- Lower Cost Than Premium Plextor Models
- High Speed Dual Layer Media Support
- Smaller Drive Dimensions Good for Small Form Factor Installations
- Noisier Than Other Plextor Models
- Slower Access/Seek Times
- 16x DVD+R and DVD-R Recording Speeds
- 8x DVD+RW and 4x DVD-RW Recording Speeds
- 8x DVD+R and 4x DVD-R Dual Layer Recording Speeds
- 16x DVD-ROM Reading Speeds
- 48x CD-R and 32x CD-RW Recording Speeds
- 48x CD-ROM Reading Speeds
- <150ms CD and DVD Access Times
- 2MB Buffer
- Nero Express 6 Burning Suite
8/15/05 – Plextor is often seen as one of the premiere companies when it comes to optical drives. They tend to have high performance, excellent quality and very strong warranties but all of that comes at a price. The Plextor PX-740A burner is seen as a solution to offering a high performance drive at a lower price.
The PX-740A is a multiformat burner that supports both the +R and -R media formats. This includes recordable, rewritable and dual layer media. Speeds are 16x for the recordable media while a 8x and 4x speed is supported for the rewritable and dual-layer +R and -R media respectively. CD recording is strong with 48x recordable and 32x rewritable speeds. Playback speeds are 16x for DVD and 48x for CD.
Testing of the drive was done using Nero's CD/DVD Speed application with the manufacturer recommended media. Recording and playback speeds for the DVD and CD media were spot on with the specifications. The +R DVD media was slightly faster than the -R media, but it would be hardly noticed in real world usage. CPU usage was also much higher for the -R media. The area where the PX-740A could use improvement is in the access times. These were consistently higher than the specification regardless of the media used.
Another area that could use improvement is the noise. The PX-740A when operating produces more sound than the higher priced PX-716 models. Still, this may be a small price to pay for a high speed quality from a top tier manufacturer.
