Plextor PlexWriter Premium

With the price of DVD recorders decreasing and their recording speeds increasing, the days of the humble CD-RW drive are numbered. But Plextor has decided to go out with a bang with its final CD-writer, the PlexWriter Premium.

On the face of things, it looks like just another 52-speed writer, but Plextor has added a few special tweaks. Most interesting is the GigaRec feature, which lets you squeeze up to 1Gb (112-minutes) on an 80-minute CD or a massive 1.2Gb (140-minutes) on a 99-minute CD. You have to use Plextor's Plextools software to get this to work but it is surprisingly easy to use. We managed to get more than 1Gb on a 99-minute CD, although we found that some PCs were slow to access it. Plextools can also be used to secure a CD so that you have to type in a password before you can access any files.

You also get an excellent two-year warranty, a clear installation manual and even the screws to fix the drive inside your PC.

If you already have a CD-RW drive then there's no compelling reason to upgrade. But for everyone else, this is a robust choice with enough clever options to warrant a look.

Contact: Dabs 0870 429 3010
www.plextor.be