Digital Trends

Plextor PlexWriter PX-708UF October 21st, 2003 | by Ian Bell

Use and Testing

Installation of the PlexWriter PX-708UF is actually easier than installing an internal drive because there is no need to open your computers case to install it. If you currently have USB 2.0 on your system but no FireWire, there is no reason to run out to the store to purchase a FireWire card. Our testing showed that the CPU usage, write times and transfer rates were nearly identical when comparing the FireWire interface to that of the USB 2.0 interface. The PlexWriter PX-708UF's manual is very detailed and will give you instructions for installing the drive on both a Windows based PC or a Mac OS 9.0 or above system.

If you are unfamiliar with external CD/DVD writers, be forewarned that CPU usage is typically higher than that of an internal drive simply because of the interfaces that are being used. In our tests, the included 2MB buffer filled up quickly and our CPU usage peaked to 33% using both the FireWire and USB 2.0 interfaces.

Our PX-708UF drive had no problems reading any brand of media we threw at it regardless of how old the media was.

The writing times of the PX-708UF matched its internal equivalent the PX-708A in just about every test, but trailed significantly when comparing seek times and read times. You can see a similar trend with the PX-504UF external drive. A number of factors could be to blame for this including the high CPU usage and the Easy CD and DVD Creator software. We test each drive with the software it comes with to give an accurate test result to the buyer and it quite possibly could be that Easy CD Creator was the limiting factor in this case.

We do not recommend multitasking while writing a CD/DVD unless you have 512MB of system memory or higher; this will provide an error free burn. Please click on the performance tab above this review or the link below this review for complete testing results.

As we mentioned in our previous PX-504UF review, the fan located in this case is incredibly loud, so much to the point that it is annoying, especially if you have the unit near you. We were hoping to see this remedied in the PX-708UF drive, but alas, it still remains. Another disappointment we found in the PX-708UF drive but unfortunately failed to mention in our PX-504UF review is the lack of a USB or FireWire pass through. There is no daisy chaining capabilities with this unit, forcing you to have the PX-708UF drive at the end of your USB/FireWire chain. Pioneers new DVR-S606 external drive allows you to daisy chain FireWire devices through their drive as does the old TDK external VeloCD drive from more than a year ago. This is a major oversight in our opinion and not something we hope to see in the future from such a reputable company like Plextor.

Secondly, there are RCA audio jacks on the back of the drive and Plextor suggests that you can hook the PlexWriter PX-708UF up to an external amplifier for CD music playback. While this is a nice little touch, it is fairly useless as CD players are very common and since you need to use the AC adapter for a power source, the PlexWriter PX-708UF certainly is not portable. What would have been very cool and revolutionary would be an S-Video output so you could use the PlexWriter PX-708UF to playback DVD movies similar to the Philips Jack Rabbit external DVD writer.

Lastly, the FireWire/USB toggle switch on the back of the PlexWriter PX-708UF is pretty old school as well. Most if not all external hard drives and CD/DVD writers we have tested feature auto switching which detects the type of interface you are using, and if you are silly enough to plug both interfaces (USB and FireWire) in at the same time, a default is then triggered.

Conclusion

Unfortunately the PX-708UF does not have the polish we have come to expect from Plextor products. We gave the PX-504UF a much better score because it was the first external DVD writer developed by Plextor and overall was a good first attempt. But we expected their updated version the PX-708UF to address some of the issues their predecessor had and this simply was not the case. The PX-708UF is a relatively fast and reliable drive, but it lacks the ability to daisy chain other FireWire devices through it and has a very loud internal fan. Priced at $299.99 we would recommend holding off for Sony's external 8X drive which was just announced while writing this review.