Plextor PX-712SA SATA DVD±RW Writer

As serial ATA (SATA) hard drives grew in popularity over the past year or so, many users who fancy SATA's small cable and simple interface (no jumper) started wondering when SATA optical drives would hit the market. It makes sense, right? You get so happy that you can toss those large ribbon or round IDE cables in place of your new SATA cable for that new SATA hard drive, but then your joy is quickly diminished as you realize you still have to live with your optical drive's big, fat cable.

Fortunately, several companies have answered the calling for SATA optical drives, and Plextor happens to be one of them. It won't be long before we see most computers filled with nothing but SATA drives. For now though, the selection is rather thin. MSI and Plextor are the only two companies that I can think of off the top of my head that offer SATA optical drives. Plextor's offering is the PX-712SA, and it's actually exactly the same as the PX-712A that Chad reviewed here at Bjorn3D last month, except for the interface of course.

The PX-712SA actually uses a SATA interface, but it is not a 'pure' SATA drive. Instead, it uses an internal converter to change from SATA to PATA. We all know that currently SATA doesn't offer much of a speed advantage over ATA/100, so we can't fairly expect the PX-712SA to perform better than the PX-712A just because it's SATA. Continue reading to find out just how well it performs and to get the details on this excellent optical drive.