Plextor PX-740UF 16x FireWire/USB 2.0 DVD±RW

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 v4.10 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 650MB and 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 v4.10 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 external DVD writerdid pretty well in the CD Winbench portion of our tests. While the PX-740UF's overall score wasn't as high as some of the other drives, it had some very good transfer rates. The drive started reading at 19.6x (2945 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 43.6x (6540 / 150) on the outside.

CD Speed v4.10 - 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-740UF	NEC ND-4550A	LG GSA-4167B	Sony DRU-810A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	36.48x 20.67x 48.27x	35.60x 20.54x 47.09x	35.63x 20.45x 47.28x	36.39x 20.64x 48.13x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	98ms 114ms 167ms	137ms 145ms 219ms	114ms 126ms 183ms	106ms 123ms 176ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 2% 4% 7%	17% 1% 3% 6%	1% 1% 3% 36%	1% 1% 3% 6%

The PX-740UF performed very well when reading pressed CD's. It flew through CD Speed's transfer rate tests, reaching a maximum read speed of 48.27x. Looking at the other scores, you can see that the drive's seek times were also quite good.

CD Speed v4.10 - CD-R Media:

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

Like the other drives, the PX-740UF was a little faster when reading CD-R media. Thanks to this small speed boost, the drive was able to reach a maximum transfer speed of more than 49x. On top of that, its seek times were again quite good.

Plextor's external DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The drive read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 53.14x! This is pretty good for a drive rated at only 48x.

CD Speed v4.10 - 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.

While the PX-740UF can read pressed and CD-R media at 48x, its CD-RW read speeds are limited to only 40x. As you can see, the drive had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.10 - 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-740UF supports accurate stream and has the ability to cache audio data, it does not have the ability to retrieve C2 error information.

CD Speed	Plextor PX-740UF	NEC ND-4550A	LG GSA-4167B	Sony DRU-810A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	36.84x 20.94x 48.70x 10 Yes	30.94x 17.99x 40.12x 10 Yes	30.81x 17.50x 40.79x 10 Yes	36.76x 20.90x 48.59x 10 Yes

The PX-740UF did very well in our DAE tests. With a maximum speed of 48.70, it had no problems taking the top spot in our tests.

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 Plextor's new DVD writer 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 v4.10 - CD-R Media:

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

While the PX-740UF was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media, this didn't keep it from reaching amaximum DAE speed of 48x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Plextor's external DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 34.87x. The drive had no problems passing all of the on-the-fly tests and did not create any errors. In the advanced tests, the PX-740UF was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and lead in section of the CD, but for whatever reason was not able to read the lead out.

To see how well Plextor's new drive 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

While all of that green looks good, these ScanDisc results are a little misleading. Without the ability to retrieve error information, the PX-740UF is unable to determine which sectors are damaged or unreadable.

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-740UF gave some mixed results in this test. While the number of errors was very low, the scratches on the disc caused it to slow down considerably.