Plextor PXW4012TA 40x12x40 CD-RW Burner Review
Even
though Plextor are a well respected manufacturer it's not a brand I've ever
really shopped for in stores. Price, speed and bezel style are the deciding
factors, and Plextor falls well.... short on a few of those when compared side-by-side
to Acer, Samsumg, or TDK offerings for example. In any regards, it is
the performance of a drive, not the appearance that matters most, so let's begin. The Plextor PXW4012TA is a decidedly well
spec'd out CD-RW; supporting 40X write, 12X re-write and 40X read, along with BurnProof, a
4MB buffer, but it is kind of an ugly duckling.
The Plextor PXW4012TA comes standard with buffer underrun protection
in the form of BurnProof, and also uses Powerec-II to ensure data integrity. In
fact looking at the specs, we find that Powerrec-II actually calibrates the media to each
drive before burning, ensuring as Plextor say; a "quality write using Z-CLV servo positioning."
With a retail price of around $85USD, the Plextor
is comparably priced for a drive with smallish 4MB buffer, though it is no
longer the fastest CD-RW burner out there as 52x 24x 52x CDRW's have recently
become available. As 4X and 10X CDRW discs are the most commonly available, I'd
be a little less fixated on the CD-RW speed than that of the CD-R burn rates
however. In that last case, 25X CDRW burn speeds would be kind of useless if you
can find media to burn at that rate.
| plextor
4pxw4012ta 40x12x40 cdrw |
 |
Ships with the following:
Manufacturer:
www.Plextor.com
|
The drive
operates in either the vertical or horizontal position, writes CDR media with
the Z-CLV standard, sports the usual assortment of features up front including;
headphone jack, volume wheel, a activity LED alongside an eject
button. Round back we find a 40-pin IDE cable, Molex power connector, and
analog/digital audio cable connector.
| test system specs: |
|
|
computer hardware: |
|
| processor: |
intel pentium 4 2.06a ghz |
| clock
speed: |
2.60ghz |
| motherboard: |
albatron px845e pro |
| chipset: |
intel i845e |
| videocard: |
ati radeon 8500 |
| memory: |
256mb pc2700 crucial ddr |
| hard drive: |
ibm 40gb deskstar 7200rpm |
| heatsink: |
stock intel hsf |
| powersupply: |
Enermax 431Watt |
| Software
Setup |
WindowsXP |
| Benchmarks |
CD WinBench 99 V1.1
Nero CD Speed
SiSoft Sandra 001 |
CDWinBench
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