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Plextor PX-810SA DVD±RW / DVD-RAM drive - Serial ATA review: Plextor PX-810SA DVD±RW / DVD-RAM drive - Serial ATA

7.3

Plextor PX-810SA DVD±RW / DVD-RAM drive - Serial ATA

The Good

This great performing CD/DVD burner has fast rip/burn speeds and comes with Roxio software.

The Bad

No support for Macs.

The Bottom Line

The Plextor PX-810SA internal CD/DVD burner is quick for both ripping and burning. We like it.
The Plextor PX-810SA DVD Super Multi Drive is a great performing CD/DVD burner. Its SATA connection opens up bandwidth to allow greater data throughput than EIDE/ATA. It doesn't support HD burning (Blu-ray or HD DVD), but it makes fast work of DVD and CD ripping and burning. At $90, it's not unreasonably priced either, so we're happy to recommend it.
Drive type Internal CD/DVD multidrive burner
Supported media types DVD+/-R DL; DVD+/-R; DVD+/-RW; CD-R; CD-RW; DVD-ROM; DVD-RAM; DVD-Video; CD-DA; Video CD; Photo CD; CD Text; CD Extra
Maximum write speeds 10x DVD+/-R DL; 18x DVD+/-R; 8x DVD+RW; 6x DVD-RW; 12x DVD-RAM; 40x CD-R; 32x CD-RW
Buffer memory 2MB
Dimensions (width by depth by height) 5.8x7.1x1.6 inches
Notable design features Changeable face plate (beige or black)
Interface Serial ATA (SATA)
Supported operating systems Windows 2000; Windows XP; Windows Vista
System requirements Pentium 4 1.6GHz or faster (or equivalent); 256MB RAM (XP) or 512MB RAM (Vista); 10GB hard drive
Software included Roxio Easy Media Creator 8
Any additional features Supports 8cm or 12cm discs
Service and support One-year limited warranty; toll-free phone support available 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. PT; Web site includes e-mail to tech support, FAQs, self-help guides, and downloads.

CNET Labs' test results revealed great read and write speeds for the Plextor PX-810SA. Ripping a commercial DVD (8.46GB) to the hard drive took 11 minutes, 29 seconds. Burning that image to a DVD+R DL disc took 21 minutes, 32 seconds. Burning a 4.48GB mixed data file to a DVD+R disc took 7 minutes, 59 seconds. Ripping a commercial CD (746MB) took 2 minutes, 33 seconds. Burning that image to a CD-R disc took 4 minutes, 8 seconds. All the speeds are on a par with the less expensive Sony DRU-830A (EIDE) except for the DVD rip process. The Plextor PX-810SA cuts the rip time by 51 percent--more than twice the speed of the Sony. No doubt, this is due to the SATA interface on the Plextor burner.

Rip tests (min:sec)
(Shorter bars indicate faster performance)
 Commercial CD rip (746MB)  
Commercial DVD rip (8.46GB)  
Plextor PX-810SA
02:33 
11:29 
Sony DRU-830A
02:40 
22:43 

Burn tests (min:sec)
(Shorter bars indicate faster performance)
 CD-R burn (746MB)  
DVD+R data burn (4.48GB)  
DVD+R DL burn (8.46GB)  
Sony DRU-830A
03:20 
08:34 
20:43 
Plextor PX-810SA
04:08 
07:59 
21:32 

7.3

Plextor PX-810SA DVD±RW / DVD-RAM drive - Serial ATA

Score Breakdown

Setup 7Features 7Performance 8Support 7
See full specs