detail information
| Posted by | Dennis |
| Posted on | 04/06/03 18:45 |
| Number of views | 10917 |
 | Review: Plextor Premium (IDE) Reviewer: Dennis Provided by: Plextor Europe Firmware: version 1.01 Manufactured: April 2003 TLA: #0000 |
As some of our visitors will know, when Plextor announced their PX-W4824TA recorder, they also gave out signals that 48x writing was the maximum speed a PlexWriter would support. As you can imagine it was quite a surprise when we spotted a 52x PlexWriter during our CeBIT 2003 coverage.
Perhaps due to the heavy competition in the CD-RW drive market Plextor was forced to release a 52x writer but we're of course speculating here. In order to make sure that their latest 52x writer doesn't just have improved read and (re-)write performance, Plextor has put in some very unique and innovative techniques into their latest writer.
Because of these unique features, such as GigaRec and SecuRec for example which we'll of course get back to later on in this review, Plextor has dubbed their latest writer, the PlexWriter Premium (in some countries the drive is promoted as Plextor PX-W5232TA) indicating that this drive will support the best that Plextor has to offer.
In this review we'll see if this new PlexWriter is indeed a 'premium' drive and how it stands up to the competition. We'll of course also test the drive's unique techniques. Besides that we'll also take a look at the new PlexTools Professional software with which it's possible to perform advanced tests (C1/C2 error measurement, Focus/Tracking error tests and Beta/Jitter tests) using the Premium drive.
Test Machine:
For the tests we'll be using the following configuration:
Hardware:- Motherboard: GigaByte GA-7VAXP
- Processor: AMD AthlonXP 2100+
- RAM: 512MB (PC2700)
- GFX: ASUS V8200 (GeForce 3 Ti200)
- Hard Disks: DiamondMax 40GB (7200rpm)
The Plextor Premium drive was hooked up as Master to the (onboard) secondary IDE-controller and identifies itself as "PLEXTOR CD-R PREMIUM". DMA (Direct Memory Access) was enabled and autorun was disabled for every device.
Used Software:
The Windows XP Professional operating system is installed on our test machine. We'll be using the following software to perform the various tests:
On the next page of our review we'll take a look at the drive's package, the drive itself and its specifications and features.
Conclusion
Wow, [i]"Editor's Choice Award"[/i] !!!!! Thats new!
Since yesterday I have one best 'Two-sheep' recorder - PlexWriter Premium!
Howg!Way to go Plextor!
/me waites for the Plextor Premium 52x DVD writer :D
BTW this is an awsome drive, but it will be good if Plextor join the DVD-RW maker group
> WAY TOO expensive.
Come on! They can be had for a little over $100 U.S. That's chump change for a top-quality CD-R/W drive. I remember when CD-ROM drives cost over $200 and people bought them.
It's that kind of cheap attitude that drove Yamaha from the CD-R/W market. Do you want to do the same thing to Plextor? A premium product deserves to sell at a premium price. I don't want to be left to choose between various cheap, low-quality drives like Aopen, Benq, and Memorex.
So go buy a Plextor and support a company that makes top-quality drives that are fast, reliable, and can read "copy-protected" discs with ease.
add a tag
