Digital Trends

Plextor PlexWriter PX-708A October 1st, 2003 | by Ian Bell

Use and Testing

Installation of the PX-708A drive is as basic as any other CD-ROM or CD-Writer drive. For best performance we recommend installing the PX-708A on its own IDE cable if available or as the master drive if there is more than one drive sharing the same IDE cable. We also recommend downloading any updates to the included Easy CD Creator software to help improve stability and performance. We noticed that the tray on the PX-708A opens and closes considerably faster than on previous Plextor products, a feature we would like to see more of.

The first thing you will want to do after installing the PX-708A is to head on over to Plextor's website and download their latest Firmware update. We noticed faster writing times and better media compatibility after upgrading our test drive. In our previous tests we had problems with buffer under run errors on the PX-504A drive, but experienced no ill-fated attempts at writing media with the PX-708A; even while surfing the web.

In our transfer rate tests it was clear that the PX-708A had a significant advantage over the TDK 440i and Plextor PX-504A nearly doubling the speed of the other two drives. But when it came to our writing and reading tests, the PX-708A just barely held an edge over the competition. It seemed liked the PX-708A would write at the 8X speed reaching 99% completed in record times, but then would just hang there for several seconds before completely finishing the process. Hopefully a future firmware update will address this problem. But in any case, the PX-708A still proved to write at record speeds. In Easy CD Creator 6 and Nero CD-DVD Speed we reached the 8X rating of the PX-708A drive. For complete test results please click on the performance tab and link above and below this review.

Conclusion

The Plextor PlexWriter PX-708A is currently the fastest DVD+/-RW drive on the market with its 8X DVD+R write performance. We experienced no problems burning content to any of our test media and were able to heavily multi-task while doing so. The included software suite is very robust and complete compared to other DVD writers on the market. It should be a while until we see the next generation of dual format DVD writers hit the market so if you have been waiting to make a DVD writer purchase, now is the time and the PX-708A is what you will want.