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Plextor 24/10/40A


Date
: 11/17/01 – 08:48:45 PM

Author
:

Category
: Optical Devices

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: Plextor
Price: $150

Introduction

It has been a while since O² reviewed the Plextor 16/10/40A, which proved to be an excellent cd-rewriter which is still humming along fine in one of my computers. Although the 16/10/40A is still a very new drive, Plextor wouldn't be one of the best cd-rewriter manufacturers if they wouldn't have a new drive up their sleeve. A few weeks ago this great company introduced the Plextor 24/10/40A, which is basically the same drive as the 16/10/40A differing itself from its older brother by its ability to write cd's at 24x instead of 16x. The $1,000,000 question is: what can it do for you and is it all worth it? Eager to find out, we installed the drive in our test setup and started burning cd's at an unseen pace. Read on to find out how the saga continues …

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

Just like most of you, I was wondering if the new Plextor had some new stuff to offer. After a quick journey at their site we came up with this:

General

- 24X write Zone CLV (2400/3000/3600 KB/s)
- 10X rewrite (1500KB/s)
- 17X-40X read CAV (2600KB/s – 6000KB/s)
- ATAPI Interface (PIO Mode 4, Multiword DMA Mode 2, UDMA/33 Mode 2)
- BURN-Proof Technology (Buffer Under Run Proof)
- PoweRec II Technology (Plextor Optimised Writing Error Reduction Control)
- Access Time 140 ms
- 4MB Buffer
- Capable of reading and writing CD TEXT information
- Compatible with: Windows, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP
- MultiRead Compatible
- Supports SPDIF (Digital Audio Output)
- High Quality Digital Audio Extraction
- Two-Year Full Warranty (parts, labor) (*)

Performance  

- Data Transfer Rate
- Burst (UDMA/33) 33MB/s
- Write 24X: 3600KB/s Z-CLV
  20X: 3000KB/s Z-CLV
  16X: 2400KB/s CLV
  12X: 1800KB/s CLV
  4X: 600KB/s CLV
  1X: 150KB/s CLV
- ReWrite 10X: 1500KB/s CLV
  4X: 600KB/s CLV
- Read 17X-40X: 2.6-6.0 MB/s CAV
  14X-32X: 2.1-4.8 MB/s CAV
  8X: 1200KB/s CLV
  4X: 600KB/s CLV
- Access Time 140ms
- Data Buffer 4MB
- Error Rate:
  Mode1: less than 10-12bits
  Mode2: less than 10-9bits

Front Panel

- Eject Auto Eject/Manual Emergency
- Lights Indication ON – DISC IN
- Disc Loading Tray, Auto load/auto eject
- Headphone Jack Stereo mini-jack, 0.8V at 32 Ohms

Rear Panel
- Power Supply DC +5V and DC +12V
- Audio Connector Analog output (Molex Connector)
- Digital SPDIF output

Dimensions & Weight

- Dimensions 146 x 41.3 x 202 mm
- Weight 1.2 kg

Reliability

- MTBF 60.000 POH (15% duty cycle)
- Tray Loading Eject 100.000 times
- Warranty 2 year On-Site Collect&Return Service **

When we compare the spec list to the specifications of the previous top model, the 16/10/40A, there are three main differences between both drives.
The most obvious one is of course the fact that the new drive can write cd-r's at an amazing speed of 24x or 3600kB per second! The 16x model writes at 2400kB/s so there is quite an improvement of writing speed. This means you'll notice the improvement a lot better than when going from the 12x to the 16x model. Note that the drive won't write at 24x all the time. Plextor uses a technique called CLV, short for Constant Lineair Velocity, which means the drive uses a constant speed at preset moments. The drive starts writing at 16x until it reaches 6 minutes. Then it switches to 20x until it reaches 16 minutes and after that 24x kicks in.

The second feature that grabbed my attention was the buffer size. Where the 16/10/40A has a buffer of 2MB, the new 24/10/40A comes with 4MB onboard. What the writer does is copy the data that will be written onto the cd to the buffer before it is put on the cd. This is essential to prevent coasters because if your hard drive halts for a split second, the cd is dead for good. With a larger buffer, the hard drive has more breathing space so chances on killed cd's are smaller. It is understandable that a 4MB buffer is needed on a 24x writer because the faster these drives get, the faster hard drives have to supply data. Of course all Plextor drives come with BURN-Proof, a feature that prevents the cd from getting killed when the hard drive can't keep up and the buffer is empty before the hard drive can provide data again (this event is called a buffer-underrun). Even with a technology like BURN-Proof, a large buffer is still needed because otherwise the BURN-Proof would be stepping in a lot and that would increase the time to write a cd (as the unit is paused when BURN-Proof steps in, until the hard drive can provide data) resulting in 24x drives performing worse than slower units. Just like other Plextor units, the 24/10/40A comes with PoweRec II which makes sure that the drive adapts its writing technique to the quality of your cd-r.

The third feature that was not (officially) found on the older drives is support for UDMA. As you know UDMA increases the speed of your IDE devices significantly but Plextor did not offer this feature on previous units. At least not officially, because the 16/10/40A can be set to UDMA mode by adding a jumper to the back of the unit, but this feature is not supported by Plextor.

The 24/10/40A is compatible with all current cd formats like CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, PHOTO-CD, VIDEO-CD, CD-TEXT, CD-I, … and many others! In short, you won't have any problems reading cd's on this baby ;).

As usual the drive also supports various writing modes: track at once, session at once, disk at once, packet writing and multisession. That last one is very interesting as it allows you to add data to a cd-r so you don't have to waste an entire cd for a 10MB file.

Apart from the above, the Plextor is no different to any other cd rewriter unit … it has the needed outputs, inputs and comes with a button to open/close the tray as well as the necessary LED indicators to inform you on the status of the drive.

I do want to point out that Plextor adds a 2 year warranty to the list, which is a very good deal as it is on-site. Although I still have to get my first Plextor unit to die on me, a good warranty should be top priority for most purchases you make. Be aware of the fact that this warranty only counts for European customers! Ahead includes the latest Ahead Nero Burning ROM software, a program that I personally have been using since the mere beginning. This piece of software is easy to use but also offers expert features like overburning (something Plextor drives are very capable of) and other interesting features.

That concludes our spec-talk for now, let's see how well the unit performs in our usual benchmark suites.

Page 3 : Benchmarking

Benchmarking

In order to see how the unit performs, we ran several tests from the benchmark suite ‘Nero CD Speed’, which is included in the Ahead Nero Burning ROM cd-software package that comes with the Plextor 24/10/40A drive.

Transfer Rate

As you can see, the drive is rated at an average speed of 32.37x, starts at 19.06x and ends at 42.28x!! Since the cd-rom spins faster at the outer circle, speeds are higher at the outer tracks. The Plextor is performing as expected and operates perfectly.

Burst Rate

The 24/10/40A hits the deck at 9MB/s. Not too shabby for a cd-rom unit if you ask me.

Seek Time

With a random seektime of 132ms, Plextor managed to deliver a high quality product that places itself among the best performing cd-rewriters currently available. Cd's are read fast so I don't see anything to whine about.

CPU Usage

The faster the cd spins, the higher the CPU usage is. At 1x the usage is 1% of the total CPU power. At 8x we are seeing a 11% usage, just up to schedule with our expectations of an IDE cd-rom.

Page 4 : Conclusion

Conclusion

Plextor strikes again with the Plextor 24/10/40A cd-rewriter. The quality level is very high and the drive supports every known cd-format out there. When we add the features like BURN-Proof and PowerRec II to the equation, teamed up with the excellent writing speeds (although I would love to see the speed of rewritable cd's go up) I have to conclude that Plextor managed to build another great product that will please whoever buys it! Should you upgrade when you already have a 16x or a 20x? Depends … If you write several cd's per day, the small increase might be worth it. On the other hand, if you write an occasional backup cd I would stick with my 16/20x. Personally I tend to upgraded whenever the speed doubles … so if I own a 12x, I buy a new one when the 24x is released. Are you in need of a new cd-rewritable? Don't hesitate, run to your local hardware store and get your hands on this baby a.s.a.p.!

Good

- Performance
- Features
- Warranty (Europe only)
- Speed

Bad

- Pricetag
- Warranty only for European customers