You've
got to love the PC and PC Peripherals
Market. I don't know of any other
industry that releases new products and
technology with such a fevered pace,
such that obsolescence is a way of life,
with next generation product always
waiting in the wings to perform the
proverbial "leap frog"
maneuver. There is one thing for
certain. In this business, you
skip a beat and you might as well hand
in your pink slip, because the game can
be over in the blink of an eye.
The
product we're going to look at here is
indicative of the level of execution
that most manufacturers must hit with
product development cycles.
Plextor, known for years as a company
that produces top notch CD and CD-RW
drives, has upped the anti once again
with their new 16X capable CD-RW drive.
Boasting the ability to burn a full CD
in about 5 minutes, we decided to put
Plextor's best to the test.
Specifications
/ Features Of The
PlexWriter 16/10/40A
Born
to burn
E-IDE
(ATAPI-4) interface
"Burn
Proof" Technology - Eliminates
buffer under-run errors and allows
for better multi-tasking in the
Windows environment while creating a
new disc.
3-in-1
drive: 16X CD-R, 10X CD-RW, 40X max
CD-ROM
140ms
Average Random Access
2
MB Buffer
Capable
of Digital Audio Extraction at 40X
max
Supports
CD-DA; CD-ROM (Mode 1); CD-ROM
(Mixed Mode); CD-ROM XA (Mode 2,
Form 1 and Form 2 and Mixed Form;
CD-I; Photo CD; Video CD; CD-Extra;
CD+G; CD Text
Compatible
with a large number of CD-R and CD-RW
media
Flash
ROM allows for easy upgrade over the
Internet
Other than the obvious 16X write performance the drive is claiming, this
drive also has impressive 10X re-write
capabilities as well as snappy 40X read
figures. You'll also notice the
PlexWriter 16/10/40A has a nice large
2MB data buffer. In
addition, Plextor's "Burn
Proof" technology promises that
you'll be able to multi-task during a
burn session and do things like surf the
web and send email, without hitting
dreaded "buffer under-runs"
that will leave you with a drink coaster
for a CD instead of the data CD you were
trying to create. That is a fairly
impressive claim and we'll prove it out
in the pages to come.
Physically,
the drive looks much the same as the
8/4/32 PlexWriter we reviewed here not
long ago. There are some
subtle differences however. For
one the CD tray itself is slightly
'beefier" than the 8/4/32 drive.
My pet peeve on that product was the
fact that the face plate on the tray
actually broke off and was somewhat
flimsy. On the 16/10/40A, the tray
is much more solid and even the motor
and tray mechanism seemed more rugged.
Thank you Plextor, for hearing our plea.
Finally, there is a small Nidec fan in
the back of the 16/10/40A that was not
present in their 8X burner. What
does this tell you? Well, for one
thing the drive can heat up a bit when
under a load and writing at 16X speeds.
We only heard it spin up once in our
testing and it doesn't run constantly.
