MSI DR8-A: The Plextor 708A's little brother

Final Thoughts

MSI's DR8-A became an instant favorite around the lab for two reasons: HD-BURN and price. Plextor's 708A still does a better job on 8X DVD+R write descriptors; although, hopefully, new firmware revisions on the DR8-A can compensate for this in the future. The inability to burn cheap media on either burner is unfortunate, but understandable. Our largest surprise was that the DR4-A and DR8-A, which look identical on the outside, perform so differently. The DR8-A is much more stable, supports more media and burns faster.

The main difference between the Plextor 708A and the MSI DR8-A is the price (remember, they use identical chipsets). The DR8-A does not have Plextor's PowerRec, but it does equal the 708A in virtually every benchmark. The MSI DR8-A delivers almost the same performance as the Plextor 708A for $40 less. We have seen several incredible drives for $100, including the NuTech DDW-081 and the NEC 2500A. MSI's DR8-A retails for a little more, around $120. The drive is priced a little high when compared to NuTech or NEC's 8X solutions, but if you are intrigued by HD-BURN or 99-min CDR, you may be able to justify the extra cost.

Also consider when buying a burner like the NEC-2500A or Sony DRU-530, you may have to spend extra on specifically marked "8X DVD+R" media, while burners like the NuTech DDW-081 and MSI DR8-A will burn 8X on most 4X discs. On the other hand, the Pioneer 107D has no problems burning on low quality DVD-R media, which plagues the Plextor 708A and MSI DR8-A.

Stay tuned as we have more 8X DVD+R and DVD-R drives in the next few weeks, as well as more info on HD-DVD, BluRay and DVD DL.