MBReview has decided to take another trip off the beaten path of motherboard reviews today by taking a look at Samsung's 40x CD-RW offering, the SW-240B and they throw it up against the high performance Plextor 40/12/40A to see how does it compares.

For those that are unsure of what the "Zone Constant Linear Velocity" is, I'll attempt to explain it as simply as possible. When a CD-RW drive such as the SW-240B uses Z-CLV to achieve higher maximum write speeds, the disc is virtually divided up into between three and five different sections. During each of these three sections, the write speed is always at a constant speed, such as 24x. The burn session will start at a set rate, then after pre-determined set of time, the drive will kick the recording speed up a notch to the next level. In the case of our Samsung drive, the time between speed jumps is where the anti-buffer underrun technology does its work. The "JustLink" technology makes sure there is a smooth, flawless transition between then two recording speeds.