Plextor has announced a black version of their 12x DVD+R drive supporting Serial ATA, and has also made some clarifications about how it won't work under certain chipsets.

Plextor Corporation will release the "PX-712SA/JPB," a black model 12x DVD+R drive supporting Serial ATA, in the first part of June. The official price is Open Price, and indicators suggest its price should be around 25,000 yen. Supported operating systems are Windows 2000 and XP.

This model has had its bezel changed from the "PX-712SA/JP," the industry's first DVD±RW drive supporting the Serial ATA interface, while the specifications remain the same. It supports writing DVD+R at 12x, DVD-R at 8x, DVD±RW at 4x, CD-R at 48x, and CD-RW at 24x.

Also, Plextor released some information about the usage limitations of the "PX-712SA" o­n the same day.

The contents include how when the OS recovers from Standby (Suspend to RAM/S3) or Hybernate (Suspend to Disk/S4), the PX-712SA is not recognized by the OS.

Symptoms include how while the icon for the drive would be displayed in the shell, it was in fact not being recognized, bringing the OS to a near complete freeze. To solve this problem, Plextor says, simply do not use Standby or Hybernate.

The Host Controller o­n which this inconvenience arose is Intel's I/O Controller Hub (ICH) "ICH5" and "ICH5R." According to the same company's confirmed operation list, the modes that operate normally are the Intel B875PBZ Enhance Mode, and the MSI 875P Neo-FISR Enhance Mode. For the ICH5, the GIGABYTE GA-8IPE1000-G's Auto mode should be used.

Operation is mostly normaly o­n Silicon Image's "Sil3112" and "Sil3512" controllers. The "Promise 20378" from Promise, the "SiS 964" from SiS, and the "VT8237" from VIA are reported as either "not working" or "unable to confirm."



Inspired by:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2004/0603/plextor.htm

News Release:
http://plextor.jp/news/nr/px712sa_bk.pdf
http://plextor.jp/news/nr/px712sa_Restriction.pdf