Plextor PX-608CU 8x USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM

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 v4.7.5 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 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 v4.7.5 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.

The PX-608U gave us some mixed performance in our CD Winbench tests.In the transfer speed tests, the drive started reading at about 9.9x (1480 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 22.9x (3440 / 150) on the outside. While this is pretty good for a drive with a maximum read speed of 24x, its access time and overall CD Winbench score were not as good as some of the other portable DVD writers we've looked at.

CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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's new DVD writer performed a little better in our CD Speed tests. The PX-608CU started reading at 10.94x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 24.98x. Unfortunately, its seek times were higher than we'd like to see.

CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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.

The PX-608CU 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 25x in our tests.

Plextor's new DVD writer had some trouble reading our 99 minute CompUSA media. While the PX-608CU was able to recognize the disc correctly, it would not read beyond the 94 minute mark.

CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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.

The PX-608CU also reads CD-RW media at 24x. As you can see, the drive had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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 Plextor's new DVD writer supports accurate stream and has the ability to cache audio data, it does not have the ability to retrieve C2 error information. This is different than what we saw with InfoTool. If you remember back, it showed that the PX-608CU could return C2 errors.

For a portable drive, the PX-608CU did very well in our DAE tests. The drive started out at 11x and reached a maximum speed of 24.46x.

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-608CU started out a little faster when extracting our test CD with CD DAE, its average and maximum speeds were a little slower than what we saw with CD Speed.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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.

The PX-608CU was slightly faster when ripping audio CD-R discs. Thanks to this small speed boost, it reached a maximum DAE speed of only 24.51x. 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 17.58x. While the drive was able to go through the tests without creating any errors, it was unable to pass all of the on the fly copying tests.If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the PX-608CU was able to read the CD-Text and subchannel data but failed to read the lead in and lead out sections 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-608CU 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 87% 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.

Plextor's new DVD writer did much better this time around. The scratches on the disc had little effect on the drive's speed and the number of errors remained relatively low.