Advantages: nothing comes to mind
Disadvantages: no raw writing, questionable reliability record

...I had this as a replacment to a faulty 4260 model. It looks much the same and feels the same but reading is 16x instead of 6x and writing is twice as fast for CDRW CDs at 4x. Normal CDRs remain at 4x writing. The drive does everything it claims to do and seems less fussy over CDRs than the 4260. It doesn't do raw writing but does happily work with 80min cdrs and overburning. It has a built in fan which I'm sure is beneficial compared to the 4260 which didn't. I had some problems configuring it but this is probably more to do with scsi than anything else. I personally would have prefered the old style scsi large connectors on the external case, they seem to make better contact and are more robust but this case has the more flimsy 50pin high denisty scsi 2 type connectors. I've yet to see it do CDRW CDs at 4x as I think most of the ones I... Read review

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Advantages: Very Useful for burning my DVDs, I put it in a external casing :D
Disadvantages: None, it was brill

...You get great value for money, if you pay for a downloading site like usenext, then this is for you, you can creat dvd's of your favourite films. I personally found this very useful and it is ultra-quiet even in my external casing. (IDE 5.1/2 inch) I Bought 2 from curries and gave one to my friend because he liked it so much. He then too gave it a try out on his computer (internal) and said that it ran like a picture and was even quiter inside his computer than in my external casing. I reccomend that if you are buying a DVD/CD writer combined, that this is the one you use Thumbs up from me. Brilliant buy, 4 out of 5. Note: it would have made 5of5 but CD writing speed needs improvement. Writes a CD in 4minutes, DVD-4 (single layer) 17minutes.... Read review

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Advantages: Amazing speeds, Easy to set up, Reliable
Disadvantages: No firewire included with the burner.

...can get external dvd burners at a lower price than you can get this one, but they won't be as good, well made and reliable as this and all Plextor products are. But if you want quality you have to pay for it. So if you're looking for a quality external burner i would highly recomend buying this.... Read review

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Advantages: Super fast, Burn proof, attractive design.
Disadvantages: Requires Scsi card.

...also needed to buy a special and expensive SCSI controller card. The price and performance difference gap between SCSI has now fallen significantly (IDE is better SCSI is cheaper). You can now pick up a brand new SCSI card for £30 to £40, in particular adaptecs budget series, which I have also reviewed. You will need such a card if you buy this cdwriter! Installation was easy. The plextor 12/10/32S I have is an external SCSI drives so it plugs into the external port on the SCSI card, which was already installed. Start the pc, and it magically appears in windows. Dead easy. It was also necessary to install some cd writing software. In this case, the cd writer came bundled with the usual offerings, which installed and ran perfectly. One minor problem encountered was the SCSI cable that ran between the writer and PC. SCSI has been around... Read review

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Advantages: Silent drive, dual format (+ & -), buffer underun protection
Disadvantages: reading problem with different brands media

...on this player) - PlextorTools(Mixture of useful utility to maximise your drive's funtionality) I only tried using some of these software so I cannot provide much information. *User manual *IDE cable *Screws -- System requirement -- - Pentium III 700 or higher - 128MB memory - 1GB of free disk space - support windows 98, SE, 2000 and XP -- Installation -- Installing this drive is pretty simple, you just need to slide the drive into a free 5.25" bay and apply screws and hook up the power supply cord and IDE cable. It took me roughly 10 minutes. -- Problems I had using this drive -- I found out that this DVD-RW drive only compatible with certain CD/DVD disc. I havn't really tried and tested all disc but I do know that when I try reading burn data using EMTEC... Read review

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Advantages: Yamaha, reliability, tech support, speed - on a PC!
Disadvantages: Speed on a MAC, noisy when reading CD's

...I pruchased the Yamaha CDRW-2100SX, a 40x read, 10x re-write and 16x write external Scsi about 1 months ago. Since then I have burned 400CD's. This writer is called Lightspeed, due to its revolutionary 16x writing capabilities. My previous experience was with a Yamaha CDR a 4100 external Scsi which I had for 5 years. It was developing some problems, but had performed flawlessly, so I decided to purchase Yamaha again. I have tested this cd writer both on my MAC G4 400mhz with Adaptec Scsi card, and on my PC Intel 866mhz with similar Adaptec Scsi card. Using Toast on my Mac and Nero on my PC as burning software. I have been fairly unsuccessful in burning 16x on my mac, I keep getting the error buffer underrun, though my harddisk is defragemented before I attempt to burn. However with my PC I am able to burn 16x no problem plus overburn... Read review

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Advantages: Superb compatibility; fast reading and writing; competitively priced
Disadvantages: DVD ripping is slowed due to compatibility issues

..." discs wouldn't even be readable, even after what Nero described as a successful burn. Then along came the Plextor 708A. It features a 8x max writing speed on +R media, and also has the added benefits of dual-form DVD recording and an extremely fast 40x CD burning rate. It's also capable of burning DVD+RW and DVD-RW at 4x. The drive itself is a standard internal ATAPI drive, just like any other CD Rom reader or burner you could buy. The drive slots into your standard 5.25" size expansion bay, and utilises the normal 40 pin IDE cable and typical 4-pin "molex" power connector off your power supply. The drive is also packaged with some burning software, but I opted not to use it. I'm happy using Ahead's Nero version 6 which is perfect for my needs and can carry out pretty much any operation. The drive also comes bundled with a single 8x... Read review

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Advantages: Robust, reliable, fast
Disadvantages: Does not support Win95, heavy, not a very nice design

...A high-end performer in its class, this writer is an external disk drive that I would recommend for both professional and home users who frequently have to transfer large amounts of data on CDs, and for whom speed is essential. Robust and reliable, this external unit can read and write at 48x speed, and rewrite at 24x. It connects to your PC via USB 2.0 (my tests indicate an access time of less than 65msec) and the setup is very quick and easy (beware, 64MB RAM and 1GB HDD space are required). The firmware is stored in flashROM, so it accepts updates; a couple of months ago, I have just updated mine to the last version (1.05 07/28/03). As for the software, it came with drivers & some utilities, plus Roxio Easy CD Creator and Roxio DirectCD. PlexTools are not fantastic, but quite good, and include a CD tester, various settings controls... Read review

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Advantages: If its a Plextor is great!!!
Disadvantages: Its more likely to be a naff Samsung though.

...I don't own the Creative drive but just wanted to make a comment. When the Creative 8432 came out it was a Plextor based drive and Plextors are the best cdwriters available for reliability and features. This was the model all the reviews are based on and therefore its a highly rated model. After the reviews died down Creative sneakily replaced the Plextor based drive with a Samsung based drive but still kept it branded as 8432! Samsungs are not highly rated drives in fact their right at the bottom. What do you think of a company that does this? The Samsung model is cheaper with its own branding and is better supported with firmware upgrades and so it makes no sense to pay more for the Creative.... Read review

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Advantages: Plextor are THE cdwriters
Disadvantages: its old now and there are better available

...this caddy based cdwriter was perhaps the classic writer. Although annoyingly caddy based it featured 4x writing and good 12x reading in its day. It has no rewrite ability at all. Capable of important stuff like DAO raw writing it still today is better equipped for copying protected CDs compared to many current models like Yamaha. Build quality is heavy and strong. The drive I'm reviewing had massive use before coming my way and yet still operated well. My high opinion of Plextor drives is founded on this drive. Lets hope modern Plextor drives are up to the standard of this one. The only downer is that scsi installation was tricky. It seemed to prefer the scsi cards with built in cache to those without. I can't explain why but would guess that the timeouts on its scsi connection were perhaps slighltly too fast. One reason I liked... Read review

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