Plextor PlexWriter PX-W4012TA CD-RW Burner

I bought the plextor plexwriter 40x only after buying a cen dyne model of the same speed. The plextor tends to run higher in cost than most other burners but the cash you pay upfront is worth it if you run a lower end system. I run a pentium III 500 with 300 something ram (128 x 3...my math is bad today). The point is, my system isn't exactly high end. When shopping for a burner i hadn't realized how much this fact would play in. The plextor, however, due to it's larger buffer, is able to burn at higher speeds and maintain a modest amount of buffer for longer periods of time. What this means, in essence, is that it a person like me with an older computer can burn at higher speeds without it taking longer. The reason it would take longer is due to the fact that with slower computers the data doesn't travel to the burner fast enough and the buffer falls. Before Burn Proof technology this meant that you wound up with a new coaster (buffer-underrun error). Nowadays, with burn-proof technology you no longer have coaster, but it does take longer when it hits a potential buffer underrun to correct itself. In the end, i found that with the cheaper, smaller buffered burners like the cendyne the most i could burn at was somewhere around 12x and on the plextor i could burn around 20-32x although usually i play it safe and stick to 24x. The software provided was so-so. Roxio isn't the best simply because it is way to glitzy. I decided to use Nero instead which took up less system resources due to its "meatier" and scaled back gui (general user interface). One last note, about tech support: I wouldn't be able to tell you what tech support is like because the drives are so good i have never had to call, email, or contact them. The drives are so good that i currently own three (two for other computers) and would buy others if i had the $$ and the computers to put them in.