Do I need an additional CD/DVD drive?

[EROEIone2one]

So I bought this Samsung CD/DVD Burner for a rig:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827151118

My question is, do I need additional drives for other functions (reading, playing CDs/DVDs)? Or is there any reason to pick up an extra drive even if I don't absolutely need it? I have a bit left over cash from the budget.

 

[us3rnotfound]

I would get another $30 drive so I can do on the fly copying and just have another source to read cds/dvds from.

 

[phisrow]

Strictly speaking, any operation(except reading two CDs at the same time) that you would want to perform can be performed with one drive. It'll generally involve more disk swapping and more caching to HD; but it'll work.

That said, disk swapping sucks, direct copy is nice, and CDRW/DVD drives are really cheap. I personally went that route, and would recommend it.

 

[Peter]

I like to keep an additional CD/DVD reader drive in the system so I can watch a DVD movie while getting other stuff done that requires a CD or DVD in the drive.

 

[corkyg]

For the past 12 years, I have had a CD or DVD ROM internally mounted in my main computer. My CD/DVD burner is external Firewire (used to be SCSI). That provides me with an efficient and fast way to use opticals. Benefits:

1. I do not use my burner for a reader.
2. Disk copies are direct and one operation.

I don't think I would do without a second optical drive.

 

[Peter]

Your (3) is flawed in reasoning. IDE through Firewire uses more CPU than direct IDE. But (1) and (2) are spot on.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Peter
Your (3) is flawed in reasoning. IDE through Firewire uses more CPU than direct IDE. But (1) and (2) are spot on.

Thanks, Peter. Edited appropriately.

 

[jackschmittusa]

Back in the days when cd burners were hunderds of dollars, I never used them to read either. Eventually, they got cheap enough that I didn't bother with a cd-rom drive any maore. Same held true for dvd drives. They are so cheap now, I just put 2 dvd buners in rigs.

 

[Zepper]

Plextors are still kind of pricey, so I keep a DVD-ROM drive in my PC too. The Asus DVD-ROM drives are nice and inexpensive too.

.bh.