Plextor PlexWriter 40/12/40A CDRW Drive

The Plextor PlexWriter 40/12/40A CD-RW Drive
Cutting CDs as fast as you can play them

3/10/02 - By  Dave Altavilla

As of late, CD-R technology has been keeping pace with the type of blinding speed of technological development that exist in the PC Graphics market.  One could easily draw a comparison between the product development cycle times of nVidia and Plextor, as well as a few others in the CD-R arena.  It was only a few short months ago that we exposed you to the features and performance of the Plextor 24X CD-RW drive.  Now, less than 6 months later, we're here to show you what Plextor's 40X CD-RW drive can do. 

As the branding suggests, Plextor's 40X CD-RW drive should be significantly faster than their already well received 24X unit.  In addition, this new drive boasts a 12X Re-Write speed which should bring approximately a 17% boost in performance to the table, on Re-writeable media.  Finally, this extra performance is being made available to the consumer for roughly a $25 premium, as our recent findings, on various price search engines, show the 40X CD-RW at approximately $155 versus the 24X at $130.  However, does this new Plextor speed burner really live up to the lofty goals of it's specifications?  That's what we'll try to show you in this HotHardware look at the PleXWriter 40/12/40A.

Specifications / Features Of The PlexWriter 40/12/40A Burning as fast as you can read

• 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.

• "PoweRec II", an exclusive Plextor technology, guarantees the highest quality write across a broad base of media

• 3-in-1 drive: 40X CD-R, 12X CD-RW, 40X max CD-ROM

• 120ms Average Random Access

• 4 MB Buffer

• Records highest quality audio CDs (audio recording speed limited to 24X)

• 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

• Windows 95/98/2000/ME/XP Compatible

• Supports Disc-at-Once, Track-at-Once, Session-at-Once, Variable & Fixed packet writing modes

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PoweREC II:

As with the 24/10/40A, the 40/12/40A has a built in archive of sorts, consisting of all the various certified CD-R and CD-RW media types of various manufacturers.  Here's what Plextor has to say about PoweREC II and what it does for this drive's performance with all the different types of ROM media you can pick up at your local retailer.

"All Plextor CD-RW drives contain a media catalog of all certified media, listed by manufacturer and part number. This catalog is stored in ROM and is used to set the appropriate "Write Strategy" for the disc being recorded. This feature not only enables the drive to successfully burn a disc at high-speed, but assures the user that the disc has been written as precisely as possible, improving the playback ability on all other CD drives, even those of poorer quality. This assurance comes even though the disc media itself might contain some imperfections.

Plextor's 40/12/40A CD-RW drive also features a highly sophisticated algorithm that checks the quality of the media at each stage of its Z-CLV write process. Once a zone has been reached, the drive will optimize its laser power to begin writing at the highest speed possible, while maintaining superb write quality. A feedback mechanism, controlled by firmware, monitors the results of the write process for conformity."
 

Alright then, make sure you remember this little feature, as there will be a quiz on this later on in our article.... Just kidding!  Actually, the reason you should keep this in mind is because we discovered a few very interesting points relative to PoweREC II technology and various media types.  We'll cover this in detail later but for now, let's look at the setup of our new 40X speed burner as well as some of the software bundle.

Setup, Installation and  Software