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

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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 DVD 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-608CU performed relatively well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 3.37x and reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8.12x. Unfortunately, like in our CD read tests, the drive's seek times were pretty high.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - DVD-R and DVD-RW:

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 disk 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. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD-R

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
Plextor PX-608CU	6.09x	3.38x	8.14x	177ms	214ms	371ms	10%	15%	36%

Verbatim DVD-RW

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
Plextor PX-608CU	6.10x	3.38x	8.14x	264ms	318ms	503ms	11%	16%	37%

 

Verbatim DVD-R DL

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
Plextor PX-608CU	4.56x	2.54x	6.07x	185ms	222ms	380ms	9%	n/a	n/a

The PX-608CU had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In our tests, the drive was able to read DVD-R and DVD-RW media at 8x, but slowed to 6x when reading DVD-R DL discs.

Maxell 5x DVD-RAM

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
Plextor PX-608CU	4.15x	2.98x	5.01x	284ms	292ms	457ms	47%	72%	n/a

Plextor's new drive has a maximum transfer speed of 5x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that it starts reading at about 3x and then jumps up to 5x at the 1.8GB mark.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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 disk 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.

Verbatim DVD+R

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
Plextor PX-608CU	6.08x	3.37x	8.12x	177ms	209ms	385ms	9%	15%	34%

Verbatim DVD+RW

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
Plextor PX-608CU	6.09x	3.38x	8.16x	192ms	231ms	411ms	10%	15%	34%

The PX-608CU's performance with DVD+R and DVD+RW media was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R and DVD-RW media.In both cases, the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8x.

Verbatim DVD+R DL

Reading Verbatim's double layer DVD+R media wasn't a problem for Plextor's new drive either. In our tests, the PX-608CU started reading at 2.54x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 6.09x.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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.

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
Plextor PX-608CU	6.02x	3.34x	8.04x	167ms	196ms	332ms	12%	14%	31%

The PX-608CU didn't slow down very much when reading single layer DVD videos. It started out at about 3.34x and reached a maximum read speed of 8.04x. Plextor's new drive was also fairly quick when reading dual layer discs. By looking at the screenshot below, you can see that the drive's transfer speeds peaked at about 6x.

To see how well the PX-608CU worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace using WinDVD 4 and PowerDVD 5. The drive had no problems playing back these movies with either program and was fairly quiet.