Overclockers Online has posted a review on the Plextor 24/10/40A CD-RW.
The second feature that grabbed my attention was the buffer size. Where the 16/10/40A has a buffer of 2MB, the new 24/10/40A comes with 4MB onboard. What the writer does is copy the data that will be written onto the cd to the buffer before it is put on the cd. This is essential to prevent coasters because if your hard drive halts for a split second, the cd is dead for good. With a larger buffer, the hard drive has more breathing space so chances on killed cd's are smaller. It is understandable that a 4MB buffer is needed on a 24x writer because the faster these drives get, the faster hard drives have to supply data. Of course all Plextor drives come with BURN-Proof, a feature that prevents the cd from getting killed when the hard drive can't keep up and the buffer is empty before the hard drive can provide data again (this event is called a buffer-underrun).Read more
