The PX-608CU is a great choice for anyone looking for a compact and versatile DVD writer. While small in size, it offers some the fastest reading and writing speeds available on a portable drive. The PX-608CU can also be powered off a computer's USB bus, making it the ideal solution for users on the go.
Like the Pioneer drive it's based on, the PX-608CU can write to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 8x. At this speed, it took the drive less than 14 minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD. Plextor's new drive also performed relatively well when writing to DVD-RW and DVD-RAM media, but would not write to any of the 8x DVD+RW media I tried at its rated speed. Fortunately, writing to DVD±R DL media wasn't a problem for the PX-608CU. Thanks to its 4x writing speed, it took the drive about 33 minutes to burn 8GB of data.
Finding compatible media really wasn't an issue with the PX-608CU. The drive wrote to all of the DVD±R media I tried at 8x and was even able to write to Verbatim's 2.4x DVD+R DL media at 4x. The PX-608CU's writing quality was also pretty good for the most part. However, there is still room for improvement, especially with Ritek manufactured DVD±R DL discs.
The PX-608CU also performed fairly well in our DVD read tests. While its seek times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD-Video at 8x. The PX-608CU also read DVD±R and DVD±RW media at 8x but slowed to 6x when reading DVD±R DL discs.
Reading CD's wasn't a problem for the PX-608CU either. While its seek times were again a little high, the drive had no problems reading all types of CD media at 24x. This level of performance carried over to our DAE tests, where the drive ripped audio CD's at 24x. As a writer, the PX-608CU performed as expected. Thanks to its 24x writing speed, it was fairly quick with both CD-R and CD-RW media. More importantly, its writing quality was quite good.
Plextor's new DVD writer also has its share of features. A truly portable drive, the PX-608CU can be powered off a computer's USB bus. Without the need for an AC power source, you can burn CD's and DVD's wherever you go. The PX-608CU also offers a good number of writing and rewriting speeds to choose from and supports bitsetting for DVD+R DL discs. Last but not least, Plextor tops all of this off with a great software bundle containing Roxio's Easy Media Creator suite.
The PX-608CU 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 portable DVD writer can be picked up for around $150.
| Plextor PX-608CU 8x DVD±RW/RAM |
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| Features: Installation: Performance: |
8 9 7 |
| Overall: | 8 |
Highs:
- Writes to DVD±R media at 8x
- Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
- Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
- Writes to DVD±R DL media at 4x
- Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 8x
- Reads DVD±R and DVD±RW media at 8x
- Reads DVD±R DL media at 6x
- Reads and writes to DVD-RAM media at 5x
- Features 24x CD-R and CD-RW writing speeds
- Good transfer speeds with all types of CD media
- Better than average DVD±R and CD-R writing quality
- Includes buffer underrun prevention technology
- Automatically sets book type to DVD-ROM for DVD+R DL media
- Includes Roxio Easy Media Creator 8
- Easy to install thanks to USB 2.0 interface
- Very compact and lightweight design
- Can be powered off the USB bus
- Good documentation
Lows:
- Does not support 8x DVD+RW media from Verbatim or Ritek
- Questionable writing quality with Ritek manufactured DVD±R DL media
- Cannot set the book type of DVD+R or DVD+RW media
- Erases DVD-RW media at only 2x
- Has a 2000KB buffer
- Overburns to only 94:27
- Expensive
