Digital Trends

Plextor PX-504A April 20th, 2003 | by Ian Bell

Our buffer underrun tests were unfortunately able to stump the PX-504A multiple times producing unusable discs. Our testing provides a typical work environment with multiple applications open and surfing the internet while writing a CD/DVD. Some may argue that this is not ideal for testing but we have found that most people do multitask while recording a disc.

In our test we found the Plextor PX-504A to perform at or below average in the majority of our tests. Traditionally Plextor has performed at or above most competing products in the same category, the PX-504A performed differently.

In our Nero CD Speed tests the PX-504A met or exceeded its 40X CD-ROM rating topping out at 40.24 on Nero's rating system. CPU utilization was a very efficient 4-6% percent; well below any previous Plextor drives.

In our Nero DVD Speed tests the PX-504A actually topped out at about 8X speeds even though the drive is supposed to be rated at 12X. This was very disconcerting because this drive is supposed to promote the latest technology.

In our Digital Audio Extraction tests it took the PX-504A 4:52 minutes to extraction a 50:12 minute audio CD. This is about 35 seconds slower than the Plextor PlexWriter 40x40x12x drive we reviewed last year. We would like to have seen Plextor match or improve the Digital Audio Extraction times with each new drive introduced.

Our SiSoftware Sandra tests surprised us as we expected the PX-504A to show us an average performance. According to our tests though, the PX-504A outperformed the reference 5X DVD Writer used in this test.