CDR-Info.com has posted another in-depth review, this time of Plextor's new 12x DVD writer, the PX-712A. Is this new drive the current speed champ? What about its writing quality? Here's a snippet from the review:

What is the most negative point of the PX-712A? We said it before, we will say it again, the lack of DVD+R DL burning format. If this doesn't bother you much, the price is another negative, but as someone said, "you get waht you pay for". Plextor offers unique features and developing costs. There are several other negative points (doesn't support SD2 v2.8+ builds, no BookType bitsetting, doesn't support Premium's special writing mode for SecuRom games and CD Error correction could be better) but at the end, we are judging the drive too harshly, although the Plextor name demands it.

Returning to the question at hand, why should you buy PX-712A? There are many good reasons. It has FAST DVD reading/ripping speeds, supports many media (especially DVD+R) at 8X, has no problems with protected Audio titles and offers many unique features (Q-Check, GigaRec, etc...) along with overburning ability for DVD+R media!