Plextor 12/10/32 SCSI CDRW

[Paddy]

Gurm,
I do intend to make legal backups of my own CDs (just incase the originals get damaged )

I intend to purchase either the SCSI or IDE Plextor drive.

Again my question: Given that the IDE drive is faster and cheaper is it still outweighted by the advantages of SCSI?

[Greebe]

Patrick, if you wish to multitask during a burn, Yes, scsi is the only way to go.

They have a 12x10x32x8x(DVD) coming soon too

[Paddy]

Cheers mate,

wow 8x DVD is fast for 32x read.
To be honest my DVD player is good enough - and it will probably bump up the price...(although it could knock down the one I want at the same time - but you could play this forever!)

My understanding was that the 'burn proof' helped out in multi-tasking.

Okey lads thanks for all the help i have made up my mind. If I can get the SCSI drive for under £230 i'll go for it (but it will have to go in my g/fs rig as she has my SCSI card!) if not then IDE is fine.

After all - If it only takes 5 mins to burn a cd, I can stop whatever I am doing for a bit! (my old drive took 40 mins! )

Thanks again for the many speedy replys!

[Paddy]

Greebe,
Is this the succesor to the Plextor PX-W12432? (apparently the best as stated by cdmediaworld)

[Gurm]

The SCSI is far more than just for multitasking. The SCSI protocol is more fully developed. This means fewer problems in general, better burns, etc.

The burn-proof doesn't "help" with multitasking as much as you think. It still requires the buffer to clear and then refill. It will prevent you from making a coaster, but it WON'T help overcome crappy media. And if it pauses it won't resume until the CPU frees up, so you can't REALLY do stuff while it's burning - nothing intensive anyway.

To my way of thinking there's nothing better for burning than an SMP SCSI system. I can play games while I burn. Heh.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Paddy]

OK Gurm SCSI it is!

Could you check out the link above and tell me which one you would go for - this is the best site price wise that i have found.

[Gurm]

Paddy,

I'd get the 12x4x32 if it were me. It's cheaper by far than tha 12x10x32, and let's be realistic - you'll almost never burn a rewritable, and most rewritables only burn at 4x anyway.

However, it doesn't have burn proof, so that might be a turnoff for you.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Wombat]

>And if it pauses it won't resume until the CPU frees up, so you can't REALLY do stuff while it's burning - nothing intensive anyway.

Except that interrupts time out, and the drive is guaranteed to be able to access the bus and fill its buffer.
If that doesn't happen, then you've got an OS problem, not a HW problem (unless HW timers are poorly designed).

[Paddy]

Gurm it says here that these are the best CDRWs either the12x4x32 SCSI or the 12x10x32 IDE drive aout there, but only the IDE supports BURN proof - because it is the superior model Right?

So is this drive going to be the best SCSI CDRW - whenever cdmediaworld gets updated? I mean will it be able to read and write in MMC DAO RAW?

I am not bothered about the 10x RW because as you said all my CDRWs are for 4x only! However the BURN proof does look attractive.... I wont be able to afford another drive for a long time - so I want to make sure that it lasts.

--EDIT--
sorry about all the links - just getting a bit bogged down!

[This message has been edited by Paddy [MU] (edited 17 October 2000).]

[Gurm]

The only reason the IDE drive scores high is because of burn-proof and the 10x RW speed, not because it's intrinsically a better drive. In fact, ALL SCSI drives are intrinsically better than ALL IDE drives.

The issue is that when the 10x SCSI comes out it will be, in the words of Eric Cartman, "Hella Expensive!".

I mean, I paid $350 USD for my 12x4x32, when I could have picked up a similar IDE drive for $250. You'll pay a similar premium on the 12x10x32 SCSI.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Paulr]

Plextor 12/10/32

IDE Flavour - £158+vat
SCSI Flavour - £215+vat
Your paying an extra £57+vat which isn't too bad.
Company here in the UK are listing them both, 3-4 days on the IDE, 1-2 days on the SCSI - so you can even get it quicker

[Gurm]

That's a $150-ish USD premium though, which may be a lot for some people.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[xortam]

I prefer SCSI for performance and I like to be able to put these devices into an external box. I think you should pick IDE or SCSI (not both) for your entire system and stick with it. Why put up with the extra interrupts and maintenance?

[Paulr]

Oh I don't know.
I have a hybrid system
A 2940UW controls my DVD-ROM, CD-RW & Internal ZIP drive.
I then have 2 ATA-100 HD's.
Reason:
SCSI HD's are still just too damn expensive.
So I get the best of both worlds, good performing IBM ATA-100, 7200rpm HD's and then a great SCSI sub-system for the rest.
I can see where your coming from if you are building a new system, those SCSI controllers can be expensive, but it means I can have 1 HD on each ATA-100 channel and all my slower devices on a seperate sub-system.
Interupts aren't an issue with Windows2000 nor will they be in any future MS OS.

[This message has been edited by Paulr (edited 17 October 2000).]

[Gurm]

I was just having trouble with the amount of physical space in my machine! Between the multiple drive ribbons, and the fact that I didn't have a free slot for the Promise U-100 and was therefore using the Highpoint (which is garbage), I was much happier switching to SCSI. Oh, and did I mention that SCSI has lower latency and better concurrency?

- Gurm

------------------
Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.