Since their debut in
1990,
Plextor
has been striving to make a name for themselves as
one of the top-producing optical storage device
manufactures in the market. Their introductions of
generations of award-winning devices, has enabled
them to generate an annual revenue of approximately
$500 million per year, while providing some very
stiff competition for their fellow combatants. As
we're sure you would agree, Plextor is sort of the
bellweather of optical drive manufacturers.
The first thing we
noticed after unpacking this new Plextor drive, was
its weight (4.85lbs to be exact) and solid feel. The
center of the drive's housing is made of very nice
brushed aluminum that blends nicely with the silver
plastic "end-caps." As with some of their other
drives, Plextor has decided to continue with the
production of custom faceplates and black CD
trays. Looks aside, being able to burn CD-R's at
48x, rewrite at 24x and browse through a disc at a
speedy 48x, this drive should deliver some pretty
impressive performance. Now the obvious question is,
"how well will the drive actually stand up versus an
internal unit"? How about we go take a look?
Specifications / Features Of The
PlexWriter 48/24/48U
What's Under
The Hood...
Easy
connectivity: Hi-Speed USB/USB compatible
3-in-1
drive: 48x CD-R, 24x CD-RW, 48x max CD-ROM
4MB
buffer
technology
PoweREC-II
SpeedRead
VariRec
Self-diagnostics
Black
CD tray
Audio
Out
Supports Track-at-Once, Disc-at-Once,
Session-at-Once, Multisession, Fixed and Variable
Packet Writing Modes, Speed Read
and
Mt. Rainier
Supports ATAPI command set
Flash
ROM which allows for the latest firmware revisions
Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP and Mac (software not
included) compatible
One-year full warranty (parts, labor and
replacement)
Unlimited toll-free tech support
Click images for full view
Included with the Plextor PlexWriter PX-W4012TU full
retail package, we found the following list of
accessories:
PlexWriter
Drive Manual
Quick
Reference Guide
Software Disc
Eject Tool
CD-R Media
USB 2.0 Cable
Power Cord
AC Adapter
The feature set for the PX-W4824TU/SW shows that
many of the proven technologies, from past Plextor
products, have found their way into this drive as
well. Since some of the acronyms are not very clear,
we have provided a brief explanation of each of them
below.
BURN-Proof:
prevents Buffer
Under-RuN errors. This allows
one to multi-task during a recording session and
not have to worry about creating coasters that
come in so handy during all those LAN parties.
PowerREC II:
(Plextor Optimized Writing
Error REduction Control)
technology is a sophisticated write strategy that
uses information from an on-board media catalogue
of all certified media, listed by manufacturer and
part number. This information is used to
properly configure the drive for optimal burning
on the specific media in use.
SpeedRead:
provides maximum speed with data reliability.
Basically this feature enables one to maximize the
read speed of the drive without sacrificing data
integrity and safety of the hardware/user.
VariRec:VARIable RECording technology (if
supported by your writing software) lets one
manually adjust the laser burn parameters to match
your sound. This helps out in situations where a
burned CD may not work in some players, but will
in others.
Mt. Rainier:
enables native OS
support of data storage on CD-RW. It basically
enables one to read and write on a CD-RW like you
can on a Floppy Disk. For more information,
Click Here.
The last thing we
wanted to note, before we get to the installation
and setup, is the black CD tray. According to
Plextor the use of a black tray aids in burning
quality. Supposedly the black plastic absorbs
reflected laser light better then white trays, thus
increasing reliability and reducing the chance of
possible errors caused by "jitter."
Well there you have
it folks, let's move past all the visual
appearances, marketing and other technical jargon
and see how this drive actually holds up.
technology
