Plextor DVD Drive Hits 12X

Multiformat DVD drives are again getting faster: Plextor has announced the first two 12X DVD+R drives.

One is the first DVD drive to use the Serial ATA interface. Plextor expects the conventionally connected PX-712A DVD±R/RW to ship in late April with a list price of $209. The Serial ATA-based PX-712SA DVD±R/RW is scheduled for release in May priced at $229, although it will initially not be available to consumers.

Speed Story

Unless another company makes a surprise announcement and fast release, the PX-712A will be the first drive to write to DVD+R at the 12X speed. And no, you won't have to wait for 12X media. The drive can manage 12X speeds with 8X media, according to Howard Wing, Plextor's vice president of sales and marketing.

But be warned: You can't get 12X speeds with all 8X DVD+R media. Only media from three manufacturers--Maxell, Ricoh, and Taiyo Yuden--have so far been approved for the faster rate. Taiyo Yuden discs are sold under a variety of brand names as well as its own, so you may not always know if you're buying them.

The PX-712A is fast with other media types, but doesn't break any records. It can write to DVD-R at 8X, DVD+RW and -RW at 4X, CD-R at 48X, and CD-RW at 24X. It can read DVD-ROMs at up to 16X and CDs at up to 48X.

The drive comes with Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6 (a World Class 2003 award winner) and includes PhotoSuite 5, which comes bundled with the retail version of the package. Also included is a 30-day trial version of Dantz's Retrospect Backup, a recent PC World Best Buy. Like just about every other internal CD or DVD drive available today, the PX-712A uses the standard Parallel ATA interface.

What's Different

The interface is what makes the PX-712A different from the PX-712SA, which is the first DVD drive of any type to use the Serial ATA interface. In all other respects (except the $20 price difference), the drives are identical.

SATA has been gaining ground over the last year as a new standard to connect internal hard drives to the motherboard. Although it's currently not that much faster than the older PATA interface (150 megabytes per second as opposed to PATA's up to 133 MBps), it promises to eventually attain speeds of up to 600 MBps.

Of course, these speeds are relevant to hard drives, the fastest storage devices. When you're talking about optical drives, those numbers aren't meaningful. The new Plextor drives top out at only about 22 MBps for reads and 16.5 MBps for writes, far below the level of PATA'S current capabilities.

SATA represents the future of internal storage interfaces. In time, all internal (and even some external) storage devices are expected to use it. SATA has some advantages that will apply to DVD drives in particular. For example, it uses slimmer cables, which improve circulation within the PC and keep the insides cooler. And because SATA provides a point-to-point interface, you connect only one device per cable, which obviates PATA's demand for master/slave/cable select jumper settings and simplifies drive installation. SATA also allows up to 3.3-foot cable lengths as opposed to PATA's 1.5-foot limitation. Plextor's Wing says that, aside from these points, a SATA interface on a DVD drive offers "no practical advantage."

Plextor isn't expecting you to run out and buy a SATA DVD drive--at least not yet. The company is planning on initially marketing the PX-712SA exclusively to PC manufacturers and system integrators who want phase out the PATA interface. SATA is a new standard, and the market for upgrades isn't there yet. Wing estimates it will be "about three to six months before end users are going to want to purchase a serial ATA drive."