CDFreaks presents: The Plextor PX-608CU Review

You can find it here: http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Plex...eWriter-Review



Feel free to comment the review in this thread.

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Last edited by Liggy; 19-08-2007 at 22:50. Reason: Fixed link

Thanks!

One remark though: IMHO the question how to correctly provide power for this drive is not addressed clearly enough. However i think of this as being of big importance since a portable unit that needs a big external brick of a power-adapter is not truly portable anymore. Now Plextor claims "USB-powererd". Am I correct in assuming, that the power provided via the USB-DATA-link is not enough and either the provided secondarey USB-to-power-cable or the adapter is to be used *at all times*? Or is ist needed for writing only whereas reading is possible with just the Data-link power? Perhaps this could be added to the power consumption page.

The drive comes with an USB power cable that is connected to the drive’s 5V DC power input, providing the drive with the needed power, without hooking it up to the 110V/220V power-net.

All reading and writing tests were done with this USB power cable in the review. I also made reading and writing tests with the provided AC/DV Adapter, however there were hardly any differences in i.e. the burning quality.

PS! Sorry about not mentioning that the drive was hooked up via the USB power cable during the reading and writing tests, but I though it was obvious to tests this drive this way, as it is USB powered.

Nice one Jan
Have looked at my older 608U tests and the new one is little bit better.
At least You have working 8x +RW from Ricoh after burning.
My 608U have destroyed 3 of them and I stiil can't write or erase them in any other burner

Nice review, cool toy

Any chance of a pic showing it connected to your laptop? Would show clearly that machine is USB powered. A pic is worth a thousand words and all that.

Thanks for the nice review, Jan!

The drive comes with PlexTools Professional, but it's not clear to me whether the drive can actually perform the Q-Check scans (PIE, PIF etc.) in PlexTools?

Sure.

That is just sooooo coool

As I guess the internals are designed by Pioneer and use the NEC chipset, the Plextor PX-608CU does not support any of the Q-Check features in Plextools.

Very decent write quality, but why is plextor launching this drive at this late stage??? What type of market will this drive fall in??? It would be a good idea if they launch this drive pre-laptop DVD burner. But every laptop is equipped with a DVD burner and thus there is not niche for this drive, even a $500 laptop. And for desktop user, they use the 5.25 drive with external enclosure.

Thanks for the in-depth review Jan

Very good review, but I would like to add something.
The unit power input is 5V DC , 2.0 A , so that's almost 9 W shown in your measurements. But standard USB ports are only 0.5 A max, so one of then can only give 2.5 W, and with 2 you get 5 w, so I cannot see how can the unit can work.

I've tried the unit with my laptop (Toshiba M200) and with my desktop (Asus A8V deluxe with SURECOM EP-1004P-2 usb hub power-supplied), and always the same, overcurrent in USB port. The disc rotate a little, but it cannot starts working.
¿Which is your laptop model?

Th DVD writer works well with power supplied unit included (output 5V, 2 A)

Does this drive work in Microsoft Windows Vista?

Bought myself the px-608al variant of this version.. Really satisfied!

The link to the review does NOT work. hwp can you fix it?

I fixed the link - I hope Jan doesn't mind

Thanks Liggy. You sure are in the Plextor threads a lot lately

Not really. I check the thread titles with new posts and then decide wheter I'll read the thread or not while I read almost every thread in the NEC/Optiarc forum.

Real good review, but one question is open for me.

In the conclusion is written uder positive points:
USB2.0 bus-powered

On this pictures...



...I can see it is powered with 5V. On the upper picture I saw Input 5V= 2.0A. The measurements about the power consuption where 4W and 9W.
(4W -> 0.9A @ 5V / 9W -> 1.8A @ 5V)

How is this possible to use this device bus powered? The current of 2A is far far away from 500mA max. current in the USB specifications.

Do I have to study again electronics... ..Strange strange.

TM, you saw it from review , but I bought it and tried it (and returned it). And always the same message: "USB overcurrent", in my laptop (toshiba M200) and my desktop. I think Plextor didn't build this model very well.
Now I´m happy with a Freecom FS-50, which it is really a LiteON slim unit.
The only problem, you must keep the batteries charged.