Originally posted by: Auric
I am inclined to advise avoiding both. Sony is no doubt a re-brand of something available cheaper and the Plextor is as always overpriced.
16x is a bit dodgey as some drives actually burn faster at 12x and by the time the media is generally available will any premium be worth it for the average user? A cheap, well supported drive like the NEC 3500A looks good for the interim as there is still a lot of room for improvement in all speeds other than SL +R, MRW is still oddly absent, and DVD-RAM will be added to more chipsets in the near future.
See cdfreaks, cdrinfo, cdrlabs, rpc1.org, videohelp.