Top 10 DVD Drives

Plextor's PX-712A, our new number one drive--and the first 12X model we've tested--sped through our write-once test, taking nearly 2 minutes less to finish the task than did its predecessor (and our former Best Buy), the PX-708A. Media vendors aren't planning to release 12X media, but this drive can achieve its speedy performance with some brands of 8X media (for now limited to Maxell, Ricoh, and Taiyo Yuden). Also new this month are drives from I/O Magic and Asus. The former is a terrifically priced external USB 2.0 drive with a versatile software bundle; the latter, a basic internal drive.