can reach 48X but only when you use a 78 (or more) minute disc. We saw the same thing when we reviewed the Yamaha CRW-F1 drive. Note that other read speeds (40X and below) are reached at the 68-minute mark as normal.

When it comes to reading CD-ReWriteable media the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive is limited to 40X reading. Finally, the seek times of the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive were about the same as the PX-W4824A drive and they were simply the best we've seen. Previous Plextor drives had some problems with high seek times but this has been improved drastically with these new 48X models.

So far for the data reading part. Now let's check the audio reading (DAE) speeds on the next page...