Review: Plextor PleXCombo PX-320A
Reviewer: G@M3FR3@K
Provided by: Plextor Europe
Firmware: version 1.01
Production date: May 2002
TLA#: 0001
What comes to mind when you hear the name Plextor? Most people owning a Plextor drive will immediately say: quality!
Plextor has been known to produce quality drives for a long time and has build up a great reputation amongst the burning
community. In the early days Plextor produced mainly SCSI drives but as demand for IDE/Atapi models increased Plextor
switched to these models (to the discomfort of some people). With Plextor's latest IDE/Atapi devices such as the
Plextor PX-W4012A CD-writer they have once
again proved to be one of the best manufacturers of CD-RW drives out there today.
One area where Plextor had yet to infiltrate is the one of DVD-ROMs. Like mentioned before, Plextor has build up
quite a reputation with CD-ROMs and CD-Writers but before Plextor would start bringing out DVD-ROMs, they had to make
sure these drives would live up to the standards people are used from Plextor. The first model that Plextor has released
combines CD-writing as well as DVD-reading: the Plextor PleXCombo PX-320A. This drive (20/10/40-12A) can write CD-R's at
20x, re-write discs at 10x and read them at a maximum of 40x. Also, this drive is able to read DVD's at 12x.
In this review we will take a thorough look at this drive and see if it can live up to the 'Plextor standards'. One
important issue for instance is DAE (Digital Audio Extraction) for which Plextor is known to produce
the fastest devices. Besides DAE we will of course also be looking at the features this drive offers such as the PoweRec
II and VariRec technologies. Read on to find out what we have to say about this drive...
Test Machine:
For the tests we'll be using the following configuration:
Hardware:
- Processor: AMD Athlon 700Mhz
- Motherboard: ASUS K7V
- RAM: 256MB (PC133)
- GFX: ASUS V8200 (GeForce 3 Ti200)
- Harddisk: Maxtor 30GB 7200rpm (UDMA 66)
System set-up:
As you can see the PleXCombo PX-320A was set-up as MASTER on the Secondary IDE Channel and identifies itself as "PLEXTOR
CD-R PX-320A". DMA (Direct Memory Access) was enabled and Autorun was disabled for every device. All
drives (including the PleXCombo) support UDMA33.
Used Software:
The Windows XP Professional operating system is installed on our test machine. We'll be using the following software
to perform the various tests:
- Ahead InCD v3.31.0
- Ahead Nero Burning Rom v5.5.8.2
- Ahead Nero CD Speed v0.85e beta
- Ahead Nero DVD Speed v0.53
- Ahead Nero InfoTool v1.01
- Elaborate Bytes CloneCD v4.0.1.6
- Exact Audio Copy v0.9 beta 4
- G&M CDR Identifier v1.63
On the next page we'll take a look at the package of the PleXCombo PX-320A...
First things first as we check out the contents of the PleXCombo PX-320A package. In the box
Plextor send to us we find the following things:
- The PleXCombo 20/10/40-12A drive itself
- Quick installation guide
- Warranty RMA procedure manual
- IDE 40-pins flatcable
- Audio cables
- Mounting screws
- One extra jumper cap
- Emergency eject pin
- Nero Burning Rom 5 disc containing;
- Ahead's Nero Burning Rom
- Ahead's NeroMix
- Ahead's InCD
- CyberLink PowerDVD XP v4.0 disc
- PlexTools v1.13 disc including PleXCombo manual
- One blank 20x 650MB Plextor CD-R
(manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals*) - One blank 4x-10x 650MB Plextor CD-RW
(manufactured by unknown company*)
A very nice and complete package as we see it. Like said many times before we love Nero Burning Rom and we were
glad to see that Plextor Europe also ships this software with their drives. Please note however that Plextor America
ships 'Easy CD Creator' with their drives.
Like we saw with the Yamaha CRW3200E drive,
Plextor has also included an extra jumper cap in case you misplace the one on the drive itself. But Plextor even goes one
step further and has included an emergency eject pin. Almost all drives have a little hole on the front of the drive with
which, by inserting a small pin, you can open the drive-tray in case of an emergency. Normally you would have to use a
paperclip or similar but now you can use the supplied pin.
The manual of the PleXCombo can be found on the PlexTools disc and is very complete and in many different languages.
Plextor has included a printed quick installation guide and a printed manual on how you should proceed when you have
problems with your drive. For Europe, The Middle-East and Africa Plextor Europe offers a two year warranty on the
PleXCombo drive as they do for all their new writer models.
The Drive:
(BURN-Proof Recording) logo and the 'High Speed CD ReWriteable' logo. Besides that we have the
usual headphone jack, a volume control, disc/busy LED's and of course an eject-button. The 'Disc' LED shines green
when a CD is loaded, yellow when a CD is being read and orange when it's writing to a CD. The CD blinks orange at
different speeds depending on the current (re-)write speed. As you can see in the picture above the PleXCombo PX-320A
has a black tray instead of a grey one.
One the back of the drive we find the usual IDE and power connectors, the MASTER/SLAVE jumpers and the SPDIF
(analog/digital) output connectors. Besides the usual MASTER/SLAVE jumper setting we can also see a jumper to set
the drive to MultiWord DMA mode. The drive normally operates in UDMA33 mode (recommended).
The Software:
As briefly mentioned when we listed the package contents, this Plextor combo drive includes some great software. First
of all we have Nero Burning Rom which doesn't really need an introduction.
Nero Burning Rom, by many people, is considered to be one of the best software packages around when it comes to your
burning needs.
Plextor PlexTools is another well
known program and is delivered with European Plextor CD-writers. The program has come a long way since its first
introduction and now offers some advanced features. Below a screenshot of PlexTools version 1.13, delivered with the
PleXCombo drive:
erase CD-RW discs, etc. PlexTools also has an audio player (which also supports CD-Text) and options to set the advanced
features of your Plextor drive:
screenshot above this option has been greyed out because it hadn't been fully implemented yet in version 1.13. The latest
PlexTools version 1.14 does fully support this option. Here's another screenshot of PlexTools 'in action' using the CD
Copy function:
PowerDVD XP v4.0 so
you can watch your favourite DVD movies with the PleXCombo. PowerDVD XP is a complete software package for viewing your
DVD movies on your computer and besides that, it looks great:
First things first as we check out the PleXCombo drive specifications as mentioned on the Plextor Europe
website and as detected with
additional software like Nero InfoTool:
Drive Specifications:
| Write Speeds: | 20X: 3000KB/s Z-CLV 16X: 2400KB/s CLV 8X: 1200KB/s CLV 4X: 600KB/s CLV 1X: 150KB/s CLV |
| Re-Write Speeds: | 10X: 1500KB/s CLV 4X: 600KB/s CLV |
| Read Speeds: | CD: 40X max 6.0 MB/s CAV DVD: 12X max 16.2 MB/s CAV |
| Buffer Size: | 2 MB |
| Interface: | Enhanced IDE (E-IDE)/ATAPI |
| Operating Modes: | PIO Mode 4, Multiword DMA Mode 2, UDMA/33 Mode 2 |
| Access Time: | 100ms (CD) 150ms (DVD) |
| Supported Formats: | CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-ROM + CD-DA, CD-ROM XA, CD-i, PHOTO-CD, VIDEO CD, CD-Extra, CD+G, CD TEXT, DVD-ROM, DVD-video |
| Recording Modes: (detected with Nero InfoTool) |
Packet, TAO, DAO, SAO, RAW SAO, RAW SAO 16, RAW SAO 96, RAW DAO 16, RAW DAO 96 |
| VariRec Recording: | 4X: 600KB/s (TAO or DAO) |
| System Requirements: | 300 MHz processor or faster, 64 MB RAM minimal, Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP |
| Disc Loading: | Tray, auto load/auto eject |
| Dimensions WxHxD: | 146 x 41.3 x 192 mm |
| Weight: | 1.1 kg |
| Extra's: | PoweRec II Technology, Two year full-warranty * (parts, labor, and replacement) with on-site Collect and Return Service **. |
** Only for EU-Countries + Norway and Switzerland.
Overall very nice features. The drive supports all recording formats and even offers some extra technologies such as
VariRec and PoweRec II (Plextor Optimised Writing Error Reduction Control)
which we'll get back to later. Let's give you a screenshot of Nero InfoTool first and the detected features of the
PleXCombo drive:
From the screenshot you can also see that the PleXCombo is a RPC II (Regional Playback Control)
DVD reader which means that you can change the region setting of the drive five times (in this case) after which the
drive will be locked to the last used region. This was done by motion picture studios to control the release of movie
titles in each world region.
Buffer (Underrun Protection):
The PleXCombo PX-320A, like all Plextor writers, uses BURN-Proof (Buffer UnderRuN
Proof) to prevent buffer underruns. When the buffer of the drive falls beneath 10% of its maximum capacity,
the recorder will stop recording as of a specific location on the CD. The recorder then continues attempting to
receive data from the PC to refill the buffer. In the meantime, the BURN-Proof circuit determines where the last
successful sector was written. Using the location of the last successful sector, the BURN-Proof circuit will position
the Optical Pickup. As soon as the buffer has been refilled, the CD Recorder will start recording again. Like mentioned
before in the drive specifications, the PleXCombo has a 2 MB buffer on board as you can also see in the screenshot
below of the PleXCombo's detected features with Nero Burning Rom:
Although the Plextor PX-320A is not considered as an extremely high speed writer it does have quality controls to
ensure a quality back-up. This technology called PoweRec (Plextor Optimised Writing Error
Reduction Control) monitors the quality of the disc while burning and will adjust the speed if necessary.
Additional, PoweRec II has been added for Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Veolcity) writers.
The write quality at the end of each zone is checked and the outcome will determine the recording speed in the next
zone.
VariRec Technology:
Just like Yamaha with its 'Audio Master Quality Recording', Plextor has introduced its own technology when writing
audio discs. This technology, called VariRec (Variable Recording), allows changing the laser power when
writing audio at 4x (in TAO or DAO mode). With the VariRec option the user can make a slight modification to the
default setting:
VariRec has the same goal as Yamaha's 'Audio Master Quality Recording'; to reduce jitter. Like said the user can make
a slight modification (-2 ~ +2) to the laser power to achieve the best result for their audio back-ups.
With VariRec enabled you should be able to improve the quality of the recorded disc and make it more compatible with
picky CD-players like a car stereo. The default '0' setting is based on results from a database which in turn are the
result of thorough tests in the Plextor labs.
on in our review when we do our audio tests.
Write Method:
As you may have seen in the drive specifications on top of this page, the PleXCombo PX-320A uses the Z-CLV write method
(Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) when writing at 20x (16x and below is done in the CLV method).
Z-CLV is used to reduce the rotation speed of the CD-R disc inside the recorder and thus reducing noise and stress on the
drive mechanism. During switching writing speeds, the drive's buffer underrun technique (BURN-Proof in this case) takes over
preventing buffer underruns. In the screenshot below you can see a test burn done with Nero CD Speed:
The yellow line indicates the rotation speed (rpm) of the CD-R.
In the graph you can clearly see that the PleXCombo PX-320A uses two zones to write the disc:
- Zone 1: 16x, then at 2 minute mark the write speed shifts to
- Zone 2: 20x and remains at this speed until the end of the disc is reached.
We would have liked to see the Plextor starting to write at 20x immediately just as the
TEAC CD-W540E does but Plextor has chosen
to keep the RPM's low and go for Z-CLV instead. This reduces noise and stress on the drive mechanism as mentioned before.
Because the drive doesn't start writing at 20x, the average write speed is a little lower, 19.64x in this case
as you can see in the screenshot on the left.
Next up in our PleXCombo PX-320A review, the data read tests.
Now we'll start testing the reading of normal/unprotected data discs. Let's see how fast the PleXCombo drive can read
data and if it can really reach the claimed 40x. For the tests we used Nero CD Speed and repeated the tests several times to make sure the results were accurate.
The data read tests are divided into five sections:
Transfer Rate Test - Introduction:
Let's start with a screenshot of the detected PleXCombo read speeds with PlexTools. In this screenshot you can also
see some more information on the drive itself like firmware, interface and access time:
read speeds are also detected as 40x. However, CD-RW disc can be read at a maximum read speed of 32x. You can also see that
the disc are being read in the CAV mode and that
lower read speeds are being done in CLV mode.
Transfer Rate Test - Original/Pressed Discs:
For the transfer rate tests we used a pressed CD-ROM containing PlexTools v1.05 which was exactly 74 minutes (333.000
sectors) long. Below the produced graph with Nero CD Speed:
 |
In the left screenshot you see that the PleXCombo has a high average reading speed of 31.21x. As you can also see from the screenshot, the PleXCombo PX-320A has no problems reaching 40x and even faster speeds. The top read speed was 41.21x.The seek times with original/pressed media were pretty good as you can see in the screenshot on the right. |
 |
In the table below we compare the achieved times with other drives we've previously reviewed. The PleXCombo just
falls behind the Lite-On LTR-32123S drive with its read speeds:
| Original Discs |
 Average Reading Speed |
Start  Reading Speed |
End  Reading Speed |
Seek Times  Random |
Seek  Times 1/3 |
Seek  Times Full |
| 40x Max Readers | ||||||
| Lite-On LTR-24102B |
30,94 | 18,37 | 40,78 | 86ms | 99ms | 171ms |
| Lite-On LTR-32123S |
31,75 | 19,02 | 41,65 | 94ms | 103ms | 168ms |
| Mitsumi CR-480ATE |
30,42 | 18,00 | 40,11 | 93ms | 97ms | 132ms |
| PleXCombo  PX-320A |
31,21 | 18,38 | 41,21 | 108ms | 120ms | 216ms |
| Plextor  PX-W2410A |
32,01 | 19,01 | 42,17 | 160ms | 154ms | 472ms |
| Plextor  PX-W4012A |
32,06 | 19,04 | 42,25 | 118ms | 143ms | 217ms |
| Waitec MEGALUS |
30,79 | 17,98 | 40,71 | 152ms | 157ms | 275ms |
| Yamaha CRW3200E |
29,46 | 17,37 | 38,89 | 94ms | 107ms | 199ms |
| 48x Max Readers | ||||||
| Lite-On LTR-40125S |
36,78 | 22,05 | 48,54 | 94ms | 103ms | 168ms |
| TEAC CD-W540E |
36,71 | 21,64 | 48,47 | 93ms | 102ms | 167ms |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||||
Transfer Rate Test - CD-Recordable Media:
For the transfer rate tests with CD-Recordable Media we again used the PlexTools v1.05 disc only this time we read from
a back-up disc. The disc used was a 'That's Write' CD-R certified up to 16x writing and manufactured by Gigastorage. Here's
the ATIP information from CDR Identifier:
- ATIP: 97m 28s 12f
- Disc Manufacturer: Gigastorage Corp.
- Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
- Media type: CD-Recordable
- Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
- Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)
The back-up disc was of course also 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below the produced graph with Nero CD Speed:
 |
In the left screenshot you see that the PleXCombo again has a high average reading speed of 31.43x, a little faster than with the original/pressed media. With the CD-Recordable media the drive can also reach 40x and even faster speeds. The top read speed was 41.36x.The seek times with CD-Recordable media were pretty average as you can see in the screenshot on the right. |
 |
In the table below we compare the achieved results to some of the reviews we've done previously. The PleXCombo again
just falls behind the Lite-On LTR-32123S drive with its read speeds:
| CD-R Discs |
 Average Reading Speed |
Start  Reading Speed |
End  Reading Speed |
Seek Times  Random |
Seek  Times 1/3 |
Seek  Times Full |
| 40x Max Readers | ||||||
| Lite-On LTR-24102B |
30,80 | 17,95 | 40,77 | 141ms | 148ms | 258ms |
| Lite-On LTR-32123S |
32,21 | 19,05 | 42,07 | 92ms | 105ms | 243ms |
| Mitsumi  CR-480ATE |
29,99 | 17,98 | 39,44 | 91ms | 96ms | 127ms |
| PleXCombo  PX-320A |
31,43 | 18,83 | 41,36 | 110ms | 125ms | 218ms |
| Waitec MEGALUS |
30,49 | 18,27 | 40,07 | 121ms | 133ms | 252ms |
| Yamaha CRW3200E |
30,50 | 18,28 | 40,09 | 92ms | 106ms | 196ms |
| 48x Max Readers | ||||||
| Lite-On LTR-40125S |
37,44 | 22,21 | 49,57 | 96ms | 96ms | 266ms |
| TEAC Â CD-W540EÂ |
36,85 | 22,08 | 48,43 | 88ms | 102ms | 229ms |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||||
Transfer Rate Test - CD-ReWriteable Media:
To test the transfer rate with CD-RW discs we again used the "PlexTools v1.05" disc only this time we read from a
CD-ReWriteable disc. We created a back-up of the disc and used the PleXCombo PX-320A to write it. The disc used was
the 'Plextor CD-RW' disc, delivered with the drive. Here's the ATIP information from CDR Identifier:
- ATIP: 97m 27s 00f
- Disc Manufacturer: Disc ID not allowed
- Reflective layer: Phase change
- Media type: CD-ReWriteable
- Recording Speeds: min. 4X - max. 8X
- Nominal Capacity: 651.86MB (74m 12s 00f / LBA: 333750)
The CD-RW disc was of course also 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below the produced graph with Nero CD Speed:
 |
In the screenshots you can see that the PleXCombo drive is indeed limited to 32x reading with CD-RW discs. It goes a little faster than that getting an average speed of 25.20x.The seek times with CD-ReWriteable media were again pretty average as you can see in the screenshot on the right. |
 |
In the table below we compare the achieved results to some of the reviews we've done previously. The PleXCombo
performs very similar to the Waitec MEGALUS drive and (again) falls just behind the Lite-On LTR-32123S drive:
| CD-RW Discs |
 Average Reading Speed |
Start  Reading Speed |
End  Reading Speed |
Seek Times  Random |
Seek  Times 1/3 |
Seek  Times Full |
| 40x Max Readers | ||||||
| Lite-On LTR-24102B |
16,04 | 16,05 | 16,07 | 141ms | 148ms | 258ms |
| Lite-On LTR-32123S |
25,99 | 15,31 | 34,38 | 91ms | 101ms | 361ms |
| Mitsumi  CR-480ATE |
30,98 | 18,27 | 40,84 | 96ms | 102ms | 137ms |
| PleXCombo  PX-320A |
25,20 | 14,87 | 33,27 | 105ms | 124ms | 215ms |
| Waitec MEGALUS |
25,19 | 14,84 | 33,26 | 123ms | 138ms | 261ms |
| Yamaha CRW3200E |
31,14 | 18,37 | 41,11 | 157ms | 108ms | 206ms |
| 48x Max Readers | ||||||
| Lite-On LTR-40125S |
32,32 | 19,05 | 42,54 | 94ms | 96ms | 405ms |
| TEAC CD-W540E |
37,53 | 22,12 | 49,54 | 99ms | 96ms | 303ms |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||||
Transfer Rate Test - Conclusion:
Overall we can say the PleXCombo PX-320A drive is a great reader, like all Plextor drives. It has no problems reaching
40x and going even faster than that. The drive had average seek times and could compete with the other drives we've
previously reviewed. The reading of CD-ReWriteable media is limited to 32x (it can reach 33x though) and although this may
seem a bit slow this is a good result for a combo drive. Since this is our first review of a combo drive we cannot directly
compare it to other drives but judging by the results of other reviews we've read on the internet, the PleXCombo PX-320A
performs very well here.
So far for the data reading part. Now let's check the audio reading (DAE) speeds on the next page...
On the previous page we already briefly mentioned the PleXCombo's audio capabilities. According to PlexTools the
drive can reach 40x when extracting the audio and on this page we'll test just that. For the audio read tests we
used our usual 'tools', Exact Audio Copy (EAC) and
Nero CD Speed.
Features:
First we checked the features the PleXCombo PX-320A supports using EAC:
As you can see from the screenshot on the left. the PleXCombo drive supports all features.
Below some more information on these terms:
- 'Caching':
If your drive caches the audio that was just read, it would be a problem to read this data again in order to compare both
extractions to find out if they match. - 'Accurate Stream':
This means the drive won't jitter, thus no jitter correction has to be done anymore. - 'C2 Error Info':
Some newer drives are able to return C2 error information beside the actual audio data. In that case EAC doesn't need
to read all data twice anymore, which will result in a big speedup.
Digital Audio Extraction:
For the Digital Audio Extraction (DAE) tests we started Exact Audio Copy (EAC) and simply extracted the separate audio
tracks in uncompressed WAV format to our harddisk. Our test disc (Thunderdome XXII - CD1) had 20 tracks and a total
playing time of 77 minutes and 45 seconds. We used both the 'Burst' mode and the 'Secure' mode:
- 'Burst Mode':
Burst mode is the fastest mode available. The audio sectors are just read without any error-detection and
error-correction. - 'Secure Mode':
The extracted audio is checked for correctness and if errors occur, EAC will try to recover them.
Below the screenshots of the speeds the PleXCombo drive reached in both extraction modes:
PleXCombo PX-320A DAE speed - Burst Mode
PleXCombo PX-320A DAE speed - Secure Mode
PX-320A is a fast audio ripper in both modes and can compete with the fastest drives out there today. In the table below
we've summed up the results and compare them to other drives we've previously reviewed. Just as with the data read test,
the PleXCombo performs very similar to the Lite-On LTR-32123S drive:
| EAC DAE Speeds |
Burst Mode Average |
Burst Mode Maximum |
Secure Mode Average |
Secure Mode Maximum |
| 40x Max Readers | ||||
| Lite-On LXR-24101A USB 2.0 |
28,3x | 39,6x | 8,6x | 9,4x |
| Lite-On LTR-24102B |
29,2x | 41,7x | 9,0x | 10,1x |
| Lite-On LTR-32123S |
29,8x | 42,0x | 9,5x | 11,9x |
| Mitsumi CR-4809TE |
28,1x | 40,1x | 10,4x | 12,5x |
| Mitsumi CR-480ATE |
29,1x | 40,1x | 10,3x | 13,5x |
| PleXCombo PX-320A |
29,7x | 41,8x | 9,2x | 12,1x |
| Waitec MEGALUS |
27,8x | 38,8x | 6,7x | 8,0x |
| Yamaha CRW3200E |
29,1x | 40,4x | 7,1x | 7,8x |
| 48x Max Readers | ||||
| TEAC CD-W540E |
29,3x | 40,8x | 10,1x | 13,0x |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||
Besides our tests with Exact Audio Copy we also did a DAE test with Nero CD Speed. You can see a screenshot of the
tests below:
and going even faster than that. As you can also see from the screenshot above, the drive has an accurate audio stream and
produces perfect quality (a score of 10). In the table below we've once again summed up our results:
| Original Audio Disc |
Average Reading Speed |
Start Reading Speed |
End Reading Speed |
Seek Times Random |
Seek Times 1/3 |
Seek Times Full |
Quality/ Accurate Stream |
| 40x Max Readers | |||||||
| Lite-On LXR-24101A USB 2.0 |
31,15x | 18,42x | 41,07x | 91ms | 114ms | 178ms | 10/yes |
| Lite-On LTR-24102B |
31,41x | 18,56x | 41,46x | 86ms | 99ms | 169ms | 10/yes |
| Lite-On LTR-32123S |
31,91x | 18,87x | 42,09x | 90ms | 107ms | 179ms | 10/yes |
| Mitsumi CR-4809TE |
30,98x | 18,32x | 40,84x | 106ms | 112ms | 161ms | 10/yes |
| Mitsumi CR-480ATE |
30,72x | 18,26x | 40,46x | 93ms | 101ms | 132ms | 10/yes |
| PleXCombo PX-320A |
31,68x | 18,82x | 41,74x | 102ms | 121ms | 217ms | 10/yes |
| 48x Max Readers | |||||||
| TEAC CD-W540E |
30,98x | 18,33x | 40,82x | 84ms | 95ms | 136ms | 10/yes |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | |||||||
Advanced DAE Quality Test:
To conclude our DAE test we did the 'Advanced DAE Quality Test' with
Nero CD Speed. This test is a very hard and intense test for any reader. Here are the results:
reviewed. The PleXCombo has no problems reading the CD-Text from the disc and the SubChannel Data. The drive can also
read the lead-in and lead-out of the disc, something a lot of drives can't do.
the PlexTools software and the PX-320A could indeed read it without problems as you can see in the screenshot below
(Disc Title and Artist are displayed):
DVD discs.
Now that we've taken a look at how well the PleXCombo drive can read data and audio it's time to see how well the
drive can read DVD media. Since this is our first review of a combo drive we unfortunately have no base for comparison
but we can check if the drive can reached the claimed 12x for DVD-reading.
As you can see from the screenshot above the PleXCombo can read DVD-ROM discs at 12x max. Please note that 12x DVD
reading is not the same as 12x CD reading. 1x DVD-reading is 1350kb/s while 1x CD-reading is 150kb/s. From the PlexTools
screenshot you can also see a remark that DVD-Video is limited to 2x reading to prevent noise and vibration.
DVD Read Tests - DVD-ROM:
For the transfer rate tests we used a pressed DVD-ROM movie ('The Jack Bull'). The disc used was a single layer DVD
containing 4.16GB. We used Nero DVD Speed version 0.53 to
perform the various tests. You can see the achieved results in the screenshots below:
 |
From the screenshots you can see the PleXCombo reached a top reading speed of 11.77x. When we had a larger capacity disc, 12x wouldn't have been a problem.The seek times of the drive were also quite good but we question if the 54ms for a full seek is accurate. This is a bit too fast... |
 |
Because this is our first review of a combo drive we cannot compare the drive to other combo's. In the table
below an overview of the test results of the PleXCombo and Nero DVD Speed:
| DVD-ROM | Average Reading Speed |
Start Reading Speed |
End Reading Speed |
Seek Times Random |
Seek Times 1/3 |
Seek Times Full |
| PleXCombo PX-320A |
8,84x | 5,01x | 11,77x | 121ms | 148ms | 54ms ? |
| Continued | CPU Usage 1x |
CPU Usage Max |
Spin Up Time |
Spin Down Time |
Load Time |
Burst Rate |
| PleXCombo PX-320A |
2% | 4% | 2.27s | 3.15s | 15.27s | 16.3MB/s |
DVD Read Tests - DVD-Video:
We already mentioned that the PleXCombo drive is limited to 2x when playing DVD-Video and to test this we
did a transfer rate test with Nero DVD Speed using a
pressed (dual-layer) DVD-Video ('Gen-X Cops') containing 6.31GB. You can see the achieved results in the
screenshots below:
 |
From the screenshots you can see the PleXCombo is indeed limited to 2x when reading DVD-Video. This will help reduce noise when viewing a DVD movie which only needs 1x. Of course this will be a disadvantage for people wanting to use the drive for ripping DVD discs. |
 |
The seek times of the drive were also quite good but not as fast as the seek times of the Toshiba SD-M1502 DVD-ROM
(131ms/136ms/184ms). Because, like said before, this is our first review of a combo drive we cannot compare the drive to
other combo's. In the table below an overview of the test results of the PleXCombo and Nero DVD Speed:
| DVD-Video | Average Reading Speed |
Start Reading Speed |
End Reading Speed |
Seek Times Random |
Seek Times 1/3 |
Seek Times Full |
| PleXCombo PX-320A |
2,07x | 2,06x | 2,06x | 156ms | 168ms | 299ms |
| Continued | CPU Usage 1x |
CPU Usage Max |
Spin Up Time |
Spin Down Time |
Load Time |
Burst Rate |
| PleXCombo PX-320A |
1% | 3% | 1.56s | 2.56s | 29.00s | 16.6MB/s |
DVD Playback:
We played several DVD movies with the PleXCombo PX-320A drive which all played fine. The drive was indeed very quiet
when reading the DVD discs because of its low read speed.
That concludes our read tests. Now let's see how well the PleXCombo drive can read (heavily) scratched discs.
It happens to all of us sooner or later: a disc is scratched and cannot be read properly anymore... In this test we
took a CD-Recordable and (heavily) scratched it with some fine sandpaper. We then did a surface scan with
Nero CD Speed and you can see the results below. First off let's
start with the ATIP information from the used CD-Recordable:
- ATIP: 97m 15s 11f
- Disc Manufacturer: Ritek Co.
- Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
- Media type: CD-Recordable
- Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
- Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)
Now for the achieved results. We read the disc with the PleXCombo and then read the same disc with a Yamaha CRW3200E
(firmware 1.0d), a TEAC CD-W540E (firmware 1.0B), a Mitsumi CR-480ATE (firmware 1.0E) and a Toshiba SD-M1502 DVD-ROM
(firmware 1012) for comparison. We'll let the figures speak for themselves. Please note that damaged sectors can still
be read. The important percentage is the one of the unreadable sectors. Of course the less, the better:
drive does not support this. It can only report if a sector is good (readable) or bad (unreadable).
DVD-ROM drive (25.60% unreadable sectors). The PX-320A can read about 5% more than the other recorders we've reviewed
(the Mitsumi CR-480ATE with 40.13% unreadable sectors and the TEAC CD-W540E with 40.54% unreadable sectors). The last
place goes to the Yamaha CRW3200E with 51.41% unreadable sectors.
That concludes the reading part of our review. Now it's time to see how the PleXCombo PX-320A performs when
writing discs...
As mentioned before the PleXCombo PX-320A can write discs at a maximum speed of 20x. Not an extreme speed but
enough for people who don't mind waiting a minute more to write a disc. To test the write speeds of the PleXCombo
drive we set-up a basic write process using the latest Nero Burning
Rom version 5.5.8.2. We used the DAO (Disc At Once) method for writing the disc. The
disc was finalized and set-up as a non-multisession disc. In the screenshot below you can see the burn process
completed successfully
Test' to see if the disc had been written without any errors. In the screenshot below you can see the disc is read
without any problems:
42.08x.
Comparing:
Next we did some more tests comparing the PleXCombo PX-320A to some of our previous reviews. Please note that some
reviews were done on different machines using different CD-Recordables so the achieved writing times can be a little
off. You can see a complete overview of the achieved results in the table below:
previously reviewed. Of course, like mentioned before, since some of the reviews were done on different machines and
with different CD-Recordable media these results can be a little off. Nonetheless the PleXCombo PX-320A performs as
expected and does a good job.
Writing Audio:
Just like Yamaha with its CRW3200E drive for
instance, Plextor has introduced a new technology designed to get the best result when writing audio. This technology,
called VariRec, allows you to change the laser power when writing audio at 4x (in TAO or DAO mode) and with it you
should be able to improve the quality of the recorded disc and make it more compatible with picky CD-players like a
car stereo.
To test the PleXCombo PX-320A VariRec feature we ripped the tracks (in WAV format) of an audio disc with Exact
Audio Copy (Secure Mode) and then started a new audio session in Nero Burning Rom version 5.5.8.2. When writing audio
you can see an option to enable the VariRec settings:
did our first test with the default setting (0) which is recommended. When you choose to use a different setting
(and thus decreasing or increasing the laser power) you may risk a non working back-up. We copied the same disc
with different VariRec settings (-2/0/+2) and every recorded disc worked fine in our stereo and car stereo. In
the screenshot below you can see the PleXCombo writing a 59 minute audio disc in VariRec mode:
BURN-Proof, is enabled when writing in the VariRec mode. Of course, when writing at such a low speed as 4x
the buffer underrun technique isn't really needed but it's a safe feeling that if needed, BURN-Proof will protect
your disc.
Now for the more important question: did the back-ups created with VariRec enabled sound better than back-ups
created with the normal write mode? Well again, just as with Yamaha's 'Audio Master Quality Recording' mode, we
couldn't tell the difference.. Is this bad or good you might ask? Well the back-ups created with the PleXCombo
PX-320A sounded just as good as the original disc regardless if VariRec was enabled or disabled. That's a good
result and actually what's really important anyway..
Conclusion:
So what can we conclude from all of the achieved results? Well the PleXCombo PX-320A performs as expected. Because
it's not an extremely fast writer we only compared the drive at 16x writing and 20x writing. The drive performed just as
good as other drives we've reviewed and was actually a few seconds faster than most drives. Of course this could also
be due to some other factors like different CD-Recordable media and test methods but nonetheless the drive performed
very well.
When writing audio Plextor offers its new VariRec technology to increase overall quality and playability of audio
back-ups. We, just like with Yamaha's 'Audio Master Quality Recording' mode, again couldn't tell the difference between
a normal audio write and a write with VariRec enabled. All disc sounded just fine and played fine in our stereo and car
stereo. We did like Plextor's VariRec a little better than Yamaha's 'Audio Master Quality Recording' because with the
Plextor technology, the buffer underrun technique is enabled while Yamaha has it disabled. Of course no major issue
since the writing is done at a low 4x but it gave us a 'safe' feeling.
Now that we've finished our normal read and write tests, it's time to test the drive for its ability to read
copy-protections.
In this part of the PleXCombo review we'll start testing the reading and writing of copy-protected data discs.
Copy-protections are used on almost every game nowadays so it's important a writer can handle the various protections
out there. For the tests we used the latest CloneCD version 4.0.1.6 from
Elaborate Bytes. As you might know if you've read our
CloneCD v4.0 preview, CloneCD now uses Profiles for each
type of disc. In this review we created a separate Profile for each protection with the common settings used in the
old CloneCD versions. E.g. for SafeDisc we only selected the 'Fast Error Skip' setting.
As an extra 'service' or help you can download the Profiles we have used in this review. Click on the Profile
images to download the used Profile. Store these files in your CloneCDProfiles folder on your harddisk. Alternatively
you can view and download all used Profiles from our CloneCD forum, by clicking here.
Now let's start by giving you a screenshot of the supported drive capabilities of the PleXCombo PX-320A with
CloneCD v4.0.1.6:
the copy-protection used on our game discs we scanned every disc with the latest ClonyXXL version 2.0.0.6. ClonyXXL
can be obtained from home.arcor.de/bejot.
We'll test the following, most common, copy-protections and compare the achieved read times with other drives
we've previously reviewed. After the tests we'll conclude the reading of protected data with our usual
conclusions:
For this test we'll use a game called 'Desperados' protected with LaserLock 2. As a comparison we read from both the
original disc and from a back-up (CD-Recordable) disc. The CloneCD Profile and the drive were set-up with the following
settings (all other options like SubChannel Data reading were disabled). You can click on the image to download the
used Profile:
- Read Speed: Max
- Fast Error Skip ON:
- Read Retries: 0
- Error Correction: Software
- Intelligent Bad Sector Scanner:
- Sector Skip: 100 (default)
In the screenshots below you can see the PleXCombo PX-320A successfully reading the original LaserLock disc:
PleXCombo PX-320A reading LaserLock Original
over one hour and 30 minutes to read the original disc. In the table below we compare the achieved results to some
of our previous reviews. The PleXCombo gets the last place with both the original and the back-up disc:
For this test we'll use a game called 'Beavis and Butthead: BungHole in One' protected with the normal (read: old)
SafeDisc protection. The CloneCD Profile and the drive were set-up with the following settings (all other options like
SubChannel Data reading were disabled). You can click on the image to download the used Profile:
- Read Speed: Max
- Fast Error Skip ON:
- Read Retries: 0
- Error Correction: Software
Below you can see the achieved result of the PleXCombo PX-320A.
PleXCombo PX-320A reading SafeDisc
SafeDisc protection but the PleXCombo beats this drive (with ease). It was about 18 seconds faster and we have a new
champion again! Let's compare the achieved results to other drives we've reviewed. Please note that some reviews were
done on different machines so the achieved read times can be a little off:
For this test we'll use a game called 'The Sims: House Party' protected with SafeDisc version 2.10.030. The CloneCD
Profile and the drive were set-up with the following settings (all other options like SubChannel Data reading were
disabled). You can click on the image to download the used Profile:
- Read Speed: Max
- Fast Error Skip ON:
- Read Retries: 0
- Error Correction: Software
Yes we're using the same Profile as for the normal SafeDisc version. As the name of the Profile suggests, this
Profile has 'Amplify Weak Sectors' (AWS)
disabled. First a screenshot of the PleXCombo PX-320A reading the SafeDisc 2 disc:
PleXCombo PX-320A reading SafeDisc 2
a tight 4 seconds. Let's compare the achieved results to other drives we've reviewed:
SafeDisc 2 back-ups depend on whether or not the drive support 'Correct EFM Encoding' which is needed to write 'regular
bit patterns'. For more info on SafeDisc 2 read this article.We wrote the disc with the default settings enabled ('buffer underrun protection and 'always close last session' on).
Like said before, 'Amplify Weak Sectors' was disabled in the Profile. The PleXCombo PX-320A succeeded in
making a fully working back-up. We tested the back-up in the following drives:- Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502: success
- TEAC CD-W540E: success
- Mitsumi CR-480ATE: success
- PleXCombo PX-320A: success
Protected Data - SafeDisc 2.51.xxx:
Besides our SafeDisc and SafeDisc 2 tests we need to take a look at the latest SafeDisc 2 version 'called' SafeDisc
v2.51. This is a new version of the regular SafeDisc 2 and has caused quite a few problems for a lot of writers (which
didn't have problems with the normal SafeDisc 2). For this test we'll use a game called 'Grand Theft Auto 3' (the Play
disc) protected with SafeDisc v2.51.021:
our normal SafeDisc and SafeDisc 2 tests. The 'Hide
CDR Media' option was enabled in the CloneCD tray to test playing from the CD-RW drives. The results when playing
from the following drives:
- Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502: failed
- TEAC CD-W540E: success
- Mitsumi CR-480ATE: success
- PleXCombo PX-320A: successWe were a bit surprised by the results because the TEAC CD-W540E is usually very picky when it comes to playing SafeDisc
2(.51.021) back-ups but had no problems whatsoever with the PleXCombo back-ups. To verify our results we also tried to copy
a game 'Serious Sam 2: The Second Encounter' which also has the SafeDisc 2.51.021 protection:
(which is known to be very picky and is therefore a good test device for SafeDisc 2 back-ups). Please note that 'AWS' was
disabled:
- Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502: failed
- TEAC CD-W540E: success
- Mitsumi CR-480ATE: success
- PleXCombo PX-320A: successNext we re-wrote the same image files of both 'Grand Theft Auto 3' and 'Serious Sam 2' but now with the 'AWS' option
enabled using the 'SafeDisc 2(.51) [AWS]' Profile. The 'Hide CDR Media' option was again enabled in the CloneCD
tray to test playing from the CD-RW drives. The results when playing from the following drives with the back-ups of
both games:
- Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502: success
- TEAC CD-W540E: success
- Mitsumi CR-480ATE: success
- PleXCombo PX-320A: successWith 'AWS' enabled the PleXCombo PX-320A created a fully working back-up which played fine in every drive we tested,
including the picky Toshiba drive. Most Plextor writers will give you the same result. They can make a partially working
back-up with 'AWS' disabled but work very well with when it's enabled.
PleXCombo PX-320A reading SafeDisc 2.51
error sectors on the disc. In the table below a final comparison of the PleXCombo drive when reading the 'Serious Sam
2' (SafeDisc v2.51.021) disc:
The next protected data tests we'll do is with a game called 'V-Rally 2 Expert Edition' protected with SecuRom 2.
The CloneCD Profile and the drive were set-up with the following settings (all other options like 'Fast Error Skip' were
disabled). You can click on the image to download the used Profile:
- Read Speed: Max
- Read SubChannel Data from Data Tracks
- Read SubChannel Data from Audio TracksIn the screenshots below you can see the PleXCombo PX-320A successfully reading the SecuROM disc:
PleXCombo PX-320A reading SecuRom
8x reading when reading the SubChannel Data. In the table below you can see that the drive performs very close to the
TEAC CD-W540E which is also limited to about 8x reading:
The final protected data test we'll do is with a LibCrypt protected PlayStation disc called 'Final Fantasy VIII'. We used
the first (of four) disc(s) of this game. The CloneCD Profile and the drive were set-up with the following settings (all
other options like Fast Error Skip were disabled). You can click on the image to download the used Profile:
- Read Speed: Max
- Read SubChannel Data from Data Tracks
- Read SubChannel Data from Audio Tracks
- Don't Repair SubChannel DataIn the screenshots below you can see the PleXCombo PX-320A successfully reading the PlayStation disc:
PleXCombo PX-320A reading PlayStation
CD-W540E as you can see in the table below where we compare the achieved results for the last time to other drives
we've reviewed:
The PleXCombo showed some various results. It's very slow when reading the LaserLock protection (which is hard to read
for a lot of devices) but showed a great performance with the SafeDisc protection. SafeDisc is one of the most common
copy-protections used nowadays so it's good that the PleXCombo performs well with this protection. When reading SubChannel
Data (SecuRom and LibCrypt) the PleXCombo PX-320A is limited to about 8x reading. Not really slow but also not really
fast.The PleXCombo had no problems writing the copy-protections. It even performed very well with the dreadful SafeDisc 2.51
protection and could create a back-up that worked in most devices without CloneCD's 'Amplify Weak Sectors' option enabled.
The back-ups did fail in very picky readers like the Toshiba SD-M1502 DVD-ROM but when we enabled 'Amplify Weak Sectors'
in CloneCD 4 the back-up worked perfectly.Next up in our PleXCombo PX-320A review, writing CD-ReWriteable media...
In this part of the review we'll take a look at the PleXCombo PX-320A's CD-ReWriting abilities. For the packet
writing tests we used Ahead's InCD version 3.31.0 and for the
erase tests Elaborate Bytes' CloneCD version 4.0.1.6.Packet Writing:
We formatted a Plextor 650MB CD-RW disc which was delivered with the PleXCombo package. We used InCD to format
the disc and measured the time it took from inserting the disc in the recorder until it was successfully formatted:
tests we created a file folder containing various files and which had a total size of 400MB (419.742.820 bytes):
but performed well with our other tests. In the screenshot below you can see both erase times of the PleXCombo drive
with CloneCD:
PleXCombo PX-320A erasing CD-RW disc
screenshot below you can see that the PleXCombo needs 5 minutes and 18 seconds to write the test data:
We can be short with our conclusions.. The PleXCombo PX-320A performed very well (as expected) and achieves the
same results as other 10x drives we've reviewed. Unfortunately the PleXCombo drive does not support the
'Mount Rainier' format so we couldn't test
this.On the next page of our PleXCombo PX-320A review we've summed up our tests results with various media...
In this part of our PleXCombo PX-320A review we'll test how fast the drive can write different CD-Recordable media.
Of course we tested every disc afterwards if errors had occurred. We used a 700MB avi-file and used Nero Burning Rom to
write this file in DAO (Disc At Once) mode. Every disc was finalized and set-up as non-multisession.
In the table below we've summed it all up for you:
all discs nowadays can be written at 10x and the write times are only important when dealing with a recorder that has
higher re-write speeds (12x and up).Conclusion:
The PleXCombo PX-320A could write almost all discs at their certified speed. The Infiniti 99 minute CD-R's were the
only discs recorded at a lower speed than certified. We of course tested discs that were written at a higher speed than
certified for. All discs worked just fine and we can thus conclude the PleXCombo PX-320A has a good media compatibility.To conclude our review we will take a look at how far the PleXCombo PX-320A can overburn and if it can handle 8cm
CD-R's...
We're almost done with our PleXCombo PX-320A review and we'll, as always, conclude with our 'special discs' tests.
These include an overburning test and a test to see if the PleXCombo can write 8cm CD-R's. First off, the overburning
test:Overburning:
We used Infiniti 99min/900mb CD-R's for our tests that were certified up to 32x writing. We used
Nero CD Speed to do an overburn test. We set the 'Test
capacity' to 99 minutes and started the test. Unfortunately Nero CD Speed wouldn't even start when using a value
of 99 minutes as test capacity. When we lowered it to 94;49 minutes, the test would start. You can see the achieved
results below:
test value, the tests wouldn't start). Then how about reading 99 minute CD-R's? When reading 99 minute CD-R's the
PleXCombo again gives an error with Nero CD Speed:
in an error:
drive could read the disc without problems.8cm CD-R Tests:
To conclude our PleXCombo PX-320A review we tried to write 8cm CD-R's manufactured by Plasmon. The discs can hold a
maximum of 23min/200MB and were certified up to 12x writing. Here's the ATIP information and a picture of the disc
itself:
- ATIP: 97m 27s 19f
- Disc Manufacturer: Plasmon Data Systems, Ltd.
- Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
- Media type: CD-Recordable
- Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
- Nominal Capacity: 201.86MB (23m 00s 00f / LBA: 103350)
We set-up up Nero Burning Rom to burn a compilation of about 200MB and started the write process. The disc was written
without any problems. We of course did a final test with Nero CD Speed to verify if the disc was written correctly:
That concludes our PleXCombo PX-320A review. Let's go to our final words and conclusions.
Positive Points:- Combo drive!
- Two year full-warranty (only valid in Europe, Middle-East and Africa)
- On-site Collect and Return Service (only for EU-Countries + Norway and Switzerland)
- Supports 20x Z-CLV writing
- Supports 10x CLV re-writing
- Supports 40x CAV reading
- Supports 12x CAV reading of DVD's
- 2MB buffer plus BURN-Proof
- Good features:
- PoweRec II
- VariRec Recording
- Good software package:
- Ahead's Nero Burning Rom
- CyberLink PowerDVD XP
- Plextor's PlexTools
- Excellent DAE speeds (almost 42x)
- Good DAE quality
- Excellent read speeds with certain copy-protected discs
- Supports UDMA 33
- Supports DAO-RAW writing
- Supports overburning (up to 94 minutes)
- Supports writing of 8cm discs
- Supports reading and writing of CD-Text
- Supports reading and writing of full SubChannel Data
- Supports CloneCD's 'Amplify Weak Sectors' option
- Could back-up SafeDisc 2 (before version 2.51.021)
- Could partially back-up SafeDisc v2.51.021
- Drive is very quiet when reading and writing disc. Tray is also very quiet.
Negative Points:
- 'Correct EFM Encoding' not fully supported
- Cannot fully overburn (up to 99 minutes)
- Cannot read 99 minute discs (will fail at about 94 minutes)
- Mount Rainier format not supported
The PleXCombo PX-320A drive is Plextor's first drive that can read DVD discs and is thus their first attempt
to infiltrate the DVD market. To keep things short, they've succeeded in doing this. The combo drive performed
very well in all of our tests and we simply loved it. The combo drive supports all major features like DAO-RAW
writing, overburning, CD-Text, SubChannel Data reading, UDMA33, etc.When it came to reading discs the drive performed as expected. It was fast and had no problems reading the
disc at maximum speed. The drive is limited to 32x when reading CD-ReWriteable media but this is no major
disadvantage, and even very good when you keep in mind that other combo drives are a lot slower with CD-ReWriteable
media. When reading DVD discs the drive also had no problems reaching the claimed 12x (16.2MB/s) but it is limited
to 2x when reading DVD-Video. This is no disadvantage when viewing a DVD movie (since 2x means the drive is very
quiet) but it could a disadvantage be when you want to use this drive for ripping DVD-video's. And last but not
least the PleXCombo's DAE abilities were excellent. Plextor drives are known for their high DAE speeds and this
combo drive is no exception.When it came to reading and writing data copy-protections, the drive produced some various results. It was very
slow with the LaserLock protection but, on the other hand, it was extremely fast when reading the (popular) SafeDisc
protection. The drive went through the error sectors as if they weren't even there. The PleXCombo PX-320A had no
problems writing the SafeDisc 2 protection but couldn't create a perfect back-up with the SafeDisc v2.51.021 protection.
Although the back-up did work in a lot of recorders, it failed in very picky drives such as the Toshiba SD-M1502. When
we enabled CloneCD's 'Amplify Weak Sectors' option the drive created perfect back-ups.The price of the PleXCombo PX-320A is listed as $229,- (EUR 250,-) on the Plextor America website but on
PriceWatch.com) you can find it for about $178,- (EUR 198,-).
Of course this is a steep price and you might consider buying a 'standard' Plextor PX-W4012A and a cheap DVD-ROM
drive, but if you haven't got much space in your case then the PleXCombo PX-320A is definitely the perfect solution.
