Pure Plextor domination
Written: Oct 08 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Speed, reliablity
Cons: None
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| drewday's Full Review: Plextor PlexWriter 12/10/32 |
Speed, reliability, and burn proof baby! Those are the things that spell out this drive.
I picked the drive up at a local computer fair for $255, not bad considering what else I have seen it for. I was really considering the SCSI but alais I didn’t feel like dishing out the extra money for the adaptor card so I picked up the E-IDE version.
First out, The drive went into my system w/o a hitch. My configuration is a bit odd though.
Athlon 800
KA7-100
320megs PC-133
Voodoo 3500
IBM Deskstar
IDE config:
IDE1- HD (master)
IDE2- Creative DVD (master) Zip (slave)
IDE3- Plextor (master)
IDE4- Free
I did this for obvious reasons. First off I didn’t want to put any of my drives on the same channel as the hard drive, besides, I want to add another in later in the month probably. Second, I didn’t want to put the ZIP on the HPT370 adaptor and lastly, all the other possible combos involved moving too many wires so… I put the drive on IDE 3 where it’ll sit until I maybe put a matching Plextor reader on there!
Anyway setup was a breeze, they did include some screwy IDE cable which I ended up not using for the drive, for some reason it has upside down plugs which made it a real pain to plug in so I just used a udma/66 cable which the controller needed anyway.
I started the system up (oh yes, it might be worth it to mention that I’m running WinME) and the HTP370 controller recognized the drive, which I was sort of surprised of. Everything went well and windows loaded but for some reason I didn’t get the new hard wear screen. Now I don’t know if WinME rid it self of that but when I checked Windows had installed the right drivers for it. So, I installed the soft wear and restart. Time for my first burn.
First off this drive is fast, at 12x it’s blows all my friends’ drives away (one of the main reasons to buy new hard wear anyway!) I tested the first burn on a Sony CD-R and I did 3 little mp3’s I had sitting around. Opened Adapatec CD create (which might I add is very simple to use) and in a few mins I had my first cd, perfect…
After that I proceeded to do a few more, then backed up my documents and various other things, I have yet to make a coaster with this drive and I’m not about to start now!
On the other little things… For some reason the green read/write light always stays on… It’s not so much a problem as it is a little annoying but it’s not like I’m staring at my case all day so it’s really a non-issue. Also, the soft wear bundle is okay, not great. I like the info that you can get from the Manager soft wear but I think it would have been nice to have seen some other progs that go beyond just copying cd’s and converting mp3s. Then again your not really paying for the softwear so all these things are really minor. My only other complaint is that screwy IDE cable but again, not a big prob.
All in all I really love this drive though I regret not getting the SCSI version as system responsiveness will slow a tad (to some people not noticeable though.) If your looking for a CD-RW drive this is DEFINATLY the one to own. If you have the funds to spare funds go for a Plextor and if you absolutely need the best, go for the SCSI version of this drive.
-Drew
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
drewday
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Member: Drew DiPietro
Location: NY
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
A University Student in Manhattan
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