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Starting with the first marks from CD TACH 98 you can see the drive performs Read-only very respectably. Even though it’s actually a 32X rated drive, the 21X average only sustained data rates –not burst. So we were satisfied with the Read performance.

The same would go for the Sandra marks –which showed us a high score of 1542. We understand Sandra is very synthetic in nature, but it is free plus it’s a quick tool anyone can use to gauge the performance of their CD-ROM or CD-RW drive. On with the writing scores. First of all you’ll notice one apparent thing right from the start. This drive is fast! REAL fast! Showing us a very nice 5.5-minute average when writing 475 MB of data onto a CD-R disk. But the next bench score is where the underlying power of the PlexWriter shines through! Coming in at just under a minute slower than the normal write speed of 12X is a 10X re-write score of 6.25 minutes! We thought this was outstanding –and really makes the RW of CD-RW actually mean something worthwhile!

We also tested how long it took to erase a disk, both in quick mode and full format mode using the erase disk tool built into Adaptec’s Easy CD Creator. First for the quick format –20 seconds! Yes, 20 seconds! But in case you want to assure the disk is formatted all the way (including a cluster scan) then you’ll have to wait a more lengthy 8 minutes for a full format to complete.

When we tested we wanted to see how fast we would be able to write an audio CD using MP3 files onto a CD-R within EZ CD-Creator. The results? With a CD consisting of 19 MP3 tracks (70:48 minutes of audio) –we only had to wait 8 minutes for the CD creation process to end!

We would have liked to test the CD-to-CD copy performance of the drive –but because we only had a 48X speed drive on-hand, we couldn’t fairly report the scores since the drive is slower –Adaptec has to cache the CD to be copied onto the local hard disk. This would create to many variables in the benchmark score –so we just omitted this test. But you can tell from the results presented thus far, that this drive would most likely get an entire CD (650MB) of data copied in less then 6-7 minutes (but this is only an estimate) :)

Final Thoughts

So what did we think of the Plextor PlexWriter 12/10/32a? We thought it kicked! First of all, the drive is lighting fast! Second of all, and just as important, is its reliability! During all our tests and CD creations, not one time did we ruin a CD-R! This drive has been built around burn proof technology, and this along with some very stable software make the extra bundle of CD-R disks you would have to buy due to bad burns –stay on the shelf!

The software package is completely awesome as well; you get everything needed to have a complete arsenal of all the right CD-creation tools. And as already stated, all the manuals included are comprehensive and easy to understand as well.

One other thing not mentioned thus far is the loudness of the drive while it’s reading or writing. Simply put- you can’t hear it! It’s whisper quite! As a matter of fact, most would have a better chance of hearing the CPU fan than this drive running. And this is yet another appealing feature of the PlexWriter CD-RW drive!

The price is about the only not so attractive feature of the PlexWriter drive. Most average net prices are around $399. That’s a little steep for some pocketbooks –but let us be the first to tell you, it’s worth every penny!

For performance, stability, a great-included software suite, and some excellent documentation (not to mention a standard one year warranty) The PlexWriter 12/10/32A receives the following score –

Final Score: 95%