Advantages: Great SCSI Reader
Disadvantages: Expensive

...I bought my UltraPlex soon after i bought my first CD-Writer, i found that whilst with mt SCSI wirter when for instance playing an audio CD, i could do just about anything with my PC and sill not have any jitters, with my IDE reader, i had to leave the PC well alone. so armed with the profits from building a PC for someone, i went and splashed out one huindred quid on my Plex. That has been a worthwhile investment, not only is it more stable than my old IDE one, it is much faster also, even though it only has an "offical" speed of 40x it still seems much quicker than new 48x IDE ones. Yes, this is definately a very good drive and would recommend it to anyone who wants the reliability that a SCSI drive provides.... 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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Advantages: Plextor is good at eveything
Disadvantages: Too expensive

...No doubt that this is one of the best CDRW drives available on the market. But is it really worth it??? My answer is no, costing about £190 inc VAT, i don't think it's an ideal upgrade for anyone. Of course if you have the money then go for it. But still i'd be calling you a fool for doing it. If your looking to buy this drive, then i suggest you look at the TDK Cyclone before you make your decision. The TDK Cyclone 12x10x32 has the same specs as this Plextor 12x10x32 and burn-proof technology, with the Plextor only just beating it on performance, and i mean only just. If you compared the two drives yourself, would you really notice the difference between these two drives performance wise. I wouldn't. The best thing is that you can get this drive for about £175 inc VAT, which is cheaper than the Plextor, it's a BARGAIN!!! I wouldn't pay... Read review

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Advantages: Burn-Proof, Speed and reliability
Disadvantages: Warranty, Nothing else.

...Plexwriter 12/10/32A Internal EIDE CDRW Drive. (I payed £159.00 4 mine). Prior 2 Burn-Proof I've owned 3 CD/RW's, But this technology beats it all, But it's not infalible! (U can't stop it kicking out dodgey Disc's) So don't buy cheap, Crapy disc's, buy only branded disc's like Verbatim and Infinity or alike. Also take-in 2 account the right software for the job in-hand Clone CD, will copy almost anything and Ahead's Nero Burnig Rom will copy and make almost anything, if your unsure down-load evaluation copys from the net and try for nothing B 4 buying. Plextor have always had a good name in CD technology and are still going strong, "If your going 2 buy a writer don't rule Plextor out". Very easy 2 install "Out of the box and writing my first disc with-in 20 Mins" The writer speed is now only average but still fast (12speed ("U can buy... Read review

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

...have are only rated at 2x and the Yamaha drive knows this. Its an ok product but no Plextor. Don't let anyone tell you that the Yamaha's are as good as Plextors as their not and I'm actually a Yamaha owner not a Plextor owner so I ain't going to be biased. Plextors are generally better specified and better made. You might find a Yamaha that is faster but you'd still probably be better off with the Plextor.... Read review

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Advantages: Very Fast and Reliable
Disadvantages: Not the cheapest

...I bought the new Plextor 12/10/32A to see if the new Burn Proof technology was as good as it is cracked up to be . The drive comes with built in technology which is supposed to eliminate the problem of buffer underruns . To put buffer underruns in laymans terms this is when the cd writer is not receiving data fast enough from the processor and this causes an error resulting in you being left with a coaster . This can happen a lot if you are using an IDE drive and doing other things on your pc at the same time . The Plextor 12/10/32A pauses when there is not enough data in its buffer thereby allowing you to continue to write without wasting another blank cd . So far I have had a 100% success rate . The writing speeds are excellent with a 650Mb cd written in around 5 minutes . It will also write a rewritable cd in around 7 minutes which... Read review

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Advantages: Fast CD Writing, Large Buffer
Disadvantages: Slow ReWriting

...things, eg Power/No disk, Disk Loaded, Reading Disk, Low Speed Writing, High Speed Writing and ReWriting. Its not as bewildiring as it fist sounds. The drive build quality is good, but it isn't as solid as my Pioneer DVD drive which truly is solid build. The tray on the Plextor does seem a little flimsy, but overall, its good enough. The only gripe I have against the Plextor is support, which isn't even in this country, which wasn't a very nice thing to hear, but with Plextors Build quality, it wasn't an issue. Overall a fantastic Unit!... 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

...... Read review

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Advantages: Good quality; quiet operation; very affordable
Disadvantages: Rather high CPU usage

...I bought the Samsung/Toshiba SH-D162C in Germany for EUR 13, which makes it a very affordable drive. As we will see though, it offers quality of operation equivalent to much pricier drives from established manufacturesrs like Plextor etc. First impressions: pretty heavy, sturdy built, eject button operation requires quite a bit of finger muscle action :-) The tray slides in and out very quietly. Spin-up fairly quiet - I'd say around 5 on a 1 to 10 scale. DVD playback (1x) very quiet - practically indiscernible from other computer-associated noise (fans etc.) Testing with Nero CD/DVD Speed: I used my Plextor PX320-A for comparison. Tests were performed after firmware upgrade to version TS03. Transfer rates were up to 43x (data CD-R) and 11x (data DVD-R). Thus, both fall short of the spec'd 48x / 16x. In practice though it should... Read review

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