6 Plextor PleXCombo 8/8/24-8U Review CD-R, CD-RW, DVD and USB 2.0 By -Chris Angelini September 18th, 2002 Benchmarks and Comparisons Continued This Time With Some Video File Transfer: In order to get a better idea of how the Plextor drive would do at simply transferring files, I loaded a 644MB disc full of MP3 files and sent them all to a folder on my desktop.  Total Time to Transfer 644MB   Plextor PleXCombo 8/8/24-8U 9:39 TDK  VeloCD 24/10/40x 11:37   The results are pretty self explanatory.  While the Plextor drive takes more than nine minutes, the internal TDK drive takes even longer - more than 11! DVD Testing One of the more prominent features of the 8/8/24-8U is it's ability to read DVDs.  When plugged into a USB 2.0-compliant port, the drive is capable of 8x speeds - more than enough to maintain smooth playback.  Just to be sure, though, we ran a copy of The Ladies Man (how apropos) in both a USB 2.0 system and a platform with USB 1.1 support.  With USB 2.0 enabled, the Plextor drive ran the movie without so much as a skipped frame.  Even the USB 1.1 platform was able to run the move with relative stability.  But, in scenes with lots of motion, the movie would jump around sporadically.  If you plan to watch movies with the 8/8/24-8U, make sure you have USB 2.0, as the 12Mbps provided by USB 1.1 is simply not enough bandwidth for smooth video playback.   Drive performance isn't the only story to be told here.  Plextor apparently thinks that the ability to read, write, and re-write CDs (not to mention reading DVDs) on the road is more important than offering raw speed.  There are already a few external CD-RW drives that can burn a CD many times faster than the drive we're currently looking at, but in adding the necessary hardware to read a DVD, burning performance has taken an obvious hit.  Even still, combining all four of those technologies into a 1.1 pound package is no easy feat. The next important point to consider is your interface.  While USB 2.0 is really starting to gain popularity in the desktop market, it's a rare technology to find on a laptop.  In fact,  PCMCIA cards are really the only option for getting USB 2.0 support on the road.  Seeing as though the 8/8/24-8U's main allure is portability, it would be a shame to spend more than $250 only to burn discs at 4x and not even be able to play a DVD.  At least until mobile chipsets emerge with USB 2.0 support, we can really only see the drive useful for desktop owners. Now, why would someone buy a drive capable of 8x write, 8x re-write, 24x read, and 8x DVD read speeds for $250 when they could get an internal drive from the same manufacturer capable of 20x write, 10x re-write, 40x read and 12x DVD read for $100 less?  For most folks, the answer would be simple - they wouldn't.  Unless your circumstances dictate that all four technologies (CD write, rewrite, read and DVD read) are musts, it would be more prudent to buy either an internal combination drive or an external CD-RW drive.  When USB 2.0 makes its way onto the mobile market, an external drive like the Plextor 8/8/24-8U could prove invaluable - not only can it be disconnected when not in use, but its external nature means one more bay can accommodate a spare battery.  Until then, faster drives can be had for less money - we'd suggest Plextor's other combination drive, the PleXCombo 20/10/40-12A.    CD read, write, re-write and DVD read capabilities Buffer under-run protection   Expensive Performance is relatively low HotHardware's PC Hardware Forum is all the rage!  Are you in?