The CD-RW industry has been changing a lot lately. Even just a year ago, I would have recommended that power users look at SCSI CD-RWs instead of their IDE counterparts. The difference in price was worth it even if you had to buy a SCSI card simply because most IDE burners prevented you from using your computer while burning CDs. Recent innovations such as "burn proof" technology remove the necessity to stop using your computer while burning. The following is a review of the brand of choice for IDE CD-RW's, the Plextor 12/10/32A.

Why is Plextor the only name to consider for CD-RWs?

There are 2 basic reasons to go with Plextor, innovation and quality. On the innovation front, the 12/10/32A includes the following technologies that are often not included in cheaper brands:

Burn proof technology This is what makes less expensive IDE CD-RWs a palatible choice for the power user. Basically, CD-RWs are being equipped with huge buffers. The buffer on the 12/10/32A is 2MB in size. Data from your source is fed into the buffer, and data from the buffer is written to the CD-RW. If the buffer becomes empty, the firmware in the Plextor CD-RW will cause the drive to pause until more data is available.

While this sounds pretty basic, it must be contrasted to technology from the not too distant bad old days. In the past, not only were buffers much smaller then today, but the firmware of the burner was not advanced. If the drive wasn't fed data fast enough, you would get a buffer underrun. This is essentially techno-jargo for a bad disk or coaster.

80 Minute CD Handling

Well, this one shouldn't require too much explanation. Standard CDs are 74 minutes in length. There are non standard 80 minute drives, but not every CD-RW can handle the extra length. This is very helpful if you are recording MP3s to CD for portability to work, or for making backup copies of some copy protected software.

Overburn

Allows you to fit more than the standard amount of data on a CD by using the "pre-groove" of the CD to store data. A typical 74 minute CD can hold an extra 2 to 3 minutes of information by burning to the pre groove area.

In addition to having innovative features, the Plextor brand is well known for having outstanding product quality. You should be able to crank out CDs at a rate of about 1 every 6 minutes with this drive, and the high quality construction quarantees that you will be happy with the drive for a long time to come.

It may also interest some people that there are ways you can get Plextor quality for a lower price. For example, the current 12x Iomega drives are really re-badged Plextor burners. The 8x Imation drives are also made by Plextor. In a future article, I will discuss how to change the firmware of Iomega and Imation drives so that your system will recognize them for what they truly are.

Recommended: Yes