Digital Trends

Plextor PlexWriter 40x40x12x

March 10th, 2003 | by Dj Heinen

Introduction

While everyone else was announcing their 32x drives, Plextor quietly released their 40x drive, completely skipping the release of a 32x, all in the name of better performance. Today I will be looking at the Plextor PlexWriter 40/12/40A, the fastest drive on the market today. Does it do justice to the Plextor name? Read on to find out.

What's In The Box

• Plextor PlexWriter 40/12/40A
• Many Detailed Instruction books
• Master/Slave ATAPI Cable
• Adaptec Easy CD Creator 5.1/Plextor Manager 2000 CD
• 4 Mounting Screws
• Bent Paperclip for Manual CD Tray Ejection
• 1 700MB CD-R, 1 10x 650MB CD-RW
• Extra Jumper

Construction

The front panel is simple, no extra LEDs, only one button, and the standard audio output jack. My favorite part is the CD tray; it's black, and at first glance, nobody knows about it but me. The volume knob is black, which is a change from earlier models, but I don't really have an opinion on it; I never use it. This drive does away with the rear fan that has been found in some recent Plextor models.

The drive tray is very solid. The tray motor is as slow as ever, but it pops out immediately once the button is pressed, which is something I like when it comes to CD-ROM drives. Also, this drive is very quiet, I never heard a peep out of it; a welcome change from my loud DVD drive.

Installation:
Installation was a snap. The included screws save me at least 5 minutes of screw-searching time. In fact, the hardest part was enabling DMA, and Windows XP did that automatically. The PlexWriter comes with a 66 page Installation And Users Manual, which covers every point including connecting the audio cables, enabling/disabling DMA, inserting a CD into the CD tray, and how fast the LED is blinking at any given time.

Software

The PlexWriter 40/12/40A comes with Adaptec Easy CD Creator 5.1, Adaptec DirectCD, Plextor LiquidPlayer, and Plextor Manager 2000.
I personally dislike Easy CD Creator. I am more of a fan of Nero - Burning Rom. I have never liked Liquid Audio, so I do not find it advantageous to include LiquidPlayer. The Plextor Manager 2000 will play, rip, burn, and copy CDs. This PlexWriter has you covered in case you have not already installed your own favorite audio software. I could not test Plextor Manager 2000, because it does not support Windows XP. Plextor recommends that if you are using Windows XP, you should not install Plextor Manager 2000. It comes with 4 separate programs, listed below.

• MVP 2000: No thanks, I'd rather use Winamp for my audio playback.
• Audio Capture 2000: Oh, the myriad choices! Choose either .WAV or .WMP.
• DiscDupe 2000: Burn CD Images to CDs.
• AudioFS: Makes Audio CD Tracks appear as .wav files in Explorer.