Review: Plextor PX-W4012S (SCSI)
Reviewer: G@M3FR3@K
Provided by: Plextor Europe
Firmware: version 1.01
Production date: December 2002
TLA#: 0000
Plextor's SCSI CD-recorders have, by many people, always been regarded as some of the best CD-recorders ever manufactured. Unfortunately for many people Plextor had decided to stop production of their SCSI models and the latest Plextor SCSI drive that was released was the popular PlexWriter 12/10/32S drive. As you can perhaps imagine it was quite a shock when last year in October, Plextor announced that they would release a new SCSI CD-recorder again.
But what's the deal with SCSI (pronounced as 'skuzzy' which stands for Small Computer System Interface)? Nowadays CD-recorders are all built to be used with the standard IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interface and SCSI has become a bit outdated. However many people who have used a CD-recorder with the SCSI interface will almost always claim that the SCSI interface is superior to IDE when it comes to performance and stability.
As said this nowadays isn't really the case anymore. It's true that a CD-recorder with an IDE interface can put more stress on your computer than a CD-recorder with a SCSI interface but the current computers are more than fast enough to handle this. Still there are quite a lot of people who would prefer SCSI over IDE anytime and Plextor has now recognized this group with the release of their latest PlexWriter 40/12/40S drive.
In this review of the Plextor PX-W4012S we'll see how well the drive performs. Is the SCSI interface really more stable and reliable than the IDE interface as some people always claim? Does this latest Plextor live up to the standards that we're used from Plextor? Read on to find out!
Test Machine:
For the tests we'll be using the following configuration:
Hardware:
- Motherboard: GigaByte GA-7VAXP
- Processor: AMD AthlonXP 2100+
- RAM: 256MB (PC2700)
- GFX: ASUS V8200 (GeForce 3 Ti200)
- Hard Disks: DiamondMax 40GB (7200rpm)
- SCSI Controller: PCI Adaptec AHA-2930CU
System set-up:
As you can see the Plextor PX-W4012S was hooked up to the Adaptec SCSI controller and identifies itself as "PLEXTOR CD-R PX-W4012S1.01" in which the 1.01 stands for the firmware version the drive has installed. Autorun was disabled for every device.
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 v3.5.20.0
- Ahead Nero Burning Rom v5.5.10.0
- Ahead Nero CD Speed v1.02
- Ahead Nero InfoTool v1.03.2
- Elaborate Bytes CloneCD v4.2.0.2
- Plextor PlexTools v1.18
Let's take a look at the European package of the Plextor PX-W4012S drive on the next page...
Let's first check out the contents of the European Plextor PX-W4012S retail package. In the box Plextor Europe send to us we can find the following things:
- The Plextor PX-W4012S drive itself
- Quick installation guide
- Warranty RMA procedure manual
- Warranty registration card
- Audio cables
- Emergency eject pin
- Four extra jumper caps
- Mounting screws
- Nero Burning Rom 5.5 disc containing;
- Ahead's Nero Burning Rom
- Ahead's NeroMediaPlayer
- Ahead's InCD
- Ahead's UDF Reader
- PlexTools v1.18 disc including 16-language manual
- One blank 48X 700MB Plextor CD-R
(manufactured by Taiyo Yuden*) - One blank 10X 650MB Plextor CD-RW
(manufactured by Ricoh*)
As always the European retail package of the Plextor recorder is very complete. You get everything you need to get started right away. The manual of the Plextor drive 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 drive as they do for all their new writer models.
Installation:
Unlike the normal IDE interface the SCSI interface has more options that can be used. An IDE CD-recorder can normally be set to either Master, Slave or Cable Select via the jumpers on the back of the drive. With SCSI this is not the case. This Plextor Ultra SCSI CD-recorder has no less than eight jumpers on the back:
- PIN 1-3 are used for the drive's SCSI-ID. By default the Plextor drive is set to ID 4. If your operating system does not support Plug and Play (like Windows NT 4.0) and you have other SCSI peripherals connected to your SCSI controller card, you need to check whether one of these is not already using SCSI-ID 4.
- PIN 4 is the parity jumper which should always be left on. The parity check enhances the reliability of the SCSI bus without effecting performance.
- PIN 5 is the terminator (no, not the movie with Arnold..) jumper. This jumper must be set to on when the PlexWriter is the last drive in the internal SCSI-chain or when it's the only drive.
- PIN 6 is a test jumper which is for factory use only.
- PIN 7 is the block size jumper which should be set to off unless you're working in a UNIX environment.
- And last PIN 8 is for the SPDIF setting. When your sound card supports digital sound and is fitted with a SPDIF connector you can connect the PlexWriter to it.
A big advantage of SCSI is that because it puts less strain on your system while in use, it's an ideal set-up when you want to use multiple burners. These drives can then be set-up in a so-called 'daisy chain' and this set-up will be ideal for companies and professionals who require to copy several discs at once. In our test computer the PlexWriter is the only SCSI drive so we won't be testing such a set-up. The PlexWriter is using the default factory set-up (PIN 3, 4 and 5 are on, the others are off).
The Drive:
As you can see from the screenshot the PlexWriter 40/12/40S is available in both a grey and a black edition. On the front of the drive we can first of all find the PlexWriter logo with the supported speeds. Besides that we have a BPRec (Burn-Proof Recording) logo and a 'High Speed CD ReWriteable' logo. Besides the normal headphone jack, emergency eject hole and volume control dial, we have four LEDs:
- Disc indicator which turns green when a disc is inserted in the drive.
- On/read indicator which shows a green light when the power is turned on and flashes when data is being read from a disc.
- Low-speed write indicator which flashes orange when a CD-R is being written at a speed between 1x and 24x or when a CD-RW disc is being written between at a speed between 4x and 10x.
- And of course a high-speed write indicator which flashes orange when a CD-R is being written at a speed between 32x and 40x or when a CD-RW disc is being written at a speed of 12x.
That's not all. On the drive we can also find an audio CD play button. When you insert and audio CD in the PlexWriter you can start it with the play button. You can also use the same button to skip to the next track or to fast forward the CD. Last but not least the drive of course also has an eject button which also functions as a stop button when an audio CD is inserted in the drive.
The Software:
As already briefly mentioned when we listed the package contents, this European Plextor drive includes the same software as we can find in other European retail packages. First of all we have the Nero Burning Rom v5.5 disc which really doesn't need an introduction anymore. Nero Burning Rom, by many people, is considered to be one of the best software packages around when it comes to your CD and DVD burning needs.
Ahead's InCD is of course also located on the Nero 5.5 CD-ROM. InCD is Ahead's packet writing software to use with your CD and DVD ReWriteable discs. With this software you can format a CD-RW or DVD±RW disc and use it as a large floppy disc. InCD also supports the 'Mount Rainier' (CD-MRW) format which we'll get back to later in our review. Other small tools located on the Nero 5.5 CD-ROM are the NeroMediaPlayer and the UDF Reader.
Plextor PlexTools is another well known program and is delivered with European Plextor CD-writers. The PlexTools software has come a long way since its first introduction and can nowadays be used to create both audio and data compilations with. Besides that the software has some advanced features such as 'DAE Error Recovery' and advanced settings to control your Plextor drive with:
For more information on some of the advanced features of Plextor's PlexTools software please read our small review on it.
On the next page we'll take a look at the features of the Plextor PX-W4012S drive...
Let's check out the drive's specifications as mentioned on the Plextor Europe website and as detected with additional software like Nero InfoTool :
Drive Specifications:
| Write Speeds: | 40X: 6000KB/s Z-CLV 32X: 4800KB/s Z-CLV 24X: 3600KB/s Z-CLV 20X: 3000KB/s CLV 16X: 2400KB/s CLV 8X: 1200KB/s CLV 4X: 600KB/s CLV 1X: 150KB/s CLV |
| Re-Write Speeds: | 12X: 1800KB/s CLV 10X: 1500KB/s CLV 4X: 600KB/s CLV |
| Read Speeds: | 17X-40X: 2.6-6.0 MB/s CAV 14X-32X: 2.1-4.8 MB/s CAV 10X-24X: 1.5-3.6 MB/s CAV 8X: 1200KB/s CLV 4X: 600KB/s CLV |
| Buffer Size: | 4MB |
| Interface: | Ultra SCSI-2 (20MB/s burst) |
| Access Time: | < 120ms |
| Supported Formats: | CD-DA, CD-ROM mode 1, CD-ROM XA, Mix Mode CD, Photo-CD, Video CD, CD-I, CD-Extra, CD+G, CD TEXT |
| Recording Modes: (detected with Nero InfoTool) |
Packet, TAO, DAO, SAO, RAW SAO, RAW DAO, RAW SAO 16, RAW SAO 96, RAW DAO 16, RAW DAO 96 |
| VariRec Recording: | 4X: 600KB/s (TAO or DAO) |
| System Requirements: | Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP, MacOS, minimum 64MB RAM, one free SCSI connector |
| Disc Loading: | Tray, auto load/auto eject, manual emergency eject |
| Dimensions WxHxD: | 146 x 41.3 x 202 mm |
| Weight: | 1.2 kg |
| Extra's: | VariRec, PoweRec, two year full-warranty * (parts, labor, and replacement) with on-site Collect and Return Service **. |
** Only for EU-Countries + Norway and Switzerland.
Overall we can see that the Plextor PX-W4012S drive supports the same features as found on the IDE PX-W4012TA and PX-W4824TA drives. The drive supports all recording formats and of course offers the same Plextor technologies such as VariRec and PoweRec which we'll get back to later. Let's give you a screenshot of Nero InfoTool first and the detected features of this latest SCSI Plextor drive:
From the screenshot you can see that Nero InfoTool verifies the information we already listed. The most interesting thing is that InfoTool reports that the drive supports the Mount Rainier format while, at the time of writing this review, the Plextor Europe website lists the drive as 'Mount Rainier Ready' only (which would mean that a future firmware upgrade will enable Mount Rainier support). According to Plextor there was an error on the website and the SCSI PlexWriter does indeed support the Mount Rainier format. Now let's take a closer look at some of the supported features and technologies:
Buffer (Underrun Protection):
The SCSI PlexWriter, like most 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 Plextor drive has a 4 MB buffer on board as you can also see in the screenshot below of the drive's detected features with Nero Burning Rom:
Nero Burning Rom confirms the 4 MB buffer and as you can see Nero also confirms the Mount Rainier support. Here's some more information on this 'new' packet writing format:
Mount Rainier:
The Plextor PX-W4824TA drive was Plextor's first CD-recorder to support the Mount Rainier format and their latest SCSI drive is no exception. Here's a small introduction of the CD-MRW format. Click on the Mt. Rainier logo to read our article on the Mt. Rainier format:
"...Mount Rainier enables native OS support of data storage on CD-RW. This makes the technology far easier to use and allows the replacement of the floppy. This is done by having defect management in the drive, by making the drive 2k addressable, by using background formatting, and by standardizing both command set and physical layout. The new standard is promoted by Compaq, Microsoft, Philips, and Sony and is supported by over 40 industry leaders: OS vendors, PC-OEM's, ISV's, chip makers, and media makers.
The purpose of the proposal made by the Mount Rainier group is to make CD-RW easier to use for data storage and interchange. The changes proposed will enable the operating system support of dragging and dropping data to CD-RW discs. Formatting delays will also be eliminated and the use will be comparable to using a hard disk or a floppy..."
PoweRec Technology:
The Plextor PX-W4012S drive has the same features as found on all new Plextor drives. These features include quality controls like PoweRec to ensure a quality back-up. PoweRec (Plextor Optimised Writing Error Reduction Control) monitors the quality of the disc while burning and will adjust the speed if necessary. You can read a full explanation of the PoweRec technique in this PDF-document. The main features include:
- The first function will identify and test the target disc and select an optimised write strategy for the media. Running optimum power calibration will overcome the variation in dye characteristics over the disc.
- During writing, real-time write quality monitoring ensures the best write quality for the selected speed. If write errors are likely to occur, the recording speed will be decreased automatically by the drive.
The PlexWriter's PoweRec technology can also be disabled in Nero Burning Rom and via the PlexTools software. This way you can actually check at which speed the inserted media would normally be written when PoweRec is left enabled (see PoweRec recommended write speed in the picture below):
VariRec Technology:
Just like Yamaha with its 'Advanced 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 'Advanced 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.
Other measurements to decrease jitter are the Plextor's black tray which was designed to absorb laser reflected light (reflected by various objects such as the mirror-like metal layer of the disc, but also from the shiny metal screw heads, the slider bars and so on) and an optimised PCB (Power Circuitry Board). The optimised PCB was designed to reduce power-supply induced noise. Special designed circuitry will guarantee host independent and noise-free power supply.
Write Method:
The PlexWriter 40/12/40S uses the Z-CLV write method (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) when writing CD-R's. 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(W).
In the produced Nero CD Speed graph you can clearly see that the Plextor PX-W4012S drive uses four zones to write the disc:
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The Plextor PX-W4012S' write method is exactly the same as the internal (IDE) PX-W4012TA drive and it's thus no surprise the average write speeds are also almost exactly the same. In the screenshot above you can see that the average write speed of the SCSI PlexWriter is 30.58x.
A small note that's worth mentioning here are the LEDs on the front of the Plextor drive. During the write process you can actually check at which speed the drive is writing because it switches from the low-speed to the high-speed LEDs!
Next up in our SCSI PlexWriter review, the data read tests.
In this part of our PlexWriter review we'll start testing the reading of normal/unprotected data discs. Let's see how fast the Plextor 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 four sections:
Let's start with a screenshot of the detected Plextor PX-W4012S read speeds with the PlexTools software. In the screenshots below you can also see some more information on the drive itself like firmware, interface and access time:
Reading Original/Pressed Discs:
For the transfer rate tests we used a pressed CD-ROM containing PlexTools v1.13 which was exactly 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below you can see the produced graph with Nero CD Speed:
And of course an overview of the speeds and seek times the Plextor PX-W4012S drive reached with Nero CD Speed:
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In the left screenshot you see that the Plextor PX-W4012S (like all Plextor drives) has no problems reaching 40x and going faster than that (the top read speed was 41.57x). The average read speed was 31.46x.
The seek times with original/pressed media are also pretty good and almost the same as the PX-W4012TA drive. |
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In the table below we compare the achieved times with other drives we've previously reviewed. The Plextor PX-W4012S just falls behind the PX-W4012TU 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-32123S |
31.75x | 19.02x | 41.65x | 94ms | 103ms | 168ms |
| Mitsumi CR-480ATE |
30.42x | 18.00x | 40.11x | 93ms | 97ms | 132ms |
| PleXCombo PX-320A |
31.21x | 18.38x | 41.21x | 108ms | 120ms | 216ms |
| Plextor PX-W4012U USB 2.0 |
31.62x | 18.70x | 41.71x | 118ms | 139ms | 208ms |
| Plextor PX-W4012S SCSI |
31.46x | 17.83x | 41.57x | 116ms | 138ms | 209ms |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||||
For the transfer rate tests with CD-Recordable Media we used a back-up (CD-R) of a PlexTools v1.05 disc. The used disc 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 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below the produced graph with Nero CD Speed:
The speeds and seek times the Plextor PX-W4012S drive reached with the CD-Recordable media:
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In the left screenshot you see that the Plextor PX-W4012S again had no problems reaching its maximum write speed and reaching a top read speed of 41.69x. With an average read speed of 31.72x a very good result.
The seek times with CD-Recordable media were again pretty good as you can see in the screenshot on the right. |
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In the table below we compare the achieved times with other drives we've previously reviewed. The Plextor PX-W4012S again just falls behind the PX-W4012TU drive with its read speeds, although its seek times are a little bit better:
| 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-32123S |
32.21x | 19.05x | 42.07x | 92ms | 105ms | 243ms |
| Mitsumi CR-480ATE |
29.99x | 17.98x | 39.44x | 91ms | 96ms | 127ms |
| PleXCombo PX-320A |
31.43x | 18.83x | 41.36x | 110ms | 125ms | 218ms |
| Plextor PX-W4012U USB 2.0 |
31.81x | 19.07x | 41.81x | 116ms | 137ms | 204ms |
| Plextor PX-W4012S SCSI |
31.72x | 18.97x | 41.69x | 114ms | 135ms | 204ms |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||||
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 using a PleXCombo PX-320A . The disc used was a 'Plextor CD-RW' disc. 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:
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In our introduction at the beginning of this page we showed you a screenshot of the PlexTools software and it reported that the SCSI drive could read CD-RW media at 32x only. However, as you can see from the results, the drive had no problems reaching 40x and even faster speeds! A pleasant surprise. We're not completely sure if the PlexTools software simply gave the wrong information or if it was a result of the PX-W4012S drive using a newer firmware version (1.01). |  |
In the table below we'll compare the achieved results to some of the reviews we've done previously. The SCSI PlexWriter's performance is again very close to the PX-W4012TU 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-32123S |
25.99x | 15.31x | 34.38x | 91ms | 101ms | 361ms |
| Mitsumi CR-480ATE |
30.98x | 18.27x | 40.84x | 96ms | 102ms | 137ms |
| PleXCombo PX-320A |
25.20x | 14.87x | 33.27x | 105ms | 124ms | 215ms |
| Plextor PX-W4012U USB 2.0 |
31.61x | 18.61x | 41.74x | 117ms | 141ms | 210ms |
| Plextor PX-W4012S SCSI |
31.51x | 18.49x | 41.63x | 116ms | 139ms | 209ms |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||||
So far for the data reading part. Now let's check the audio reading (DAE) speeds on the next page...
On the previous page where we showed you the PlexTools screenshot with the listed supported read speeds we could see that audio could be read at the same speed as normal data. Let's check if the PlexWriter can indeed do DAE (Digital Audio Extraction) at 40x. For the audio read tests we used our usual 'tools', Exact Audio Copy (EAC), Nero CD Speed and PlexTools.
Features:
First we checked the features the Plextor PX-W4012S supports using EAC:
As you can see from the screenshot on the left the Plextor PX-W4012S 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 hard disk. Our test disc (DJ Promo - Last Men Standing) had 16 tracks and a total playing time of 77 minutes and 3 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 SCSI Plextor drive reached in both extraction modes. We also included a screenshot of the Plextor drive doing DAE of the same disc using the PlexTools software:
Plextor PX-W4012S DAE speed - EAC - Burst Mode
Plextor PX-W4012S DAE speed - EAC - Secure Mode
Plextor PX-W4012S DAE speed - PlexTools
As you can see from the achieved results the PlexWriter had no problems reaching maximum speed and going faster than that. With a top read speed of 41x and even 42x in PlexTools this is an excellent result. Let's compare them to some of the other drives we've reviewed:
| EAC DAE Speeds |
Burst Mode Average |
Burst Mode Maximum |
Secure Mode Average |
Secure Mode Maximum |
| 40X Max Readers | ||||
| Lite-On LTR-32123S |
29.8X | 42.0X | 9.5X | 11.9X |
| Mitsumi CR-480ATE |
29.1X | 40.1X | 10.3X | 13.5X |
| PleXCombo PX-320A |
29.7X | 41.8X | 9.2X | 12.1X |
| Plextor PX-W4012A |
30.6X | 42.3X | 9.5X | 12.4X |
| Plextor PX-W4012S SCSI |
30.4X | 41.8X | 10.7X | 14.4X |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||
The table shows us that the SCSI PlexWriter performs very similar to other Plextor recorders we've reviewed. Its read speeds with EAC's Secure Mode have been improved however, making it the fastest drive we've reviewed.
Digital Audio Extraction - Nero CD Speed:
Now let's check our results we got with Exact Audio Copy using Nero CD Speed. You can see a screenshot of the tests below:
The tests done with Nero CD Speed show that the PlexWriter again has no problem going faster than 40x, reaching a top speed of 42.05x. The SCSI drive has an accurate stream and gets a quality score of 10 which is the highest score. Finally, as expected, the CPU usage was low and the burst rate of the drive was 10MB/s:
| 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 LTR-32123S |
31.91X | 18.87X | 42.09X | 90ms | 107ms | 179ms | 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 |
| Pletor PX-W4012TU USB 2.0 |
32.06X | 19.06X | 42.22X | 115ms | 140ms | 211ms | 10/yes |
| Pletor PX-W4012S SCSI |
31.88X | 18.93X | 42.05X | 114ms | 142ms | 211ms | 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.
We created a new test disc using a Plextor PX-W4012TU recorder. We used some high quality 'Hi-Space' media which are also available from our online shop (for our Dutch and Belgian visitors only). These Hi-Space discs have a 24 carats gold reflective cover and can be written up to 24x. Here are the results from the Advanced DAE Quality Test:
The average DAE speed of the Plextor PX-W4012S drive is over 30X and this is again an excellent result. The SCSI drive had no problems reading the CD-Text and SubChannel Data from the disc. Reading information from the lead-in and lead-out area of the disc was also no problem.
As a final test we of course also tested if the PlexWriter could indeed read and write CD-Text. We recorded an audio disc with CD-Text and then used the Plextor drive to play the created disc using PlexTools. The had no problems reading and writing the CD-Text:
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 Plextor PX-W4012S drive and then read the same disc with various other drives for comparison. You can see the result of the Plextor drive in the screenshot below. 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:
Plextor PX-W4012S reading scratched disc
In the table below we've summed up our test results comparing them to other drives we've previously reviewed. Again, keep in mind that the important percentage is the one of the unreadable sectors. Of course the less, the better:
| Scratched Disc |
Good | Damaged | Unreadable | ||||
| VisionTek Xtasy 48X |
36.89% | 44.41% | 18.70% | ||||
| PleXCombo PX-320A |
64.58% | - | 35.42% | ||||
| Mitsumi CR-480ATE |
59.87% | - | 40.13% | ||||
| Plextor PX-W4012S |
42.63% | 11.91% | 45.45% | ||||
| Plextor PX-W4012TU |
35.95% | 8.78% | 55.28% | ||||
| Yamaha CRW-F1 |
37.72% | - | 62.28% | ||||
| The grey area's indicate the least amount of unreadable sectors - : drive cannot report damaged sectors |
|||||||
Low Quality Disc:
To add a little more to our scratched data reading tests we've added another test for you. We wrote a low quality 74 minute CD-Recordable using the VisionTek Xtasy 48X drive and Nero Burning Rom. We disabled its SMART-BURN feature so errors would probably be created. The ATIP information from the used CD-Recordable:
- ATIP: 97m 31s 01f
- Disc Manufacturer: unknown
- Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
- Media type: CD-Recordable
- Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
- Nominal Capacity: 656.69MB (74m 45s 00f)
We then scanned the disc with Nero CD Speed using various drives we've previously reviewed. You can see a screenshot of the Plextor PX-W4012S drive reading the low quality disc below
Plextor PX-W4012S reading low quality disc
In the table below we've summed up our test results again, comparing them to other drives we've previously reviewed. Again, keep in mind that the important percentage is the one of the unreadable sectors. Of course the less, the better:
| Scratched Disc |
Good | Damaged | Unreadable | ||||
| Plextor PX-W4012S |
99.89% | 0.11% | 0.0% | ||||
| Plextor PX-W4012TU |
99.44% | 0.56% | 0.0% | ||||
| VisionTek Xtasy 48X |
59.44% | 40.56% | 0.0% | ||||
| PleXCombo PX-320A |
89.49% | - | 10.51% | ||||
| TEAC CD-W540E |
66.21% | 11.75% | 22.03% | ||||
| Mitsumi CR-480ATE |
60.34% | - | 39.66% | ||||
| Yamaha CRW-F1 |
48.81% | - | 51.19% | ||||
| The grey area's indicate the least amount of unreadable sectors - : drive cannot report damaged sectors |
|||||||
That concludes the reading part of our review. Now it's time to see how the Plextor PX-W4012S performs when writing discs...
As mentioned before the SCSI PlexWriter can write discs at a maximum speed of 40X using the Z-CLV write method. In this part of our review we'll see what this speed means in real life. Let's start with a screenshot of the reported write speeds using the PlexTools software:
The disc was written without problems in 3 minutes and 22 seconds, almost the exact same time as the Plextor PX-W4012TU drive needed to write the same amount of data. Let's check if audio can be written at maximum speed:
As you can see from the screenshot above the SCSI Plextor drive had no problems recording audio at maximum speed. The complete disc was written in 3 minutes and 24 seconds. The only thing we now have to check is the drive's special audio recording mode, VariRec:
VariRec Recording:
As already mentioned on page 3 (features) of our review, this SCSI Plextor drive supports the 'VariRec' recording technique. 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 PlexWriter's VariRec feature we simply re-wrote our previous audio compilation, only this time with VariRec enabled. When writing audio you can see an option to enable the VariRec settings in Nero Burning Rom. When pressing the VariRec button we can see the following screen:
As you can see from the screenshot, the recording speed is limited to 4x when writing in the VariRec mode and it's recommended to use the default offset setting of 0 (which we also used for our test). Below you can see a screenshot of the Plextor PX-W4012S writing a 76 minute audio compilation in the VariRec mode:
As we've said many times before when we tested Plextor's VariRec recording mode, we cannot tell the difference in quality when listening to both created discs. Is this a bad thing or a good thing? Well it's a good thing as far as we're concerned since audio discs created with the SCSI PlexWriter sound just as good as the originals, regardless if VariRec was used or not. That's really all that's important.
DAO-RAW Recording:
As a final write tests we tested if the PlexWriter could record at maximum speed using the DAO-RAW recording mode (which basically means that data is written uncorrected). We used CloneCD version 4.2.0.2 to write a previously created image using a 48x certified CD-R disc. From the screenshot below you can see that the Plextor drive could write the image at a maximum speed without a problem:
Now that we've finished our normal read and write tests, it's time to check the drive's write quality...
To test the Plextor PX-W4012S' write quality we simply used Nero Burning Rom or CloneCD to write several discs at maximum speed. For each disc we then used Lite-On's C1/C2 error scan program called WSES (Write Strategy Evaluation System) v1.07. This program can accurately scan a disc for errors and it's a better method of checking the write quality then when using Nero CD Speed for instance. The created discs were scanned using a Lite-On LTR-52246S drive (WSES only works with Lite-On drives) at 40X reading.
Note: The display scale were using for our error measurement is 60 for C1 and 20 for C2. Please keep this in mind when you, for instance, compare our tests to other reviews. The scales may be different and you can thus not compare the results just by looking at the created graphs!
Introduction:
C1 and C2 errors are not really on a disc. They occur during reading. The more difficult it is for a drive to read a disc, the more errors will occur while reading that disc. A good disc should report low error rates even at high scanning speeds. But don't forget that a bad disc can also have low error rates after burning. A good disc will still report low error rates if you put the disc into direct sunlight, while a bad disc will damage and/or may degrade after some months. The results below are thus not an indication whether or not the used disc is of a good quality. It's merely an indication if the burn process was done properly.
In the figures below you will see a graphical overview of errors occurring during the read process. Please note that every created/burned disc will always have C1 errors. These are errors that are corrected by the drive and they will not effect the disc in a bad way as long as their amount is limited. C2 errors are however very bad for a disc and are harder to read and correct. When there are too many C2 errors present on the disc it means you have bad burned disc and it can't be read in the test drive you're using as a reader. Although a low amount of C2 errors can still be recovered by the drive, a zero amount of C2 errors is always preferred!
The Tests:
700MB Plextor CD-R80:
- Manufacturer: Taiyo Yuden
- Certified Speed: 48X
- Write Speed: 40X (3m:22s)
- Code: 97m24s01f
- Disc Type: CD-R
- Recording Layer: Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)
- Capacity: 79:59.72 (703 MB)
These discs were delivered with the Plextor drive and were certified for 48X recording. The Plextor PX-W4012S drive (of course) wrote the discs at maximum speed and as you can see from the graph below, created a perfect quality disc:
700MB Maxell CD-R:
- Manufacturer: Hitachi Maxell
- Certified Speed: 40X
- Write Speed: 40X (3m:24s)
- Code: 97m25s29f
- Disc Type: CD-R
- Recording Layer: Dye Type 9: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
- Capacity: 79:59.74 (703 MB)
The next disc we scanned was a Maxell CD-R certified for 40X recording. The Plextor drive wrote the disc at maximum speed (40X) and created another quality disc as you can also see from the following graph:
700MB Mitsui/MAM-E CD-R:
- Manufacturer: Mitsui
- Certified Speed: 48X
- Write Speed: 40X (3m:23s)
- Code: 97m27s58f
- Disc Type: CD-R
- Recording Layer: Dye Type 8: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
- Capacity: 79:59.74 (703 MB)
The next disc we scanned was a recorded Mitsui/MAM-E disc. From the graph below you can see that there are more C1 errors than on the previous two discs but keep in mind that this is still a good result: the number of errors is low and there are no C2 errors:
650MB Taiyo Yuden CD-R:
- Manufacturer: Taiyo Yuden
- Certified Speed: 24X
- Write Speed: 32X (2m:57s)
- Code: 97m24s01f
- Disc Type: CD-R
- Recording Layer: Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)
- Capacity: 74;43.01 (656 MB)
Plextor and Taiyo Yuden discs are a good combination and, as you can see from the graph below, this Plextor SCSI writer is no exception. A perfectly recorded disc:
650MB TDK CD-R:
- Manufacturer: TDK
- Certified Speed: 48X
- Write Speed: 32X (3m:08s)
- Code: 97m15s05f
- Disc Type: CD-R
- Recording Layer: Dye Type 5: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
- Capacity: 79:59.72 (703 MB)
Although the TDK discs are certified for 48X recording, the Plextor PX-W4012S wrote them at 32X. The recorded disc was however again of perfect quality:
700MB Hi-Space CD-R:
- Manufacturer: MPO France
- Certified Speed: 24X
- Write Speed: 4X (20m:22s - VariRec)
- Code: 97m25s07f
- Disc Type: CD-R
- Recording Layer: Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
- Capacity: 79:59.00 (702 MB)
As a final test we scanned a Hi-Space disc that had been recorded at 4X using the Plextor's VariRec technology. Although the number of errors increases at the end of the disc, their amount is still limited and there are no C2 errors. Another disc burned well:
Now that we've finished our read, write and quality tests, it's time to test the drive for its ability to read and write data and audio copy-protections.
In this part of our SCSI PlexWriter review we'll start testing the reading and writing of copy-protected data discs. Copy-protections are used on pretty much 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 4.2.0.2 from Elaborate Bytes . As you might know (if you've read our CloneCD v4.0 preview ), CloneCD 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 CloneCD/Profiles folder on your hard disk. Alternatively you can view and download all used Profiles from our CloneCD forum , by clicking here.
Let's start by giving you a screenshot of the supported drive capabilities of the Plextor drive with CloneCD v4.2.0.2:
As you can see in the picture above, the Plextor PX-W4012S is fully supported by CloneCD (DAO-RAW96, which means the drive can write uncorrected data and SubChannel Data). In the table below we've summed up all of our results and after the table we will clarify our results:
LaserLock:
For the LaserLock test we use a game called 'Desperados' protected with LaserLock. As a comparison we read from both the original disc and from a back-up (CD-Recordable) disc since there can be quite a difference in read times, as you can also see from our achieved results. While the original disc was read in about 48 minutes, the back-up was read in only 15 minutes. Although these read times might seem slow, this is actually not such a bad result.
SafeDisc:
To test the SafeDisc protection we used a game called 'Beavis and Butthead: BungHole in One'. The SafeDisc protection is a very old protection but it uses a lot of errors on the first 5% of the disc which can make reading the disc take a really long time. This is luckily not the case with the SCSI PlexWriter. As expected (Plextor writers are known to be very fast 'error skippers'), the disc was read in only 2 minutes and 29 seconds, only one second behind our fastest reader, the Plextor PX-W4824A.
SafeDisc 2:
For our next tests we used a game called 'The Sims: House Party' protected with SafeDisc version 2.10.030. As expected the disc was again read very fast in only 2 minutes and 13 seconds. To test the Plextor PX-W4012S' ability to write this protection we wrote the image with ' weak sectors ' (formerly known as AWS) set to ignore. The created back-up disc was then tested in the following drives:
| Test drives (weak sectors ignored) |
The Sims: House Party v2.10.030 |
| -Lite-On LTR-52246S | passed |
| -Plextor PX-W4012S | passed |
| -Plextor PX-W4824A | passed |
| -Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502 | passed |
As expected the Plextor drive had no problems creating a fully working back-up of this SafeDisc 2 protection. Now let's try again with an improved version of this copy-protection:
SafeDisc 2.51:
Besides our SafeDisc and SafeDisc 2 tests we need to take a look at the newer SafeDisc 2 versions. For these tests we used two games: 'Serious Sam 2: The Second Encounter' protected with SafeDisc v2.51.021 and 'Mafia: The City Of Lost Heaven' protected with SafeDisc v2.70.030.
We read the image with the Plextor PX-W4012S drive using the same 'SafeDisc (2) [no AWS]' Profile as for 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:
| Test drives (weak sectors ignored) |
Serious Sam 2 v2.51.021 |
Mafia v2.70.030 |
| -Lite-On LTR-52246S | passed | failed |
| -Plextor PX-W4012S | passed | passed |
| -Plextor PX-W4824A | passed | passed |
| -Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502 | failed | failed |
As you can see from the list above the created back-ups didn't play from all drives. As expected both back-ups failed in the picky Toshiba DVD-ROM. Next we re-wrote the same image file but now with the 'weak sectors' set to amplify 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:
| Test drives (weak sectors ignored) |
Serious Sam 2 v2.51.021 |
Mafia v2.70.030 |
| -Lite-On LTR-52246S | passed | passed |
| -Plextor PX-W4012S | passed | passed |
| -Plextor PX-W4824A | passed | passed |
| -Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502 | passed | passed |
When the 'weak sectors' were amplified the Plextor PX-W4012S created a perfect back-up which played in all drives we tested, even from the picky Toshiba DVD-ROM.
SafeDisc 2.80:
More SafeDisc tests? Yes we also need to take a look at the latest SafeDisc 2 version, 2.80. This is another improved version of this copy-protection and is the hardest one to beat. For the SafeDisc 2.80 test we used a game called 'Grand Prix 4' protected with SafeDisc v2.80.010 (after applying the official patch, version 9.6). For our SafeDisc 2.80 tests we used the same copy method as for our other SafeDisc 2 tests. In the table below you can see the achieved results:
| Test drives Grand Prix 4 v2.80.010 |
Weak Sectors Ignored |
Weak Sectors Amplified |
| -Lite-On LTR-52246S | failed | passed |
| -Plextor PX-W4012S | passed | passed |
| -Plextor PX-W4824A | passed | passed |
| -Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502 | failed | passed |
Although the SafeDisc v2.80 protection is the hardest version to beat, the Plextor PX-W4012S had no problems creating a fully working back-up when the weak sectors were amplified. The same result as we saw with the other SafeDisc 2 versions.
SecuRom *NEW*:
The next protected data tests we did was with a game called 'Neverwinter Nights' protected with a newer version of SecuRom (v4.76.00.0051). Note that we didn't apply the official game patch for this title since with this patch no back-up works. We read the third disc of the game (play disc) in 8 minutes and 12 seconds. The Plextor PX-W4012S was limited to about 8x reading when extracting the SubChannel Data, the same performance as we saw with the Plextor PX-W4012A drive. We tested the created back-up disc in several drives and the game started every time. Note that when playing from a CD-RW drive you have to enable CloneCD's 'Hide CDR Media' option.
PlayStation/LibCrypt:
When reading the black PlayStation disc the Plextor drive was again limited to about 8x reading, resulting in a read time of minutes and seconds. Not a too bad result considering that at this lower read speed you can be sure the extracted SubChannel Data is reliable.
Next up in our Plextor PX-W4012S review, the reading of protected audio discs...
Now that we've taken a look at how well the SCSI Plextor drive can handle data protection it's time to see how well it does with protected audio discs. Audio discs are protected more and more and so it's important a drive can read these protections. For the tests we only used PlexTools. For more information on how to handle copy-protected audio discs please read this thread on our Audio forum.
Key2Audio version 2:
The first protection we're going to take a look at is Key2Audio developed by Sony DADC. The disc we're using is 'Shakira: Laundry Service' protected with version 2 of the Key2Audio protection. On the front of the CD-cover we can read the text 'will not play on PC/MAC'. For more information on Key2Audio you can visit www.key2audio.com.
We first started PlexTools, inserted the disc and closed the tray. We waited until the CD-contents were displayed and, as you can see from the screenshot below, the disc was recognized without a problem:
We then of course ripped all the tracks to our hard disk and listened to them to check if they were ripped properly. All tracks sounded fine. Now let's check a newer Key2Audio version:
Key2Audio version 3:
For the Key2Audio version 3 tests we used an audio disc with the title 'Celine Dion: A new day has come'. On the front of the CD-cover we again find the text 'will not play on PC/MAC'. When we inserted the disc into the SCSI PlexWriter, it was again recognized without a problem. Ripping of the audio tracks was also done just fine:
Cactus Data Shield:
For the Cactus Data Shield (CDS) tests we used an audio disc with the title 'Bitte Ein Beat 5' protected with CDS200. On the back of the CD-cover and on the disc itself we can find a small logo mentioning that the disc is copy protected by Midbar Tech ( www.midbartech.com).
We first tried to read the disc with PlexTools but as you can see the disc lay-out is detected wrong (the red text is incorrect, there should be 15 audio tracks and 1 data track):
This behaviour was expected since we saw the same thing with the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive. We then enabled the 'Single Session' option in PlexTools (to prevent the drive from reading the second (protected) session on the audio disc). As you can see from the screenshot below the tracks were now displayed correctly (after re-inserting the disc):
Ripping of the audio tracks also went fine, although PlexTools did report that some tracks contained errors. We however could not hear these errors in the ripped tracks...
Doc.loc:
Doc.loc is another audio protection and can be recognized by the text 'DOCdata' on the inner ring of the disc. On the back of the CD cover we can read the following text:
"This product features copy protection technology, as we feel the necessity to protect our artists and ourselves from illegal copying; it is intended for use in standard home CD audio players and may not play on other devices, especially computer drives."
Doc.loc is a protection that has been produced by the DOCdata company ( www.docdata.com) and when you insert an audio disc that has the Doc.loc protection in a computer drive it will simply keep searching indefinitely because the drive cannot recognize the disc. To test this 'theory' we inserted the protected audio disc in the PlexWriter and waited till the disc and the audio tracks had been recognized. Unfortunately the PX-W4012S drive failed to recognize the Doc.loc disc but when we opened the drive's tray and let PlexTools close it again, the tracks were recognized after a while:
After the tracks had been recognized, ripping them was no problem at all.
Next up in our Plextor PX-W4012S review, the packet writing and Mount Rainier tests.
In this part of the review we'll take a look at the SCSI PlexWriter's CD-ReWriting abilities and its Mount Rainier (CD-MRW) support. For both tests we used Ahead's InCD version 3.5.20.0. For the erase tests we used Elaborate Bytes' CloneCD version 4.2.0.2.
Packet Writing:
We formatted a Plextor 650MB high-speed CD-RW disc which was delivered with the Plextor package. We fired up InCD, inserted the empty CD-ReWriteable disc in the recorder and measured the time it took from inserting the disc till it was ejected again. The InCD option to 'Format disc to CD-MRW' (Mt. Rainier) was disabled. We will do the CD-MRW tests later on this page of our review.
When formatting was complete we measured the time it took for the drive to write our test folder of data (containing 400MB (419.791.239 bytes)). In the table below we've summed it all up for you:
From the results you can see that we had a small problem when writing our tests data since the PlexWriter needed far more time than the other 12X recorders we've reviewed. To test what the problem was we simply used a Plextor PX-W4012A drive to write the same test data. This drive also needed far more time than usual (4m:34s vs. 5m:51s). So the problem probably lies with the used InCD version and not with the PlexWriter. Let's check how fast the drive can write the same test data using Nero Burning Rom (and the same (erased) Plextor CD-RW disc):
From the screenshot you can see that this time the PlexWriter only needed 4 minutes and 24 seconds to write our test data. Let's continue with our CD-MRW tests:
Mount Rainier Tests:
Since Plextor's PX-W4824A drive all new Plextor drives seem to support the Mount Rainier format and the SCSI PlexWriter is no exception. Let's see how well it performs when using InCD version 3.5.20.0. If you want to read more on the CD-MRW format please read our Mount Rainier article .
As you can see from the achieved results the Plextor SCSI writer is performing very well. Although the VisionTek Xtasy 48X (based on the Lite-On LTR-48125W) is faster when copying the data to the disc, the Plextor was faster when reading back the data. Overall an excellent result.
On the next page we've summed up our media compatibility results...
In this part of our PlexWriter
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 as you can see on
page 8: Write
Quality . In the table below we've, as
always, summed it all up for you:
| Tested Media |
Size/ Length |
Cert. Speed |
Real Manufacturer |
Strategy | Write Speed |
|
| CD-Recordable Media | ||||||
| Dixons | 650MB 74min |
24X | Plasmon | Short | 32X | |
| Maxell | 700MB 80min |
40X | Hitachi Maxell |
Short | 40X | |
| Mitsui MAM-E |
700MB 80min |
48X | Mitsui | Short | 40X | |
| Plextor | 700MB 80min |
48X | Taiyo Yuden |
Long | 40X | |
| Taiyo Yuden |
650MB 74min |
24X | Taiyo Yuden |
Long | 32X | |
| TDK | 700MB 80min |
48X | TDK | Short | 32X | |
| CD-ReWriteable Media | ||||||
| DataTrack | 700MB 80min |
10X | Sentinel | Phase change | 10X | |
| Infiniti Prof. |
700MB 80min |
10X | Unknown | Phase change | 10X | |
| Plextor | 650MB 74min |
10X | Ricoh | Phase change | 12X | |
| Yamaha 74BHS |
650MB 74min |
10X | Mistubishi | Phase change | 12X | |
| Plextor PX-W4012S Media Compatibility |
||||||
From the tested CD-Recordable
media only the discs manufactured by TDK were written at a lower speed than they
were certified for. However, since both the Taiyo Yuden and Dixons media were
written at a higher speed than certified for and since the other media were all
written at maximum speed (40X), the PlexWriter achieves a good result.
From the tested CD-ReWriteable
media two discs could be written at a higher speed than certified for. This is
thus also a good result.
To conclude our review we will take a look at how far the PlexWriter can
overburn and if it can handle 8cm CD-RW's and 99 minute
CD-R's...
We're almost done with our Plextor PX-W4012S review and for our last tests we're, as always, going to check if the drive can read and write exotic CD-Recordable's. These include 99 minute discs and 8cm discs. Let's start with the first one:
Overburning:
We used DataTrack 99min/900MB CD-R's for our tests that were certified up to 40X writing. We used Nero CD Speed to do an overburn test. We set the 'Test capacity' to 99 minutes, started the test and Nero CD Speed reported that the PlexWriter drive could overburn to 99 minutes! If this is correct then it would mean that this is the first Plextor drive to fully support overburning. To put Nero CD Speed's results to the test we created a new 99 minute audio compilation using Nero Burning Rom. In the screenshot below you can see that the write process was completed successfully:
So this is great news since Plextor has finally added 99 minute support (other Plextor writers will only write up to 94 minutes). Let's check if the created disc can be read back again:
In the graph you can see that reading the disc was no problem. The PlexWriter read the disc at maximum speed achieving a top read speed of 41.73x. Let's go to our final test:
8cm CD-RW Tests:
To conclude our Plextor PX-W4012A review we're going to read and write an 8cm CD-RW disc. The 8cm discs we're using were manufactured by DataTrack. The discs can hold a maximum of 24min/213MB and were certified up to 4X re-writing. To test if the PlexWriter could write the disc we simply set up a 210MB data compilation using Nero Burning Rom and started the write process:
As expected writing the 8cm CD-RW disc was no problem at all and reading it back also went just fine.
That concludes our SCSI PlexWriter review! Let's go to our final words and conclusions...
Positive Points:
- Finally a new Plextor drive with Ultra SCSI-2 interface!
- Complete package (software/hardware)
- Complete manual and in many different languages
- Two year full warranty for Europe, The Middle-East and Africa
- Supports 40X Z-CLV writing
- 4MB buffer plus BURN-Proof
- Supports VariRec technology
- Supports PoweRec technology (which can also be disabled and used to check the recommended write speed!)
- Good software package (Nero Burning Rom/InCD/PlexTools)
- Excellent DAE speed and quality
- Good write quality and media support
- Supports overburning up to 99 minutes!
- Supports Mount Rainier format
- Supports DAO-RAW writing
- Supports reading and writing of 8cm discs
- Supports reading and writing of CD-Text information
- Supports reading and writing of full SubChannel Data
- Could back-up SafeDisc 2 (before version v2.51.021)
- Could back-up tested audio copy-protections just fine
Negative Points:
- Needs weak sector amplification for SafeDisc v2.51.021 copy-protection and higher
- SubChannel Data reading could be faster (it's now limited to 8x)
- Would have liked to see ultra-speed re-writing support (24x)
This time we can be quite brief with our conclusions. The SCSI Plextor drive performed very similar to the internal (IDE) Plextor PX-W4012A drive and since we already loved that model, it's hard not to love this SCSI model. The SCSI drive has even been improved compared to the IDE model since it supports the Mount Rainier format out-of-the-box and does now fully support 99 minute CD-R media (the SCSI writer is Plextor's first writer to fully support overburning!).
When reading discs the PlexWriter performed very well since it could read all types of media at full speed (even CD-RW media even though PlexTools reported that this would be limited to 32x). Audio could also be read at full speed without a problem and together with the PlexTools software with its DAE Error Recovery, Digital Audio Extraction will always be of the highest possible quality.
When it came to write performance the PlexWriter also didn't disappoint us. Although the drive uses the Z-CLV write method it achieved an acceptable result when writing discs. The only thing that bothered us was the fact that the PlexWriter does not support the ultra-speed re-write standard of 24x and can only re-write at 12x. A maximum write speed of 40x doesn't make a big difference compared to 48x, but 24x re-writing would have been a major improvement compared to 12x.
Despite the drive only supporting 12x re-writing, it showed good performance when we did our packet writing and Mount Rainier tests with InCD. When it came to copy-protections the Plextor drive performed as expected. It can copy the normal SafeDisc 2 protection just fine but it needs help with newer versions (2.51.021+). The audio copy-protections we tested could all be read just fine.
In conclusion we can say that the PlexWriter 40/12/40S is definitely a worthy upgrade for Plextor's latest SCSI writer, the PlexWriter 12/10/32S. For a Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of $ 319 USD the drive is yours...
