PleXWriter PX-W4012TS SCSI CD-RW - Page 6

CDR Tests

- Recording Tests

The PleXWriter PX-W4012TS showed a good behaviour compared with other Zone-CLV recorders (Samsung SW-240B). The drive needs 204sec (3:24mins) to finish the task. The PX-W4012A is slower only by two seconds. The below graph shows the recording times for all the supported recording speeds above 16X, with Plextor 80min 48X (made by Taiyo Yuden) CD-R media:

As a notice we could say that the time difference between the 32X and 40X is very low (7secs).

- Supported media

From our tests, we saw that Taiyo Yuden 48X, Mitsubishi Chemicals 48X, Fuji 40X, Imation 48X and SCK 48X media could be burned at 40X. With the new TDK 48X (white printable) we could write at speeds up to 32X. According to the Plextor European website, Hitachi-Maxell 4X-40X are also supported, while the USA website has a more detailed list of the supported media.

- Overburning Tests

The drive can overburn up to 99mins. This is an improvement over the previous Plextor models.

- CD-Text Results

Can read/write CD-Text without any problems.

- CloneCD Writing Tests

The CloneCD software reports that the drive supports the DAO-RAW feature. With the use of proper media, DAO-RAW writing can be performed at 32X.

For checking the drive's EFM correction status, we used 3 different game titles with different SafeDisc 2 versions with the latest software patches installed. We used the drive as reader/writer at maximum reading/recording speed. Two discs were burned for each game. One disc was burned with PadusDJ and the other with CloneCD (Amplify Weak Sectors On). The results are posted in the following table:

The PleXWriter PX-W4012TS can backup discs protected with Safedisc v2.50.020 or older without the need of special software. The v2.60.052 build backups will work only with the "Amplify Weak Sectors" option enabled, while the latest v2.80.010 won't work, mostly since CloneCD has problems with it. Using other software like Alcohol 120% or BlindWrite could be more efficient.