Plextor PlexWriter™ PX-W4012TU External CD-RW Burner
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- Enclosure Type: External
- Read Speed: 40x (CD)
- ReWrite Speed: 12x (CD-RW)
- Write Speed: 40x (CD)
- Burner Type: CD-RW
- Platform: PC
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Plextor PlexWriter W4012TU 40/12/40U: Retro but Reliable
Pros
extremely reliable and consistent, USB 2.0
Cons
slow, loud, big and bulky, ugly
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
If you're comfortable with a little slower but very steady and don't mind that it's big and boxy this Plextor burner is a good choice.
In this age of faster, better, smaller it's amazing how quickly standards change. I remember a time when I would have been thrilled to pieces to have a drive like the Plextor PlexWriter W4012TU 40/12/40U. Put it next to my old 4x CD-ROM drive (it was hot stuff 10 years ago) and it looks like a slightly younger and hipper brother. Put it next to my old Bernoulli drive (230MB of removable storage goodness in every $100 cartridge) and it looks like an anorexic image-conscious teenager. Put it next to just about anything else and it looks like a boxy metallic brick. Yes folks, it's ugly and it's big.
It is, under some definitions, portable in that you can carry it around and not get a hernia. However, it will not fit in any laptop case I've ever seen so if you travel with it you'll have to toss it in the back seat of your car or in your suitcase. I don't recommend it when there are options that are much more convenient.
All of this is quite immaterial compared to the drive performance, of course. Unfortunately I have some issues with that too. The PlexWriter seems just a bit slower when burning CD-Rs than other CD writers with similar specs.
By this point you probably think I'm talking about an ancient drive. Boxy and slow certainly conjures up images of old hardware that by all rights should have been consigned to the graveyard long ago. Not so. This drive is relatively modern and uses a USB 2.0 connection to prove it.
On the positive side, with that slowness comes a consistency that other drives rarely match. This baby burns at a constant rate every time without the fits and starts and random slowdowns that plague so many of its competitors. It may be slower, but in the long run slow and steady might beat out faster but inconsistent if you do a lot of burning.
The PlexWriter is also rock solid. I've never had it turn even a single disk into coaster du jour. It will take any CD-R you give it and spit out a fully functional CD at the end of the burning process.
It's a bit on the loud side while burning, sounding much like a sick hard drive spinning up which is very disconcerting. I can hear it clearly from over 20 feet away if there are no other sources of noise around. Music or conversation will drown it out so the noise factor probably isn't much of an issue unless you're really sensitive to sound.
I've never used the drive for writing to CD-RW media, for using data CDs, or for playing music CDs so I can't speak to the performance in these areas. I've used the drive solely to make backups of both data CDs and files on a hard drive which it does slowly but surely as already described.
If you want the latest, greatest, slimmest, fastest CD burner this Plextor drive isn't for you. However, if you're comfortable with a little slower but very steady and don't mind that it's big and boxy it might be a good choice.
It is, under some definitions, portable in that you can carry it around and not get a hernia. However, it will not fit in any laptop case I've ever seen so if you travel with it you'll have to toss it in the back seat of your car or in your suitcase. I don't recommend it when there are options that are much more convenient.
All of this is quite immaterial compared to the drive performance, of course. Unfortunately I have some issues with that too. The PlexWriter seems just a bit slower when burning CD-Rs than other CD writers with similar specs.
By this point you probably think I'm talking about an ancient drive. Boxy and slow certainly conjures up images of old hardware that by all rights should have been consigned to the graveyard long ago. Not so. This drive is relatively modern and uses a USB 2.0 connection to prove it.
On the positive side, with that slowness comes a consistency that other drives rarely match. This baby burns at a constant rate every time without the fits and starts and random slowdowns that plague so many of its competitors. It may be slower, but in the long run slow and steady might beat out faster but inconsistent if you do a lot of burning.
The PlexWriter is also rock solid. I've never had it turn even a single disk into coaster du jour. It will take any CD-R you give it and spit out a fully functional CD at the end of the burning process.
It's a bit on the loud side while burning, sounding much like a sick hard drive spinning up which is very disconcerting. I can hear it clearly from over 20 feet away if there are no other sources of noise around. Music or conversation will drown it out so the noise factor probably isn't much of an issue unless you're really sensitive to sound.
I've never used the drive for writing to CD-RW media, for using data CDs, or for playing music CDs so I can't speak to the performance in these areas. I've used the drive solely to make backups of both data CDs and files on a hard drive which it does slowly but surely as already described.
If you want the latest, greatest, slimmest, fastest CD burner this Plextor drive isn't for you. However, if you're comfortable with a little slower but very steady and don't mind that it's big and boxy it might be a good choice.
