Plextor's Fast And Reliable CD-RW Reads 32X, W 8X, RW 4X
Written: Jul 16 '00 (Updated Nov 28 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Reputation for quality and reliability, ease of installation, meets most people's need for speed
Cons: Software bundle only adequate, did not include mounting rails
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| JMB623's Full Review: Plextor PlexWriter 8/4/32 CD-RW Burner |
Just got a CD-RW (CD burner) installed, something I've been waiting for since God created dirt. Lots of choices on makes and models, but I chose the Plextor Plexwriter 4X8X32 internal because of quality, reliability, and recommendations by other experts here at Epinions. Plextor is known for making excellent products that live up to its reputation. Among others that I looked at was the HP 9300i, but an independent test lab reported that its actual read speed was not 32X as claimed, but rather averaged 16.7X. It also cost a lot more because it can write at a claimed 10X. Unless there is a pressing need for this speed, it is overkill for most consumer applications. The Plextor is also an internal EIDE/ATAPI interface that doesn't require installation of a SCSI card.
As for the rewrite feature, I would have left that out if there had been a good quality CD-R that didn't cost a lot more than the CD-RW I chose. Plextor makes a 20X read, 12X write model, but it was $100 more, and needs a SCSI card. Rewritable disks are more expensive than write-once disks, and, again, for most consumer applications it is overkill to rewrite. If you shop online, write-once disks in bulk (50 or 100 packs) are barely a buck each, so you can afford to be wasteful. At current prices you can use three write-once disks for each rewritable. Even with rewrite capability, I doubt that it will be used much in my applications. Be sure when buying disks, whether write-once or rewritable, that you read the box to make sure they are compatible with the speed for this product. Many such disks are now compatible up to 12X speed, but check for good measure.
Plextor provides clear installation instructions, so the physical placement was easy. You need an open bay to fit it, but Plextor doesn't provide mounting rails for ill-fitting openings. If you want sound from your speakers you'll need to connect this model to your sound card (it also has a jack and volume control for headphones if you don't have speakers), which, at least in my case, simply involved moving the sound card cable from the CD-ROM to the Plextor. Then simply unplug the data and power cables from the CD-ROM, and plug them into this one.
Watch out for the jumper settings on the other peripherals (the Plexwriter factory setting is as a master, and the instructions say it has to be to write and rewrite at the advertised speeds). In this installation, without checking, I incorrectly assumed that the Zip drive was a slave unit to the OEM CD-ROM's master setting. I found out differently when Windows 98 did not recognize the Plexwriter. A quick look at the BIOS showed the opposite, which required pulling the Zip drive out to get at the jumper. Iomega is good enough to put the jumper settings on a label right on the drive (you won't always see that, and it's a pain to track down the correct settings if you don't), and to set it as the slave required only removal of the jumper. This added another 10 minutes to the installation, but the whole process only took about 40 minutes.
Because most mass-produced system configurations will not let you keep two CD drives and a Zip drive, I could not keep both with the addition of any CD-RW. I've been using Zip disks for storage, so for now I'll keep the Zip drive to record from. When everything is on CD's I'll unplug the zip drive, reinstall the CD-ROM, and record from CD to CD. To copy a CD now requires that the source CD be copied to my hard drive, then copied to the destination CD. More room for data and copying errors, and it's very slow. FYI, my OS is Windows 98 on a nearly three-year-old Gateway with a PII 233 Mhz CPU, and 256 Mb SDRAM. Plextor's recommended minimum requirements are a Pentium 200 Mhz and 32 Mb of RAM.
The Plexwriter's software bundle is marginally adequate for the task. As is usually the case with bundled software, it is an older version than the one currently available. I got Adaptec's Direct CD/Easy CD Creator, but these are two versions behind the current version 4.0. Software installation required an immediate trip to Adaptec's web site for an update, then a stop at Plextor's for an update to their included software. Any time you buy a product, your first trip should be to the vendor's web site for updates because what's generally in the stream of commerce is going to be behind the times.
Easy CD has a wizard to guide you step-by-step through creating your first CD, so I did not make a coaster on my first try. It presents a series of screens with simple instructions, and then you click "create CD" on the final screen. My first six Zip disks (100 Mb each, and $10 a piece) all fit on a single CD that cost about a buck. Talk about cost-effective storage space, at the cheapest online site it costs $75 to buy a gigabyte of Zip disk space (100 Mb disks), and $2 will get 1.3 gigs on 2 standard CD-R disks. Plextor offers to sell a program called "Res-Q", whose purpose is obvious from its name. You can back up your entire system on CD's, and this medium is much better for archival purposes than magnetic media. Now that this is finished I'm going to read some Epinions reviews on better CD creating software. I purchased Nero Burning ROM to make CD's, and will write a review of it very soon. It is definitely an improvement over the Adaptec bundled software. (UPDATE 11/28/00) I did get Nero Burning ROM, and have been using it since a week or so after I wrote this. I recommend this CD burning software to everyone. See my review at this URL: http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-6611-2741C648-3A21E47A-prod5.
Recommended:
Yes
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JMB623
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Member: Joel
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