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In the Forums... |
Posted: November 17, 2000 Written by: Tuan "Solace" Nguyen Controls  The controls on the 12/10/32S are far better than the 12/10/32A. You have controls for audio CD playback and there are more LEDs on the drive telling you what mode the drive is in. As for the 12/10/32A, you only have your eject button. Also on the back of the SCSI drive, there is a mini exhaust fan taking out the heat from the inside. This prolongs the life of the drive and gives greater reliability than a heated drive. Obviously the SCSI version is aimed at a different market sector than the ATAPI version. Beneficial Quality Plextor bundled both drives with heaps of software. The usual Adaptec EasyCD Creator 4.0 shipped with the drive. Also, other utilities such as the CD ResQ software is shipped which let’s you image your hard drive or parts of your hard drive onto CD for system restore when something goes weary. However, the ATAPI version of the drive does not come with CD ResQ. Another useful utility is the Plextor Manager 2000, which lets you turn on Windows DAE (digital audio extraction). This lets Windows see an audio CD as a CD with .wav files so all you have to do to extract them is just drag and drop them somewhere. This is a useful feature to have when you don’t have proper audio extraction software to rip CD’s.  If you have another Plextor drive, you can use Plextor’s PlexDupe software to create "bit-for-bit" accuracy duplications. If not, then duplication will just be a "normal" dupe. But so far I haven’t had any negative experiences when using just a single Plextor drive. Another good feature is the ability to play back Audio CDs through the SCSI bus. This feature is good for people with USB speakers and no soundcard who still want to listen to their audio CDs. Advantages and Disadvantages of the PlexWriter 12/10/32A (ATAPI) There isn’t a real technological advantage of getting the ATAPI version over the SCSI version. The only main advantage is cost. With the 12/10/32A, you don’t have to worry about any SCSI host adapters, configuring SCSI IDs, or compatibility. The ATAPI version will work on virtually any computer out today. Just plug in into your motherboards IDE channel and you’re up and running. Also, the ATAPI version only contains a 2MB buffer holding about 1 second worth of data when burning at 12X. There is no fan on the back, so heat may become an issue with constant burning. Let's take a look at the drive properties. |
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