Verdict: A serial ATA drve that breaks the bank
It's hard to believe that just over a year ago, we recommended Plextor's previous DVD writer, the PX-712SA. We say that because times have changed in a big way, and now that DVD writers easily cost under £50, we'd have a heart attack if we had to spend the whopping £152 that the PX-712SA cost back then.
Unfortunately, while prices of other DVD drives have crashed, Plextor's drives remain costly. The PX-716SA costs £85, compared to the £30 of the Pioneer DVR-110DBK. The main reason for this seems to lie in the interface; like the PX-712SA, the PX-716SA is a S-ATA drive. But unlike the PX-712SA, there's no bolt-on EIDE to S-ATA converter on the back - it's actually a true, native S-ATA DVD writer.
Initially, S-ATA seems to have a few big advantages over EIDE. The first is that it theoretically supports faster transfer rates (150MB/sec versus EIDE's 133MB/sec), and thanks to its thinner cables, it's neater inside the case. The question is whether these benefits are worth the premium that Plextor charges. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes clear that they're not. The maximum throughput needed for 16x DVD burning, which is the fastest speed the PX-716SA can operate at, is less than 22MB/sec. This is well below what the EIDE interface is capable of, so there's no performance benefit to be had from switching to S-ATA.
You'll be lucky to be able to burn this quickly anyway, as 16x media still isn't common. While the speeds at which optical drives can write to re-writable and dual-layer discs continue to increase slowly, the available media isn't keeping up. In fact, the fastest DVD+RW and -RW discs we could lay our hands on were rated at just 4x; the PX-716SA is theoretically capable of burning DVD+RWs at 8x.
Admittedly, 4x is the fastest speed at which the PX-716SA can burn a DVD-RW, but it can burn DVD+Rs and -Rs at 16x. The box doesn't mention DVD-R9 at all, but once we upgraded our test drive's firmware from 1.08 to 1.09, support for this format was added. Both plus and minus dual-layer media can be burned at 6x, although this still lags behind the Pioneer, which supports 8x writing to each format. The PX-716SA's maximum CD-R write speed is 48x; re-writables are limited to 24x, whereas the Pioneer supports 32x.
Although the S-ATA interface contributes to the cost of the PX-716SA, unlike the Pioneer, it also comes in a proper retail box, so a selection of software is included. You can burn discs straight out of the box, thanks to the inclusion of Nero Express 6 SE. However, it's disappointing not to see the full Burning ROM version, although SE gets the basic job done. The box has a huge list of software on the back, but 17 out of the 24 applications are trial versions, which are pretty worthless.
PlexTools Professional isn't worthless though. Not only does it let you alter options such as read speed and spindle slow-down time to help make the drive quieter, but it also offers audio ripping, plus CD and DVD burning with a drag-and-drop interface.
No media is included, but you get a 1m S-ATA cable, mounting screws and an emergency eject pin. There's also a handy black bezel to replace the standard beige version.
Minimalism appears to be the current fashion where DVD writers are concerned, so the front panel controls are limited to an eject button. The single LED shows whether the drive is reading or writing, but that's it. Around the back is the S-ATA interface and a S-ATA power connector - audio output is through the data cable only.
We used our new test rig, a 2.8GHz Athlon 64 FX-55 in an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard, to benchmark the PX-716SA. It took between 13 and 14 minutes to burn a full DVD-RW or DVD+RW, but this was limited by our 4x media. The main point of interest is dual-layer burning speed, and the Plextor wrote the 8.2GB of files to a DVD+R9 disc in just over 19 minutes. This is only 54 seconds longer than the Pioneer, which is rated at 8x.
Like the Pioneer, the Plextor wouldn't burn at 16x on our 16x-rated DataWrite DVD-R. Instead, it wrote at 8x, hence the time of eight minutes and 17 seconds to burn 4.2GB. It offered a 16x write speed on our Imation DVD+R, though, but the burn still took almost seven minutes. In theory, 4.2GB of files burned at 16x (21.6MB/sec) should take only three minutes and 18 seconds.
CONCLUSION
Apart from the S-ATA interface, the only feature that really differentiates the Plextor from the Pioneer is the two-year warranty. If your drive develops a fault, Plextor will collect it, repair it and return it to you as quickly as possible. It's a nice touch, but even with this, plus the software and accessories, the PX-716SA simply isn't worth nearly triple the price of the Pioneer.
