I`ve just bought a plextor 40/12/40a burner.
It is supposed to write at x40 speed but so far it hasn`t managed to write much quicker than my old x24 speed TDK.
An 80 minute audio disk took 4 minutes 15 seconds to burn,this can`t be right can it?
I`ve got a plextor ultraplex40max scsi cd-rom.
IBM 60gb 7200r.p.m. hard drive.
Athlon 1.333 processor.
writer is set as secondary master and all d.m.a`s are enabled.
( including d.m.a. jumper setting on the back of the writer)
I`m using nero and clone.
I have 512mb ddr memory.
Can anyone help?

The Plextor 40x burner won't burn audio over 24x. It will burn a full 80 minute data CD in just over 3 minutes.

Really It should Be called a 40Max writer

It starts writing at 20x and builds up in steps to 40x

The average writing speed on an 80 minute disc is less than 30x

The average writing speed is almost exactly 30x (29.9x). If it should be called a 40Max writer, then all burners over 16x should be called Max writers, since none burn at the maximum speed throughout the CD. All but the Yamahas are Zone-CLV and the Yamahas are P-CAV. No 24x burner averages 24x and most burn around 22x to 22.5x.

But this is not the issue with the Plextor 40x burner and Audio CDs. It starts these at 16x and steps up to at most 24x. It will never exceed 24x by design.

Make sure you use 40X certified media.....

For the third time the Plextor 40x burner will not reach 40x at any point with any media for Audio CD burning. You will only need at most 24x media since it will never attempt to burn faster than 24x.

From Plexor's site product description:
Total Solution features

Part # (retail kit): PX-W4012TA/SW (internal) (Box Contents)
E-IDE (ATAPI-4) interface
3-in-1 drive: 40X CD-R, 12X CD-RW, 40X max CD-ROM
*
PoweRec II
120ms Average Random Access
4 MB Buffer
Records highest quality audio CDs (audio recording speed limited to 24X)
Capable of Digital Audio Extraction at 40X max
Supports CD-DA; CD-ROM (Mode 1); CD-ROM (Mixed Mode); CD-ROM XA (Mode 2, Form 1 and Form 2 and Mixed Form; CD-I; Photo CD; Video CD; CD-Extra; CD+G; CD Text
Compatible with a large number of CD-R and CD-RW media
Burn-Proof technology eliminates buffer underrun errors in fast write modes, allows for multi-tasking
Flash ROM allows for easy upgrade over the Internet
Windows 98/2000/ME/XP Compatible
Supports Disc-at-Once, Track-at-Once, Session-at-Once, Variable & Fixed packet writing modes
One-Year Full Warranty and Unlimited Toll-Free Tech Support

Yeah i understand it will not write audio above 24x, my point was why call something 40 speed when it can write no faster than 30 x overall.

Someone not as knowledgable as you (eg maverick2) may buy it and then feel cheated cos it wont write at 40x

This is nothing new. Do any 40x or 52x CD-ROMs read at 40x or 52x overall (with the exception of the triple beam TrueX drives and then only on perfect CDs)? Or do any any burners over 16x write overall at their max speed (do any 20x burners burn at 20x overall, or any 24x, 32x, etc. burn over the entire CD at those speeds)? The answer is no.

All CD drives are advertised at their maximum speeds, not their average speeds (and they are virtually never the same), so why differentiate the 40x burners? If you want a burner that burns the entire CD at it's maximum speed, you will have to stick with a CLV burner at or below 16x.

Again however, maverick2's issue is not with the average speed since his 24x TDK didn't burn at 24x average either. It is with the fact that Audio, won't burn over 24x which results in an average speed of less than 23x. Unfortunately he failed to read the specifications for the drive, since it is clearly stated. Other 40x drives will burn audio at higher than 24x, such as the Lite-on, but Plextor made a quality control decision to limit Audio burns to 24x.

No - But this is the first burner that will not burn ANYWHERE NEAR its rated speed. The vast majority of users do not know or wish to know anything about CLV CAV P- CLV etc, they just buy something and expect it to do what it says on the box. A lot of people expecting to burn an 80 minute cd in 2 minutes will be dissapointed.

As to the comparison with cd roms my plextor is ultraplex40MAX, giving some indication to the buyer that it will not read the entire cd at 40x

Just because the margin for the 40x plextor is greater than some of the earlier zoned drives, etc. does that mean that they should break the convention and call their drive a 40x MAX burner so that "the vast majority of users" will buy a 24x, 32x burner from another company, because they believe that they will actually burn at 24x and 32x?? No, Plextor has no choice but to stick to the convention that has already been started.

As to your comment on CDROM drives, I couldn't count the number of posts here on "I have a 52x CDROM drive, why am I getting buffer underruns when burning audio on the fly??", etc.

But then again I am not "the vast majority of users", I checkout a product before I spend my money on it... Well I am at least going to read the box.

Originally posted by MrMP
No - But this is the first burner that will not burn ANYWHERE NEAR its rated speed. The vast majority of users do not know or wish to know anything about CLV CAV P- CLV etc, they just buy something and expect it to do what it says on the box. A lot of people expecting to burn an 80 minute cd in 2 minutes will be dissapointed.

As to the comparison with cd roms my plextor is ultraplex40MAX, giving some indication to the buyer that it will not read the entire cd at 40x

I agree with you. The average person wouldn't know that
the speeds are only MAXIMUM attainable and not constant speeds.

But unfortunately that is life:
Many products and services are hyped up or exaggerated
in advertising, especially in the realm of technology.

Look at HDTV sets:
I am sure many (or most) people are not aware that 97 % of these TVS are merely HDTV-ready, and still need an add-on HDTV decoder.

I could site numerous other examples:
Watts per channel on stereos for example; where companies can site RMS (realistic) ratings or choose to site Maximum Output ratings instead, which are higher and make the product seem better when compared to its peers,
which is very misleading.

The list goes on.

Manufacturers should at least be required put the word 'MAX' next to the speed on CD-RW drives' boxes, as they do on CD-ROM drives.

How can anyone think you can write a CD in 2 mins..............

I remember when it took 60......................

Old Git

Originally posted by MrMP
No - But this is the first burner that will not burn ANYWHERE NEAR its rated speed. The vast majority of users do not know or wish to know anything about CLV CAV P- CLV etc, they just buy something and expect it to do what it says on the box. A lot of people expecting to burn an 80 minute cd in 2 minutes will be dissapointed.

As to the comparison with cd roms my plextor is ultraplex40MAX, giving some indication to the buyer that it will not read the entire cd at 40x

This is not the first burner that will not burn anywhere it's "rated" speed. No 32x burner burns anywhere near 32x as an average, most burn about 26x. For burners this practice started with Yamaha's 16x P-CAV burner and when 20x burners were introduced all burners continued this trend. The faster the burner, the further the Max will get from the average.

This has always been a problem with CD-ROMs, since they are all generally known by their max speed. If ultraplex40MAX is an indication that it doesn't read the entire CD at 40x, it is not very clear (the SCSI Wide version is named ultraplex40Wide while it reads at the same speed). In fact I assumed it meant it was the fastest 40x reader available. ;) As celtic stated, the DAE speedsof CD-ROMs are even more unclear. There are 52x drives that cannot even support 12x burns.

I don't think the manufacturer's should be responsible for buyer's ignorance. They have responsibility for truth in advertising, but you can lead a horse to water you can't make them drink. If purchasers don't read the specs of a product they should not complain about the performance, especially if you are buying leading edge products. We are not talking about fine print, but simple to read specs. Why not buy a CD-ROM and try to get it to burn CD-Rs, if you don't think the buyer has a responsiblity to read plain specifications? If you want something simple to understand get a stand-alone CD burner. If you want the best available read the directions.