Verdict: Great build quality, but stupidly expensive

In the early days of CD writers and CD-ROM drives, Plextor drives were the fastest, quietest and most reliable of those available. These days, though, nearly all DVD writers are rated at 16x for single-layer discs and cost around £30.

However, Plextor claims that the PX-760A is able to write DVD-R and DVD+R discs at 18x. But, even after trying several different blank DVDs, the PX-760A refused to write any faster than 16x, and even then it wasn't the quickest drive on test. It took nearly two minutes longer than the Samsung WriteMaster SH-W163 to burn a DVD-R.

In its defence, the PX-760A proved incredibly quick at writing dual-layer DVDs, taking a mere 12 minutes and 59 seconds to burn a DVD+R9 - more than three-and-a-half times quicker than the abysmal Asus DRW-1608P2S. The PX-760A also proved to be quick at DVD ripping, providing you enable SpeedRead in Plextools.

Plextor bundles a copy of Nero Suite with the PX-760A, while a second CD has time-limited demos of lots of different video and photo editing applications. If the latter is supposed to add value to the PX-760A then it doesn't, since most of these time-limited demos can be downloaded for free from the respective manufacturer's websites. A black and beige bezel is also included in the box.

With most DVD writers costing around £30, a £70 drive has to be pretty damn special to justify its existence, and the PX-760A isn't nearly special enough.

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