Plextor Premium 52/32/52 Internal CDRW Drive

Jason R. Gibson
July 14, 2003

Final Thoughts... And finishing touches

GigaRec and SecuRec Explored:

The last two features we want to cover before giving our final thoughts are GigaRec and SecuRec. GigaRec gives users the ability to burn a Gigabyte of data onto one single 700MB CD. The PlexWriter Premium automatically adjusts the speed and power of the laser in such a way that the size of the pits being created on the disc during the burn process are altered, without making the CD unreadable. Unfortunately, due to this "tweaking" of speed and laser power, burning is limited to 4x. This may be tedious for the user who is used to being able to burn a CD in under 5 min, but for those few files that are just a little larger then a 700MB, this feature while surely be welcomed.

SecuRec is a security feature that allows the user to password protect their media. Before burning the CD, the user is prompted to select a password, once burned, the same password must be entered before the data on the disk can be accessed again.  Though this may not be a huge selling point to the average home user, many Business/Professional users may find this a very useful tool in protecting their proprietary information.

Overall, we were very impressed with the PlexWriter Premium.  In our initial paragraph, we noted that there was nothing that makes this drive standout visually. That is true, it is a typical looking CD-RW drive, but its build quality is something very different. When compared to the other Plextor drives, this one feels just that much more solid. The CD trays on some other units seemed a bit flimsy, but the one in the Premium drive was steady and solid. In addition, the ejection speed and smooth motion of the CD tray also instilled confidence.  Realistically, recordable CD drives have advanced just about as far as they are going to. Thus, speed is not the dominating factor in this review. Yes, this drive is fast, being able to produce a CD in less than 3 minutes repeatedly is impressive. Nevertheless, we can go to the local computer store and pick up a cheap $50.00 drive that will come darn close to that. When considering drives these days, you must also factor in reliability and burn quality. When a company produces a drive that is able to burn CD's, even under extreme circumstances, without producing a coaster, that is a sign of quality. What good is a drive if it can produce five CD in less than ten minutes, but only three of those are readable?

Currently the Plextor PlexWriter Premium is listed for about $104.00 - $129.00 USD on various price search engines. The performance, quality of construction and overall feel this drive will be hard for Plextor's competitors to surpass. Unfortunately, for a drive that scores so well, it does have a small flaw, at least temporarily until perhaps it is remedied with a firmware patch. That data transfer drop during SpeedRead did catch our attention just a bit. Though the drive operated perfectly when SpeedRead was disabled, if the option is available, it should work without a hitch. That aside, we still give this drive praise, and would gladly recommend it to anyone seeking a new high-performance CD-RW drive.

For its overall quality, price, performance and features, we are awarding the Plextor PlexWriter Premium Hi-Speed Internal CD-RW drive 8.5 out of 10 on the Heat Meter.

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