Plextor PX-504A (DVD+RW)

The Plextor PX-504A supports 10x (1.500kb/s) CD re-writing and 2.4x (3.240kb/s) DVD re-writing. On this page of our review we’ll see what these speeds mean when writing normal data compilations and when using the packet writing method.

Re-Writing Data:

For our data re-writing tests we simply set up a new compilation of 650MB using the Nero Burning Rom software. We used the DAO (Disc At Once) writing method. The disc we used was a Plextor CD-RW disc manufactured by Ricoh. In the screenshot below you can see the burn process completed successfully:

As you can see our data compilation was written in 7 minutes and 44 seconds. For our next test we set up a new DVD-ROM compilation of about 4.4GB. We again used the DAO writing method and started the write process:

The total compilation was written in 23 minutes and 19 seconds (two seconds were used to format the media). This is (of course) the same result as we saw in our normal 2.4x write tests we did on the previous page. Let’s continue with packet writing:

Packet Writing:

For our packet writing tests we used Ahead’s InCD and inserted an empty Plextor High Speed CD-ReWriteable disc in the recorder. When formatting was complete we measured the time it took for the drive to write our test folder of data (containing 400MB (419.791.239 bytes)). In the table below we’ve summed it all up for you:

Although the Plextor PX-504A drive only supports 10x re-writing it showed an excellent result with the highest average re-write speed we’ve seen on a drive (compare it for instance to the PleXCombo PX-320A (8.28x average) and the Yamaha CRW3200E (8.38x average)). Let’s check the Plextor’s performance when using DVD+RW media. For this test we created another test folder of random data containing 4.0GB (4.336.861.184 bytes). In the table below we’ve summed up the results again:

In our DVD+RW packet writing tests the Plextor drive again showed an excellent result and had no problems writing the data at maximum speed. Notice that formatting the DVD+RW disc with InCD takes only 1 minute and 10 seconds! Unfortunately the PX-504A does not support the Mount Rainier format so this concludes our re-writing tests.