Plextor PlexWriter 48/24/48U

Given that a fast internal CD-RW drive can be had for well under £100, you might be wondering why anyone would want to spend twice that much on an external model.

Well, some people simply have an aversion to screwdrivers and there's nothing simpler than plugging in an external drive.

Others have no room for another drive inside their PC, while some people just don't want to keep reaching under the desk to pop CDs in and out, and a drive on the desktop means they don't have to.

So if you think any one of those reasons is enough to justify spending £200 on an external CD-RW drive, the PlexWriter 48/24/48U may be just what you're looking for.

It's a burn-proof drive that reads and writes discs at 48-speed and rewrites at 24-speed, but you'll need a USB 2 port to achieve those figures.

Since few PCs have one as standard, you'll need to fit one yourself (screwdriver-phobics might as well stop reading now); otherwise, you can plug the drive into a USB port for much slower performance.

Plextor drives are always solidly built and the PlexWriter is no exception.

The bulk of the case is brushed aluminium and since it's about the size of a hardback novel, the drive looks more like an ingot of metal than a piece of computer equipment.

There's a power switch and a set of stereo audio outputs at the rear, plus a socket for the external mains adaptor.

The drive itself is black, as is the disc tray. Whatever the claims made for the light-absorbing, performance-improving properties of black over beige, it at least makes a change.

When it comes to performance, the PlexWriter does as well as it's billed.

CD-RWs are written at an average of 24-speed, CD-Rs at an average of 35-speed (peaking at 47-speed near the end of the writing process). This means you can fill a 650MB CD-RW in three minutes and a CD-R in just over two.

DETAILS
Contact: Scan.co.uk 0870 7554 7474
www.plextor.be