Over the past few years, CD writers have become more and more affordable. They have also become faster. In days past, scsi writers were the way to go if you wanted speed. That does not hold true these days. 4 or 5 years ago it was common to pay $750-$1000 on a 1 maybe 2 speed scsi “burner”. Hence came the less expensive IDE writers. Even though scsi was still advancing in speed, IDE was the more affordable choice.

I will compare 2 writers in this article. Old and new.

ACER 6206a. IDE 2x writer. Although I loved that writer, which is only 3 years old. It was slow, very slow. The ACER 6206a ran for around $400 when it was introduced. Now they are $100. Learning to burn cd’s took some time. Finding out that burning from disc to disc ruined cd’s because of buffer underruns was not fun. I learned to create a cd image to my hard drive first, then create the cd. Was easy, but also took a very long time. To “copy” a 600 megabyte cd from cd to hard drive then back to blank cd took over an hour. Sometimes it seemed like days. The ACER never gave me any other problems besides the buffer underruns.

In comes the Plextor 12/10/32a

WOW! What can I say. This writer smokes! I heard good things about the 8x plextor, but when I saw this, I had to have it. Going from a 2x to a 12x is like going from a Chevy Cavalier to a Porsche Boxster.

*I am running this Plextor on an abit ka7/Athlon 750. 256 pc-100, Win98se, Win2k.

For the most part I think it is safe to say, us pc geeks do not want to be watching a monitor while a cd is burning, and not be able to do anything. We all like speed and this Plextor has it. Really, this thing will copy a cd in 6 minutes! I did it! I also made images of cd’s to my hard drive and then “burned” them to disc and that does not take much longer. If I remember correctly, it took about 4 minutes to write a cd to image on my hard drive, and about 5 top write it to a cd(using 12x mode)

*When was the last time you wrote ANYTHING to a cd in your current burner in under 10 minutes?

Plextor also has a new feature called “burn-proof” technology. What this does is actually let you burn your cd’s and let you work on your pc. Most older “burners” you would have to shut down most all porgrams in task tray, turn off screen saver, and just let the burn program finish up before you could do anything else, so it would not ruin the cd. That is not the case with this new “burn-proof” technology. You can start burning a cd, get on the net, surf, check e mail, get on icq, IM someone, “write an article for PC MECH”, or do just about anything but play Quake 3. It’s amazing.

In closing, I highly recommend this burner. Price range is anywhere from $215-$250. If you do any kind of burning you know what I am talking about. Worth the money if you do alot of burning. Sound investment that will be fast enough for things to come.

Performance

Data Transfer Rate CLV write/CAV read or PCAV read

Sustained Read/Write Speeds 14X/32X (CAV read only) 2.1-4.8 MB/sec (Mode-1, XA Mode-2 Form1)

14X/24X (PCAV read only) 2.1-3.6 MB/sec (CD-DA)

10X/24X (CAV read only) 1.56-3.6 MB/sec (XA Mode-2 Form2)

12X (write only) 1.8 MB/sec

10X (rewrite only) 1.5 MB/sec

8X (read/write/rewrite) 1.2 MB/sec

4X (read/write/rewrite) 600 KB/sec

2X (rewrite only) 300 KB/sec

1X (read/write) 150 KB/sec

Burst Read/Write 16.6 MB/sec (PIO Mode 4/DMA Mode2)

Average Random Access 150 ms

Buffer 2 MB

Error Rate Mode 1: block/10

12

bits, Mode 2: block/10

9

bits

Spindle Motor Brushless

Reliability

MTBF 60,000 POH

Tray Loading 200,000 Load Cycles

Recommended Media

CD-R (74 min or 80 min) 12X TDK, Taiyo Yuden, Ricoh, KODAK, Maxell, Pioneer, Mitsubishi Chemicals 8X, 4X, 1X TDK, Taiyo Yuden, Mitsui Advanced Media, Ricoh, KODAK, Imation, Philips, Maxell, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Fuji Photo Film, Sony

CD-RW (74 min) 10X – 4X Mitsubishi Chemicals, Ricoh 4X – 2X Mitsubishi Chemicals, Ricoh,TDK (All CD-RW Media is re-writable up to 1,000 times)

Disc
Useable Formats CD-DA, CD-ROM Mode 1, CD-ROM XA (Mode 2, Form 1 or Form 2 and Mixed Form), CD-ROM Mixed Mode, Photo CD, Video CD, CD-I, CD-Extra (CD-Plus), CD+G, CD-Text Disc Diameter 12 cm (74, 79 minutes)

Recording Modes Track-at-once, Disc-at-once, Session-at-once, Multisession, Fixed and Variable Packet Writing
Front Panel
Eject Auto Eject/Manual Emergency
Lights Power on/disc access/writing
Disc Loading Auto load/auto eject
Headphone Jack Stereo Minijack, 0.8 V at 32 Ohms
Volume Control Wheel Knob
Rear Panel
Power Supply DC +5 V and DC +12 V
Interface Connector IDE host adapter and 40-pin Flat E-IDE cable
Audio Output Analog output, Molex connector
Jumper Switches Master; Slave; Cable Select
SPDIF Digital Audio Out

Dimensions & Weight
Dimensions (W/H/D) 5.75 in x 1.63 in x 7.95 in (without front panel)
Weight 2.65 lbs.
PLE WRITER 12/10/32A

(Thanks to Plextor for info)