PleXWriter PX-W4824U CDR-W - Page 8

RW Writing Tests

- Introduction

The PX-W4824U supports 24X writing with the use of the new Ultra speed re-writing media. Below are displayed all three available re-writing standards (there is a new logo for US-RW enabled drives):

• Normal speed (NS-RW) can rewrite up to 4X
• High Speed (HS-RW) can rewrite between 4X and 10X (or with some drives up to 12X/16X)
• Ultra Speed (US-RW) can rewrite between 8X and 32X (PX-W4824U supports only 24X writing with such media)

With US-RW media, the PX-W4824U drive starts writing at 21.09X and reaches 24.00X at 6mins. The average theoretical re-writing speed is 23.89X, almost equal to 24X CLV!

- Test Results

Let's now compare the drive with the competition. The YAMAHA CRW-F1E (OWSC On) is still the faster drive than both Plextor drives by a few seconds. The PX-W4824U was 2 seconds slower than the PX-W4824A (both drives PoweRec On). Using Nero, we saw two different performances, with PoweRec enabled/disabled.

or with PoweRec disabled:

The PoweRec function does affect the re-writing speed of the drive. When it was enabled, the drive finished at 3:46mins, and while it was disabled, it was 21 seconds faster. This time difference could be important but we would suggest user to leave PoweRec On.

- Packet Writing Tests

- Introduction

We used Ahead InCD v3.51.61 for the packet writing tests with the 24X US-RW media. The formatted disc had 534 MB of free space. We copied a 403 MB file (403.147 kbs) from a Hard Disk (on the same PC as the writers) to the formatted RW media using Windows Explorer (we dragged and dropped) and we completed the test twice to eliminate any possible time measurement faults and user errors

- Test Results

The PX-4824U gets the third place at the writing/reading tests behind the PX-W4824A, while the YAMAHA F1 series drive get the first place. The SONY CRX210E1 gets the first place when reading under packet writing mode.