Plextor 48/24/48A CDRW

<B>The drive itself</B>:

<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/oct02/plex48/logo.jpg"></center>

When I stuck the drive in an opened it, it was black inside. That's amazing! Now that I think about it, I'm pretty easy to please...

<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/oct02/plex48/blackinside.jpg"></center>

I thought it was cool...

<B>Testing</B>:

I tested this drive against my TEAC 16x burner. I wanted to see if it is worth it to upgrade from a not so old burner. The minimum specs for using this CDRW drive are a P2 300mhz with 64MB of Ram. The test system being used is a pretty average budget gaming system. All drives are on different IDE channels to ensure that the bus isn't being maxed or interfered with.

Athlon 1800+ at 1.63 Ghz
Abit KX7-333R
256MB DDR Ram
WD 80GB HDD (8MB cache)

The other stuff in the system isn't important. I used Nero to burn an ISO file of <a href="articles.php?id=36">Lycoris</a> Build 53. It is 516MB. I also used CD speed to determine the read speed of the drive.
<table class='line' cellspacing='1' width='80%' align='center'>
<tr class='titlebar1'><td align='center'><big>Teac 16x</big></td></tr>
<tr><td><table class='line' width='100%' cellspacing='1'><tr class='background'><td>ISO Burn (516MB)</td></td><td><b>4 Mins 39 secs</b></td></tr><tr class='background'><td>Avg Speed</td><td>28.49x</td><td>28.45x</td><td>28.47x</td><td><b>28.47x</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>Start Speed</td><td>18.07x</td><td>18.01x</td><td>18.02x</td><td><b>18.03x</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>End Speed</td><td>36.85</td><td>36.80</td><td>36.82</td><td><b>36.82x</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>Rand Seek (ms)</td><td>75</td><td>74</td><td>75</td><td><b>75</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>1/3 Seek (ms)</td><td>82</td><td>80</td><td>82</td><td><b>81</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>Full Seek (ms)</td><td>131</td><td>117</td><td>120</td><td><b>123</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>CPU 1x (%)</td><td>1</td><td>1</td><td>1</td><td><b>1</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>CPU 2x (%)</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>3</td><td><b>3</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>CPU 4x (%)</td><td>5</td><td>5</td><td>5</td><td><b>5</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>CPU 8x (%)</td><td>10</td><td>10</td><td>9</td><td><b>10</b></td></tr></table>

</td></tr>
<tr class='titlebar1'><td align='center'><big>Plextor 48x</big></td></tr>
<tr><td><table class='line' width='100%' cellspacing='1'><tr class='background'><td>ISO Burn (516MB)</td></td><td><b>2 Mins 52 secs</b></td></tr><tr class='background'><td>Avg Speed</td><td>29.10x</td><td>29.06x</td><td>29.06x</td><td><b>29.07x</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>Start Speed</td><td>18.45x</td><td>17.24x</td><td>17.24x</td><td><b>17.64x</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>End Speed</td><td>37.63x</td><td>37.63x</td><td>37.63x</td><td><b>37.63x</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>Rand Seek (ms)</td><td>57</td><td>59</td><td>57</td><td><b>58</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>1/3 Seek (ms)</td><td>64</td><td>64</td><td>61</td><td><b>63</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>Full Seek (ms)</td><td>98</td><td>99</td><td>99</td><td><b>99</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>CPU 1x (%)</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>1</td><td><b>0</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>CPU 2x (%)</td><td>1</td><td>1</td><td>1</td><td><b>1</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>CPU 4x (%)</td><td>3</td><td>3</td><td>3</td><td><b>3</b></td></tr><tr class='background'>
<td>CPU 8x (%)</td><td>6</td><td>6</td><td>6</td><td><b>6</b></td></tr></table>
</td></tr>
</table>

<table class='line' cellspacing='1' width='80%' align='center'><tr class='titlebar1'><td>Drive</td><td>ISO 516MB</td><td>Avg Speed</td><td>Start Speed</td><td>End Speed</td><td>Rand Seek (ms)</td><td>1/3 Seek</td><td>Full Seek</td><td>CPU 1x</td><td>CPU 2x</td><td>CPU 4x</td><td>CPU 8x</td></tr><tr class='background'><td class='titlebar1'>Teac 16x</td><td>4:39</td><td>28.47x</td><td><B>18.03x</B></td><td>36.82x</td><td>75</td><td>81</td><td>123</td><td>1</td><td>3</td><td>5</td><td>10</td>
</tr><tr class='background'><td class='titlebar1'>Plextor 48x</td><td><B>2:52</B></td><td><B>29.07x</B></td><td>17.64x</td><td><B>37.63x</B></td><td><B>58</B></td><td><B>63</B></td><td><B>99</B></td>
<td><B>0</B></td><td><B>1</B></td><td><B>3</B></td><td><B>6</B></td></tr></table>

<B>Conclusion</B>:

All in all, this is a great drive. CPU utilization is excellent, as well as seek times. If your looking for a new drive, I highly recommend this one. If you already have a 16x or faster burning, don't bother. I don't feel it is worth the money for a new drive for a few minutes of time. I'd like to thank Plextor for sending this out for review, too bad I can't keep it .