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Plextor Plexwriter 16/10/40A PC

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Plextor Plexwriter 16/10/40A Review - PAGE 1

phil middleton - Thursday, April 5th, 2001 Like +my favourites

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.

next: Box Contents »

send article newsletter article comments (11)

Article Index

1.	Introduction & Specs
2.	Box Contents
3.	Test System, Benchmarks & Results
4.	More Results & Final Thoughts

Comments

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0 thumbs! ^

Mattijn Sep 7, 03

I tried to burn stuff with Nero 5582 on a 90 minute/80 mb cd-rom with my Plexwriter, but it keeps spitting it out...
I changed the settings in Nero, I updated drivers etc. but it still doesn't work... does it support these kind of media at all?

Anyone who could help me out?

_.cheerio._

0 thumbs! ^

dr-murphy Jun 27, 01

Well, I actually solved the problem with my plextor. I have the VIA KT133A chipset, and I used the original VIA drivers for win2K. The point is that these drivers SUCK. I installed standard windows drivers for my IDE controller, and now all works perfect

Another result of using standard win2K drivers instead of VIA drivers was that I copy files between harddisks at 30 MB/sec instead of 3 MB/sec which I was used to

)

greetz
dr-murphy

0 thumbs! ^

Jeremy Jun 27, 01

I am having the same problem with my Plextor burner. If you find out anything let me know. I am running a dual P3 800mhz system on a tyan tiger 133 board. Its the via chipset with twoe seagate scsi drives. The burner is the only thing on the IDE channels. I can't burn anything past 8x and that is only half the time or it will lock up.

0 thumbs! ^

Poly.... Jun 18, 01

Why is it that people who overclock their machines always seem to complaint about "faulty" hardware?

I have a rebadged Plextor 16/10/40 (Iomega's 16/10/14). Though I have to agree that the software support is horrendous for this drive. However, the software that does work, works wonderfully!

--Poly..

0 thumbs! ^

dr-murphy Jun 17, 01

I just bought this wonderful burner, but I got a lot of problems with it. The stupid thing won't burn faster than 8x, even on quality CDs. When I select speed 16x, the drive burns half of the time at 16x, and half of the time it's idle (led lights green)... I tried a lot of software, but always the same problem. When I deactivate burnproof, I get immediately a buffer underrun.

My system consists of a duron 800@904 on MSI KT7 turbo raid, 256m PC133, together with 2x30 gig seagate in striping raid mode plus 1x 15 gig maxtor, 1x pioneer DVD106 and 1 older cd-drive.

IDE0 master: 15gig HD, IDE0 slave: CD-rom
IDE1 master: plextor, IDE1 slave: pioneer DVD

I hope someone could help me...

0 thumbs! ^

big bopper May 11, 01

I had one of these drives in my system for about an hour, had to take it out and return it. I did manage to do 1 cd but the writer wouldnt eject the cd. Had to reboot to release the tray. I checked on the web site and found a new firmware to stop this problem( using a bx chipset+16 speed burning). I flashed the rom successfully and was told to reboot the system where upon all the drive would do was sit and flash the "busy" light at me... I put my "old" 12 speed plextor back in.....

0 thumbs! ^

Quadophile Apr 20, 01

quote
Quad: I totally agree; now that I've experienced the new BURN-Proof It's hard to go back. The security you get with this kind of drive makes for way better burning experience, kind of like going from driving a klunky, stalling car to driving a Porshe.

Maybe Neoseeker could start doing car review...

When it comes to cars my son is the BOSS! At the age of 11 he only has licence to drive it on the computer!

(Need for Speed-Porsche Unleashed!)I'll ask him if he is interested in the job of an automobile reviewer.

Quadophile

0 thumbs! ^

philm Apr 20, 01

Quad: I totally agree; now that I've experienced the new BURN-Proof It's hard to go back. The security you get with this kind of drive makes for way better burning experience, kind of like going from driving a klunky, stalling car to driving a Porshe.

Maybe Neoseeker could start doing car review...

0 thumbs! ^

Quadophile Apr 20, 01

I used HP 8200i for about 18 months, made many coasters during these months. Always blamed myself for the system not configured properly, now I know, the Plextor with burn proof is so bloody good that even if my system is not 100% tuned, it still works. I wonder when will I see another coaster coming out of the drive! Maybe never!

Hail Plextor!

Quadophile

0 thumbs! ^

sibmaster Apr 20, 01

We've got a Plextor cdr at work and it's the best thing since windows 3.1!
Glad to see that they're still out in front.

0 thumbs! ^

Mike Apr 6, 01

I just read the review about the plexwriter 16/10/40a, and I agree with Phil 100% about this drive being great. The only thing that I currently don't like is the lack of software support ( Nero & Fireburner& CloneCD) but the driver is fairly new and that should be out soon. Phil also mentioned that he can not find any 10x cdrw's in Canada. He should go to a local staples because I bought a 3 pack of verbatims about 3 months ago.


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