Plextor PX-810UF 18x FireWire/USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM

Model: Plextor PX-810UF 18x FireWire/USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM
Manufacturer: Plextor
Provided By: Plextor LLC

Plextor really does not need much of an introduction. For more than a decade, they've produced some of the best optical drives the industry has seen. Known the world over for their quality, performance and features, these drives have become favorites among consumers and professionals alike. To keep ahead of the competition, Plextor has continued to lead the way, bringing cutting edge technologies to market. Today, their product lineup includes a number of high performance CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc writers, many with features found nowhere else.

With the PX-755UF and PX-760UF getting a bit long in the tooth, Plextor has introduced a new external DVD writer, the "TurboPlex" PX-810UF. While lacking many of the bells and whistles found on its predecessors, this new LG GSA-H44N based drive boasts some impressive specs. The PX-810UF is capable of 18x DVD±R, 10x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. Of course, Plextor's new drive can do more than read and write DVD's. The PX-810UF also includes features like 48x CD reading and writing speeds, 32x rewriting speeds and support for both FireWire and USB 2.0.

With features and specs like this, the PX-810UF sounds like it has a lot of potential. To give you an idea of what to expect from Plextor's new external writer, we'll take a look at some of its features and then see how it compares to some of the 18x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does the PX-810UF have what it takes? Read on as we find out.

What's in the box?:

• Plextor PX-810UF 18x DVD±RW/RAM Drive
• Drive Installation Guide
• Plextor Software Disc
• USB 2.0 Cable
• AC Adapter And Power Cord

Physical Features:

The drive Plextor sent us for this review was manufactured in June of 2007 and had firmware version 1.00.At the time of this review, this is the only firmware available for the PX-810UF.

While the names are similar, the PX-810UF is not based on the same drive design as the PX-810SA. Instead of using a Pioneer design, Plextor has based their new external drive on the LG GSA-H44N. As you can see, Plextor hasn't done much to disguise this fact either. Aside from the large "Plextor" and "PX-810UF" logos, the drive looks almost identical to its LG counterpart.

Measuring 6.73" x 2.40" x 10.55" (171mm x 61mm x 268mm) and weighing in at 3.53 lbs (1400 g), the PX-810UF is not the most compact or lightweight external drive we've tested. Nevertheless, the case is constructed of aluminum and a durable plastic and should stand up well to everyday use.

While the top of the PX-810UF is relatively featureless, the bottom of the drive contains an active cooling system. To prevent the drive from overheating, a fan draws air in through two rows of vents. Unfortunately, this fan is far from quiet and can be clearly heard when the PX-810UF is idle.

The rear of the PX-810UF also has its share of connectors. Starting from the left, you can see the drive's on/off switch, USB 2.0 connector, FireWire ports and power connector. Unlike Plextor's previous external writers, there is no interface switch. The PX-810UF automatically detects whether USB 2.0 or FireWire is in use.

Technical Specs:

Most of the specs below have been taken from Plextor's website and the manual that came with the drive.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Plextor's new DVD writer is identified as a "PLEXTOR DVDR PX-810UF".

The Nero screenshot also shows that the PX-810UF has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by Sanyo's BURN-Proof buffer underrun protection. Technically this isn't true, as the drive uses a chipset from Renesas, not Sanyo. According to Nero, the drive can also write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity I found that the PX-810UF was able to overburn up to 95:05with CompUSA's 99 minute CD-R media.

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the PX-810UF is a "two sheep" burner. This means that Plextor's new drive is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.

Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the PX-810UF's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the PX-810UF is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not yet available for this drive.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the PX-810UF's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that while Plextor's new drive can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media, it does not support the Mt. Rainier format.

The PX-810UF also supports a feature called "bitsetting." While this feature did not work with Nero nor CD Speed, I was able to set the book type of both DVD+R and DVD+R DL media to "DVD-ROM" using ImgBurn. Like most other LG-based drives, the PX-810UF cannot set the book type of DVD+RW discs.

Plextor has once again turned to Roxio for their software bundle. The DVD that comes with the PX-810UF contains Roxio's Easy Media Creator 9 suite.

With Easy Media Creator 9, users can quickly and easily do a number of tasks. From the main menu, they have the ability to create their own CD's and DVD's, make copies of existing discs, backup their computer or even organize their photos, videos and music. The menu below shows the various applications that make up the suite.

Easy Media Creator 9 includes what Roxio calls "Creator Classic" and "Music Disc Creator". While not as robust as disc mastering applications like Nero, these two programs will have you creating your own custom data and audio discs in no time.

Roxio also includes their packet writing software, Drag-to-Disc, with Easy Media Creator 9. Drag-to-Disc lets a person write to CD or DVD media the same way they would a floppy disk or hard drive. It also supports most CD and DVD media, including write once formats like CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R.

Video editing duties are handled by VideoWave. This easy to use software lets you trim your video clips and spruce them up by adding things like transitions, titles, music, and special effects. When you're done, simply save your movie to your hard drive or burn it to disc using MyDVD.

MyDVD is Roxio's DVD authoring application. With this program you can easily edit and then burn your favorite videos to CD or DVD.MyDVD will also allow users to add video effects, transitions and background music, create animated menus, and organize clips and photos into custom slide shows.

Roxio's PhotoSuite software gives you the ability to repair, enhance and share your digital photos. It also includes a number of automated and advanced photo editing tools that will let you easily crop and rotate your pictures, remove things like red-eye and wrinkles and add text and special effects.

Easy Media Creator 9 also includes Roxio's backup software, BackUp MyPC. This easy to use program lets you backup files, folders or entire drives to a number of storage devices, including CD and DVD writers.Backup jobs can be launched manually or scheduled to run at regular intervals so the data is always protected.

Last but not least, you have Sonic's DVD playback software, CinePlayer. Along with DVD movies, CinePlayer can be used to play back your VCD's, SVCD's or whatever video files you might have on your hard drive.

While lacking many of Plextor's more advanced technologies, the PX-810UF still delivers a good number of features. Like the LG drive it's based on, it supports all major DVD formats and sports some pretty impressive specs. The drive is capable of 18x DVD±R, 10x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. The PX-810UF also supports both USB 2.0 and FireWire and includes a number of useful features like buffer underrun protection and bitsetting. Last but not least, Plextor tops all of this off with an impressive software bundle from Roxio. With all this, it's easy to see why the PX-810UF gets a 9 out of 10 for its features.

Plextor's new external DVD writer was very easy to install. Thanks to its support for both USB 2.0 and FireWire, the entire installation process took only a matter of minutes. With no jumpers to worry about, it was as simple as connecting the USB (or FireWire) cable, plugging in the power cable, and powering the drive on. Once connected to our test computer, it took only a matter of seconds for plug and play to install the necessary drivers. After making sure that the drive was recognized correctly in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the PX-810UF comes with a DVD full of software from Roxio. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu shown below will appear when you insert the disc.

From here you can access the manual, register your drive or install the bundled software. Simply click the name of the application you want to install, and its setup program will start up automatically.

If you have installed Roxio's Easy Media Creator before, you're probably already familiar with the installation process. All you need to do is choose what language you want and select your installation options.By default the setup program will install the entire suite onto your computer. If you don't want to install everything, select the custom installation. From here you can choose just the components you want.

Documentation:

The bulk of the PX-810UF's documentation is located on the software CD in electronic format. Similar to the ones included with Plextor's other DVD writers, the manual starts out by getting the user familiarized with their new drive. The first section goes over the drive's capabilities, features and system requirements. Plextor has also provided some pretty good diagrams showing the various buttons and connectors located on the front and back of the drive. Everything is labeled clearly and the functions of each are easy to understand.

From here, the manual jumps right into the physical installation of the PX-810UF. The instructions are pretty brief since there really isn't much to do other than plug in a few cables and turn the computer on. Even then, Plextor has provided a nice diagram showing how the drive should be hooked up. The manual continues on by going over the basic operation of the PX-810UF. Along with information on how to use and maintain the drive, there is a short list of frequently asked questions. Last but not least, the manual finishes up with a comprehensive list of specifications for the PX-810UF.

The PX-810UF also comes with a "Drive Installation Guide." This small, fold out guide takes the user step by step through the installation process. While a little short on words, Plextor has provided a few diagrams showing how the drive should be hooked up. For most people, the "Drive Installation Guide" will be all they'll need to get the PX-810UF up and running.

Like the other Plextor drives I've reviewed, the PX-810UF was very easy to install. Thanks to its FireWire and USB 2.0 interface, it's as simple as plugging in a few cables and flipping a switch. Nevertheless, if you do run into trouble, the documentation Plextor has provided is quite good, even though it is in electronic format. Overall, I give the installation a solid 9 out of a possible 10.

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For DVD writers the performance tests are broken down into four sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read and DVD write tests. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 v3.0 and CD Speed v4.7.7.5 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing both CD Speed and CD DAE are used. CD Speed is used to give an overall DAE speed rating and CD DAE is used to give the track by track extraction speeds and to check the extracted tracks for errors the drive may have created.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed v4.7.7.5 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 4GB to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

Plextor's new DVD writer gave us some mixed performance in our CD Winbench tests. While the PX-810UF's overall score wasn't as high as some of the other drives, its transfer rates were fairly good.It started reading at 20.4x (3065 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 42.9x (6430 / 150) on the outside.

CD Speed v4.7.7.5 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

	Plextor PX-810UF	ASUS DRW-1814BLT	LG GSA-H22N	Samsung SH-S182D
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	35.86x 19.26x 47.05x	36.07x 20.73x 47.69x	35.78x 20.57x 47.32x	36.54x 20.89x 48.30x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	130ms 148ms 196ms	92ms 106ms 178ms	107ms 110ms 178ms	105ms 114ms 178ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 2% 3% 28%	0% 0% 1% 2%	1% 1% 3% 7%	0% 1% 3% 6%

Plextor's new writer didn't perform as well as I had expected when reading pressed CD's. While the drive is rated at 48x, the PX-810UF came up a little short of this number in our tests. Looking at the other scores, its seek times were also a little higher than we'd like to see.

CD Speed v4.7.7.5 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated ASUS Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

The PX-810UF was a little faster when reading CD-R media.Thanks to this small speed boost, it had no problems reaching a maximum transfer speed of 48x in our tests. Unfortunately, its seek times were again a little high.

Plextor's new DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The PX-810UF read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 49.64x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.5 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.

Like the other drives, the PX-81-UF reads CD-RW media at only 40x. As you can see, the drive had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.7.5 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that while the Plextor PX-810UFsupports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

CD Speed	Plextor PX-810UF	ASUS DRW-1814BLT	LG GSA-H22N	Samsung SH-S182D
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	30.75x 17.00x 40.35x 10 Yes	36.41x 20.97x 48.12x 10 Yes	31.61x 18.25x 41.75x 10 Yes	31.09x 17.78x 41.08x 10 Yes

The PX-810UF did fairly well in our DAE tests. While not nearly as fast as the drive from ASUS, it hadno problems ripping pressed audio CD's at 40x.

To get a better look at the quality of the extracted audio we use CD DAE. CD DAE is actually designed to be an audio ripping program. It converts the CD-DA on the CD to .wav files. We use it in our testing because it can also be used as a quick and easy way to test the quality. Where CD Speed tests the DAE as one large session, CD DAE extracts each CD track individually. It actually extracts each track twice and then compares them to check for any errors. Every error a drive creates could be a hiss or pop you would hear later in the audio tracks.

While the PX-810UF started out a little faster when extracting our test CD with CD DAE, its average and maximum speeds were slower than what we saw with CD Speed.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.7.5 - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same ASUS Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

The PX-810UF was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media. This time around, the drive reached a maximum DAE speed of only 39.91x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Plextor's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 28.95x. The drive had no problems passing all of the on-the-fly tests and did not create any errors. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the PX-810UF was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and lead in but failed to read the lead out section of the CD.

To see how well Plextor's DVD writer can read scratched and dirty discs, I used CD Speed's ScanDisc utility to see how many sectors were damaged or unreadable. This is a very rough, but good way to test the drive's error correcting abilities.

CD Speed - ScanDisc

The PX-810UF didn't handle scratched discs as well as some of the other DVD writers we've looked at. While there weren't any unreadable sectors on the disc, the drive considered nearly 71% of the CD to be "damaged."

You can also get an idea of how well the drive can read scratched and dirty discs by using CD DAE. CD DAE will extract the audio tracks twice and then compare them. From this information we can see what the drive's average speed was and how many errors it generated.

The PX-810UF did better this time around. As you can see, the scratches on the disc had little effect on the drive's speed and the number of errors remained relatively low.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.9.6.0 andDLA 5.20:

For this test I randomly generated 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep. All of the times below include not only the actual writing time, but the lead in and out times too. This gives a more realistic idea of how long it takes to write a CD.

The PX-810UF has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x. To reach this speed, it uses CAV, or Constant Angular Velocity. With Fuji's 48x media, the drive started writing at about 21.58x and reached a maximum speed of 48.67x at the end of the session. This gave Plextor's new "Super-Multi" drive an average writing speed of about 35.65x.

To test the drive's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden manufactured Fuji media rated at 48x. The results are below.

Plextor's new drive did very well in our CD writing tests. Thanks to its 48x CD writing speed, the PX-810UF was able to write an entire 701MB CD in 2:44.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Lite-On IT's KProbe2. Written by Karr Wang, this utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52246S (firmware 6S0F) and read the discs at 32x.

Fuji 48x (Taiyo Yuden)

Imation 52x (MBI)

Verbatim 52x

The PX-810UF's writing quality was very good. By looking at the KProbe screenshots, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors and there were no C2 errors at all.

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using DLA from Sonic. Verbatim's 32x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

The PX-810UF uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 32x. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that it uses a total of three "zones" to reach its maximum speed. The drive starts writing at 16x and jumps to 24x at about the 6 minute mark.The PX-810UF writes at this speed until about the 22 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed increases to 32x and stays there until the end of the session.

Plextor's new DVD writer did very well in our rewriting tests. Thanks to its 32x rewriting speed, the PX-810UF took 2:14 to write 400MB with Nero and 2:12 to do the same with DLA.

The PX-810UF also erases at 32x. While it didn't have the fastest quick erase time out of the four drives here, it was able to do a full erase in an impressive 3:13.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.5 - DVD-ROM:

A little editorial note here. Like a CD-ROM, you will get different benchmark results depending on what kind of discs you are using. You are probably going to get varying results from a full data disc to a single layer movie disc. You're also going to get different results for single and dual layer discs.

The CD Speed website recommends using a single layer DVD-ROM disc with a capacity of at least 4GB. If you use a dual layer disc you probably won't get the best results because most DVD-ROM drives slow down to read them. Some even slow down to read single layer DVD-Video discs. To make a long story short, I am using a 4.37GB single layer, single sided disc for this test.

The PX-810UF was fairly quick when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 6.45x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 16.44x.Unfortunately, its seek times were not as low as some of the other drives.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.5 - DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disc using some general use 4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. For the DVD-RAM tests, media from Maxell was used. The results are below.

The PX-810UF performed very well when reading DVD-R and DVD-RW media. In our tests, the drive read DVD-R discs at 16x and DVD-RW media at a respectable 13x.

Verbatim DVD-R DL

Plextor's new "Super-Multi" drive had no problems reading Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media. The PX-810UF started reading at 5.05x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 12.36x.

Maxell 12x DVD-RAM

The PX-810UF has a maximum transfer speed of 12x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that it starts reading at 5.60x and accelerates, reaching 12x at the 2.7GB mark.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.5 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disc using some 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

The PX-810UF's performance with DVD+R and DVD+RW media was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R and DVD-RW media.The drive read DVD+R discs at 16x and DVD+RW media at 13x.

Verbatim DVD+R DL

Reading Verbatim'sdouble layer DVD+R media wasn't a problem for the PX-810UF either. With a maximum transfer speed of 12.37x, it had no problems taking the top spot in CD Speed's transfer rate tests.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.5 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.

The PX-810UF didn't do as well as some of the other drives when reading DVD videos. In our tests, it reached a maximum speed of about 4.9x when reading both single and dual layer discs.This is pretty slow considering there are drives out there that can reach speeds as high as 16x.

To see how well the PX-810UF worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace using Nero Showtime. The drive had no problems playing back these movies with either program and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.9.6.0 andDLA 5.20:

To test the DVD writing performance of Plextor's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 18x, the PX-810UF uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that LG's new drive starts writing at about 7x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The PX-810UF also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. While the drive uses CLV when writing to DVD-RW media, it uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

The PX-810UF performed very well in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as some of the 20x DVD writers we've looked at recently, it turned in some impressive times with DVD±R and DVD±RW media.

To check the media compatibility of the PX-810UF, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below.

So what about writing quality? Testing a drive's DVD writing quality isn't easy. Until now, there were very few options, unless you wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for a certified test machine. Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates.For these tests I used a Lite-On SHM-165H6S (firmware HS0E) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640 (firmware BSLB). When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter.

The PX-810UF's writing quality was not as good as some of the other Plextor drives I've reviewed. In a number of cases, we saw high PI/PIF rates throughout parts of the disc. The discs written at 18x also failed to complete our stress test, returning an error near the end.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. As you can see, the PX-810UF's writing quality was much better this time around. Aside from a few small PI/PIF spikes, the results stayed within acceptable limits.

To test the PX-810UF's packet writing performance I used DLA 5.20. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

Plextor's new drive performed very well in our packet writing tests. The PX-810UF turned in some very good times when reading and writing to DVD+RW, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM media.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.9.6.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the PX-810UF, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim, RiDATA, MAM-A and Memorex. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

Finding DVD+R DL media that would work at 10x was not an easy task. The only media I found that would work at this speed were Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL discs. With the 8x DVD+R DL media from RiDATA and MAM-A, the writing speed was limited to 8x and the other discs would not work at anything faster than 4x.

The PX-810UF had no problems taking the top spot in this test. Thanks to its 10x DVD+R DL writing speed, the drive took a little more than 14 minutes to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was fairly good with the DVD+R DL media from MAM-A, RiDATA and Verbatim. Aside from a few isolated spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Memorex's 2.4x DVD+R DL media. When tested with KProbe and CD Speed, the error rates were fairly high throughout the second layer of the disc. Oddly enough, this didn't have any effect on readability.

The PX-810UF also features 8x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA was used.

The PX-810UF also performed very well when writing to DVD-R DL media. In our tests, it took only 14:13 to write 8001MB of data, beating the other drives by a sizeable margin. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

While the writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media, the other discs yielded some mixed results. With Verbatim's 8x and RiDATA's 4x DVD-R DL media, the error rates stayed well within acceptable limits when tested with KProbe. However, when scanned by the DW1640, the PI rates were a bit higher than we'd like to see.

Performance Revisited:

While Plextor's new "Super-Multi" drive has a few rough spots, it performed pretty well throughout most of our tests. The PX-810UF flew through our DVD writing tests, turning in some impressive times with DVD±R, DVD±R DL and DVD-RAM media. Unfortunately, there were a few cases where the writing quality could have been better. Reading DVD's wasn't a problem for the PX-810UF either. The drive was able to read single layer data DVD's and DVD±R media at 16x, but slowed to about 4.8x when reading DVD videos.

The PX-810UF also did relatively well in our CD read tests. While its seek times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive was able to read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 48x. Plextor's new drive also performed very well in our writing and rewriting tests. The PX-810UF turned in some impressive writing times and its writing quality was pretty good with the media we tried. With all things considered, the Plextor PX-810UF gets a 7 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

As a leader in the industry, we've come to expect a lot from Plextor. Over the years, the company has introduced some of the world's fastest and most feature packed optical drives. As you can imagine, I went into this review expecting a lot from Plextor's new external "Super-Multi" drive. While the PX-810UF performed as expected throughout most of our tests, things like writing quality kept the drive from getting top marks in our review.

Like the LG drive its based on, the PX-810UF can write to both DVD+R and DVD-R media at 18x. At this speed, it took a little more than 5 minutes to burn an entire 4.7GB DVD. This level of performance carried over to our rewriting tests where the PX-810UF turned in some very goodtimes with DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM media. Writing to DVD±R DL media wasn't a problem for Plextor's new drive either. Thanks to its 10x writing speed, the PX-810UF took about 14 minutes to burn 8GB of data.

Finding compatible media really wasn't really an issue with the PX-810UF. The drive wrote to most of our test media at its rated speed or better, with a good portion of it working at 18x. The PX-810UF's writing quality was also fairly good with most of the DVD-R and DVD+R DL media I tried. However, with some DVD+R and DVD-R DL discs, the PI/PIF rates were higher than we'd like to see. Hopefully, Plextor can address this in a future firmware update.

Plextor's new "Super-Multi" drive also performed relatively well in our DVD read tests. While the PX-810UF's seek times were a little higher than some of the other drives, it was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R media at 16x. It also read DVD±RW discs at 13x and both DVD±R DL and DVD-RAM media at 12x, but slowed to 4.8x when reading DVD-Videos. While this doesn't have any effect on movie playback, there are faster drives out there if you want to backup your movie collection.

Reading CD's wasn't a problem for the PX-810UF either. In our tests, the drive read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 48x and CD-RW discs at 40x. This level of performance carried over to our DAE tests, where the drive ripped audio CD's at 40x. When it came to writing CD's, the PX-810UF performed as expected. The drive turned in some impressive times with both CD-R and CD-RW media and its writing quality was quite good.

As a more consumer oriented drive, the PX-810UF lacks many of the advanced technologies found on Plextor's "Premium" DVD writers. Nevertheless, it offers a number of useful features like buffer underrun protection, bitsetting and support for both USB 2.0 and FireWire. The PX-810UF's case is also very well constructed. However, the cooling fan in the bottom can be a bit loud at times. Last but not least, Plextor tops all of this off with a great software bundle containing Roxio's Easy Media Creator suite.

The PX-810UF is available now and can be purchased through some of the online vendors listed on Pricegrabber. Prices vary depending on the seller, but Plextor's new external DVD writer can be picked up for around $120.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 18x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media at 10x
• Reads and writes DVD-RAM media at 12x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R media at 16x
• Reads DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 12x
• Features 48x CD-R and 32x CD-RW writing speeds
• Good CD writing quality
• Includes Easy Media Creator 9
• Features both FireWire and USB 2.0 interfaces
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R and DVD+R DL media
• Good documentation

Lows:

• Questionable writing quality with some DVD+R and DVD-R DL media
• Had a hard time reaching its rated speeds when reading pressed discs
• Reads DVD-Videos at only 4.8x
• Cannot set the book type of DVD+RW media
• Cannot do write quality testing
• Overburns to only 95:05
• Cooling fan is loud
• Expensive