Verdict: One of the few S-ATA drives, but the price is high

While hard disk manufacturers were very quick to release S-ATA and S-ATA II drives, most optical drive manufacturers stuck like limpets to the sinking ship that is EIDE. For example, only two of the ten drives we reviewed in this month's Labs test are S-ATA drives, one of which is the Samsung, and the other this Plextor.

While Plextor now produces S-ATA versions of all of its DVD burners, these typically only go into production a few months after the EIDE model. This is why, for this Labs test, we had to test two Plextor drives - the all-singing, all-dancing EIDE PX-760A, and this S-ATA drive, the PX-755SA.

The only difference between the PX-755SA and PX-760A, apart from the interface, is the DVD-R and DVD+R writing speeds. The PX-760A claims to write both types of disc at 18x, but the PX-755SA is limited to 16x. In our testing, the PX-760A was quicker, even though our media only supported 16x burning speeds. As with all Plextor drives, you have to enable SpeedRead in Plextools to enable them to rip DVDs at a decent speed, and the PX-755SA came second only to the Pioneer in our ripping test.

Plextor supplies Nero Suite, Plextools, a S-ATA cable, a Molex to S-ATA converter, a pack of screws, and interchangeable beige and black bezels with the PX-755SA.

While the PX-755SA is a good performer, it's simply too expensive to justify paying the extra, particularly when Samsung's S-ATA drive costs less than £30.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008

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• Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 - Processors
• ATI Radeon HD 4670 - Graphics cards
• DFI Lanparty JR P45-T2RS - Motherboards