Optical drive installation isn’t particularly difficult. The key thing to remember once the drive has been slid into a 5.25″ drive bay is to connect the SATA power and data cable. The cables are keyed and only go in one way so it’s just a matter of fiddling around in your case before it lines up and slides in. Even for a novice, the installation will likely take less than half an hour.

Plextor has provided it’s PlexUtilities – a software giving you access to basic and advanced drive information including customization options and a safe, secure and easy to way to destroy data on CD/DVD media. The software installation process, like every other program, is straight forward with little user interaction required.

Walking through the PlexUtitiiles, the basic information provides details on the drive, disc and system.

The advanced information brings up the engineering specifications and IOP, a health indicator on the laser diode.

The advanced controls allow you to perform a self test, adjust the power condition of idle and standby, and execute PlexERASE – the secure erase software.

The Disc Quality test is only available depending on the media you have in the tray. In total we can review the BLER, Jitter, TE/FE and complete a scan on the entire disc.

The last option is to complete any updates to the drive or to PlexUtilities. My original PlexUtilities was 1.1.8 and it found 1.2.3.

This quick update gave me a number of new Advanced Controls: Bit Setting, Auto Write Strategy FUnction, Power Tune and Plex Speed.

I also noticed I could view the transfer rate of the drive with the new software – it’s filed under the Additional Information tab.

It’s nice that Plextor takes the time to update their software and add features that can be used but what will matter most are the results of the burn. Let’s get to the testing.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5