Yes Plextor have announced 40/12/40 - 40x write/

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=1888

From what I can see in the press release the 40x isn't sustained across the whole disc- there is a mention of a VariRec TEchnology for varying the recording speed.

Does anybody need a writer which is that fast?

My 12x Plextor is definitely fast enough for me - I usually find I spend much more of my time organising my files prior to burning than the actual writing

Info on VariRec

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=1893

I'm sure owners of 4x burners said the same thing when Plextor first brought out the 12x with burnproof. :cool:

Although speed is the obvious improvement in the burner I'm sure there will be a number of other hardware changes under the surface that will be beneficial.

I agree Darkman. Also don't forget some people burn multiple copies of the same disk or do multiple disk backups. In these cases the more speed the better. If you burn one disk and save 3 minutes, then with 10 disk you save 30 minutes. That's a lot of time, especially when people complain of 30 second boot times on their PCs.

BTW, VariRec technology (http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=1893) has nothing to do with the recording speed but varies the laser power to make the CD more readable in certain players or to change the sound quality. The Plextor 40x burner (http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=1888) will use Z-CLV technology like all other burners on the market over 16x (except the Yamahas which use P-CAV). The zones will start at 20x, shift to 24x, shift to 32x and finally shift to 40x. None of the drives over 16x burn the entire CD at the Max speed.

TDK has also announced a 40x/12x/40x CD-RW (http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=1889), and Cendyne has announced a 40x/12x/48x CD-RW. (http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=1887)

As I posted in Consumer's Opinion, how could one not want one of the 40x plextors? If they're going for 139£ next month, that is only $200. USD. I paid about 20% more for my 12x Plex not all that long ago. If you're in the market to get one, why not? I certainly would like to have one even though I really don't need it. :D