Plextor has become legendary for their ridiculously fast burners.  It seems that as long as burners have been around, the rest of the market has been playing catch up to Plextor.  Plextor has just released their Super Multi-drive external burner and sent it over for a little testing.  I couldn't resist playing with a drive that boosts some of the fastest read speeds on the planet.  Let's take a look at the drive and see how it stacks up.

Specifications and Features

Front Panel
Eject	Auto Eject/Manual Emergency
Lights	Power on/ Disc Busy Indicator
Disc Loading	Auto load/Manual load
Rear Panel
Power Supply	DC12V ±10% and DC5V ±5%
Interface Connector	USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
Toggle Switch	On/Off
Dimensions & Weight
Dimensions (W/H/D)	6.73 in x 2.40 in x 10.55 in 171 mm x 61 mm x 268 mm
Weight	3.09 lbs 1400 g
Buffer	2MB
Interfaces/Ports	USB 2.0 - USB Rear Panel IEEE 1394 - FireWire Rear Panel
Optical Drive Speed	18x 8x 16x DVD+RW 18x 6x 16x DVD-RW 10x 16x DVD±R DL 48x 32x 48x CD-RW
Additional Information	DVD-RAM write's speed: 12xSupports Lossless Linking (DVD+R/RW) and Zero Link (DVD-R/RW)Buffer Underrun Proof technology prevents buffer underrun errors RoHS Compliant System
Requirements	CPU: Pentium 4 1.6 GHz or equivalent (minimum)HDD: 1 GB free space for copying CD to CD image 6GB to 10GB free space for DVD authoring
OS Compatibility	Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, MAC OS X
Recommended Media (All DVD-RW and CD-RW media is rewritable up to 1,000 times)
DVD+R (4.7 GB)	Taiyo Yuden, Sony
DVD+RW	Ricoh, Mitsubishi/Verbatim, Sony
DVD+R DL (8.5 GB)	Mitsubishi/Verbatim
DVD-R	Taiyo Yudan, Sony
DVD-RW	JVC, Mitsubishi/Verbatim
DVD-R DL (8.5 GB)	Mitsubishi/Verbatim
DVD-RAM	Panasonic, Maxell
CD-R	Mitsubishi/Verbatim
CD-RW	Ricoh, Mitsubishi/Verbatim

• Works with Windows® 2000/XP/Vista™

• Double layer allows you to record up to 4 hours of high-quality MPEG-2/DVD video on a 8.5GB disc

• Supports a wide array of DVD-RAM, DVD±R/RW, CD-R, and CD-RW Media Brands

• Supports DVD+RW background format

• Supports DVD±VR format for direct disc recording

• Supports Lossless Linking (DVD+R/RW) and Zero Link (DVD-R/RW)

• Buffer Underrun Proof technology prevents buffer underrun errors

• RoHS Compliant*

• One-year full warranty (parts and labor)

• Unlimited toll-free technical support