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Plextor Plexwriter 16/10/40A Review - PAGE 1
phil middleton - Thursday, April 5th, 2001
Introduction
 | | Plexwriter 16/10/40A Profile Shot |
Plextor has always stood as one of the best names in CD Burning technology, always pushing to try and beat their competitors to reach new speeds and features. The PX-W1610TA is part of the newest breed of CD-RW drives. Although it still retains the same rewrite speed as previous generations the PX-W1610TA comes with a 40x read speed and a wicked write speed of 16x supported by the incredible BURN-Proof technology. Watch as we explore the features of this new drive.
Specs
PX-W1610TA/SW
E-IDE (ATAPI-4) interface
16X CD-R
10X CD-RW
40X max CD-ROM
140ms Average Random Access
2 MB Buffer
Records highest quality audio CDs
Capable of Digital Audio Extraction at 40X max
Compatible with a large number of CD-R and CD-RW media
Burn-Proof technology eliminates buffer underrun errors in fast write modes, allows for multi-tasking
Flash ROM allows for easy upgrade over the Internet
Windows 95/98/2000/ME and NT4.0 Compatible
Supports Disc-at-Once, Track-at-Once, Session-at-Once, Variable & Fixed packet writing modes
The first thing to mention is of course is the drives 16X CD-R write speed, which is incredible. If the drive really was writing at 16X it would have a throughput of 2400 Kb/s, which will probably end up taxing your system heavily. Enter BURN-Proof technology which allows your CD Burner to recover from errors that would otherwise end up taxing your computer and forcing you to avoid touching anything in fear of making a coaster. This also allows the CD Burner to get away with using a tiny 2MB buffer. Also note that this drive does support overburning.
Another good point is the 40x CD Read speed which is finally fast enough to allow you to replace your stand alone CD-ROM drive with this burner alone. The 140ms random access time on this unit seems a bit high. I also like the FashROM in this unit which will allow you to easily download and flash updated firmware from Plextors website when they make revisions.
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