Plextor PX-750A 16x DVD DL Burner

Plextor has always had strong products in terms of optical storage, but the Plextor PX-750A shatters that perception by providing lackluster performance regardless of the media type.

05/18/06 – Plextor has consistently been a leader in terms of optical drive storage. They push the limits of speed and offer excellent software packages with their drives. The Plextor PX-750A distinguishes itself as being the first super drive from the company supporting DVD-RAM media.

In addition to the DVD-RAM support in the PX-750A, it also boasts some very strong DVD numbers. It can record both the DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x speeds and the dual layer versions at 8x speeds. Rewritable media support is at 8x for DVD+RW and 6x for DVD-RW. CD media support is a bit slower with 40x for CD-R and 24x for CD-RW.

During the performance tests, the Plextor drive does not live up to the reputation of the manufacturer. It was consistently near the bottom of writing terms for all of the media types tested. Several times this was due to the drive not being able to write at the listed speeds for certified media, but even when achieving the maximum speeds in the specifications, it was slower than most drives. On one upside, the drive did tend to have the lowest overall CPU usage.

If there is one thing that buyers can get out of the Plextor PX-750A, it is the strong software package that they provide with the retail versions of their drives.