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Plextor PX-712A
Plextor PX-712A
pros and cons
- Fast writing;
- good accompanying toolkit;
- reasonably priced.
- Very little.
- Editors' review
- Specs
If you need to write DVDs – particularly video discs – quickly, then you may find what you’re looking for in the Plextor PX-712A. It can write DVD+R discs at 12x speed, giving you a disc in under seven minutes.
The drive mechanism in the PX-712A is the same as in its Serial ATA (SATA) counterpart, the PX-712SA. This costs a £129 (ex. VAT) against this PX-712A’s £119 (ex. VAT), but provides the same level of performance and features, so there’s little point in choosing the more expensive drive unless you’re specifically looking for a SATA removable media drive. Apart from the interface, the drives are virtually identical, so read the review of that drive to get all the details.
This version of the drive does also have both analogue and digital audio outputs, which are missing on the SATA version, which is more useful for listening to music if you have a slower PC and don’t want to use processor power on digital extraction.
The PX-712A will do any job you’re likely to put a DVD rewriter to, and without costing a fortune. While faster drives will appear before long, they may cost more and do less. If you want to create DVDs of any type, the PX-712A is great value for money.