Do you really need noisy 48x CDROM speed? To how much should you slow it down for current apps and games?!

[Dance123]

Hi,

I am gonna buy a new PC soon and it seems that all DVD-ROM drives have CD-ROM speed of 48x, which is ofcourse very noisy! Are there any current applications or games that really need this 48x CDROM speed? How much speed do current apps and games really need, as I believe most drives have the possibility to slow down the speed, or will you lose performance that way?!

PS: anybody has the Asus DVD-ROM drive 16x/48x. In its feature list it has something called "Built-in ASUS patented DDSS II for excellent vibration and noise control". Is that the utility to slown down the speed as mentioned above?! It also has something called "Built-in AI Auto Speed Adjustment Technology". How does that work, ie. how can the drive automatically now what the best speed is for a certain app or game, etc..?!

Thanks for all good feedback!

Best Regards,

Mike.

 

[boyRacer]

read the newegg reviews on the sony dvd-rom drives... most of them say its very quiet.

 

[Dance123]

But isn't it so that a 40x or 48x speed CDROM will always be noisy compared to lower speeds, so to come back to my original question: Are there any current applications or games that really need this 40x or 48x CDROM speeds? How much speed do current apps and games really need, as I believe most drives have the possibility to slow down the speed, or will you lose performance that way?!

PS: does the Sony DVD-ROM drive 16x/40x has an utility to slow down speed or not? And what about the Asus DVD-ROM drive 16x/48x I mentioned before. Anybody has experience with any of those drives?

Thanks!!

 

[Peter]

The better drives monitor how fast the application is taking the data, and spin down to an appropriate speed if they're faster than required. E.g. I'd expect every decent DVD drive to spin down to 1x when viewing a DVD. Furthermore, most drives accept a speed limit from special configuration software.

 

[BlueWeasel]

I think the max speed of the drive would only matter during the installation of the game files to the local HD. Most current games don't actively use the drive during actual gameplay (unless for music, which I turn off anyway), and the drive is primarily used for CD verification.

 

[Iznogoodh]

Use a virtual drive like: virtual clone drive ore the more advanced virtual rom software! bye bye noise!

 

[Dance123]

Originally posted by: Peter
The better drives monitor how fast the application is taking the data, and spin down to an appropriate speed if they're faster than required. E.g. I'd expect every decent DVD drive to spin down to 1x when viewing a DVD. Furthermore, most drives accept a speed limit from special configuration software.

But if the application would all of a sudden demand much more again, won't there be any latency between the time the monitoring notices the higher demand and the drive going back to the required higher speed. I mean, doesn't monitoring always give certain latency, something you could notice in performance (even only for a short moment) especially if the rise in demand would be very sudden (a peak)?! A fixed speed obviously doesn't have this problem. What about this?

Thanks for the info!

 

[JarJarBinks77]

Yea there is lag when the drive speeds up for soem stuff, so games still read starting movies and stuff off the disk. But that really is
a big deal. Noise yea the faster a drive is the more nosie it possible to make but ive had slower drive that made alot of noise to.

I have a 52x24x52x drive right now and its quite, during burns and regular reading. I really dont see a good reason to slow down
your drive. Plus drvies tend to read cd not at there max speed, but at the speed the cd was burned it, ie mass produced cd are stamped,
but if you get a cd that was burned, Your drive will probably read it at that speed. Ive noticed this when copy from burned cd,
this may not be fact or may be limited to some drive models. But it just what ive seen.

Overall, dont change the speed of your drive, if it makes noise it prolly wont be that much. And if you do change the speed of
your drive liek someone said in earlier reply, a program will prolly change its speed for its own use anyways if it needs to.

Waste of time go make cookies or something .

 

[Ketchup]

Dude just get a Sony. Even if there is software to limit the speed of the drive, it will just mess things up. New CD drives only spin as fast as they need to, and hardly ever spin at full speed. You want a drive that has better vibration control. I had a Lite-On and hated the noise, so I got a sony and it is MUCH quieter.

 

[Dance123]

Originally posted by: Peter
The better drives monitor how fast the application is taking the data, and spin down to an appropriate speed if they're faster than required. E.g. I'd expect every decent DVD drive to spin down to 1x when viewing a DVD. Furthermore, most drives accept a speed limit from special configuration software.

But if the application would all of a sudden demand much more again, won't there be any latency between the time the monitoring notices the higher demand and the drive going back to the required higher speed. I mean, doesn't monitoring always give certain latency, something you could notice in performance (even only for a short moment) especially if the rise in demand would be very sudden (a peak)?! A fixed speed obviously doesn't have this problem. What about this?

Thanks for the info!

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: Dance123

Originally posted by: Peter
The better drives monitor how fast the application is taking the data, and spin down to an appropriate speed if they're faster than required. E.g. I'd expect every decent DVD drive to spin down to 1x when viewing a DVD. Furthermore, most drives accept a speed limit from special configuration software.

But if the application would all of a sudden demand much more again, won't there be any latency between the time the monitoring notices the higher demand and the drive going back to the required higher speed.

You get used to it.

 

[Dance123]

Originally posted by: ketchup79

Originally posted by: Dance123

Originally posted by: Peter
The better drives monitor how fast the application is taking the data, and spin down to an appropriate speed if they're faster than required. E.g. I'd expect every decent DVD drive to spin down to 1x when viewing a DVD. Furthermore, most drives accept a speed limit from special configuration software.

But if the application would all of a sudden demand much more again, won't there be any latency between the time the monitoring notices the higher demand and the drive going back to the required higher speed.

You get used to it.

You get used to it? Not very convenient when playing a game and all of sudden it needs a higher data transfer speed from the CDROM drive and the drive has to recalculate its speed which I could perhpas give latency. That's why I was asking if it wasn't smarter to get a drive with a fixed speed instead of one with "Built-in AI Auto Speed Adjustment Technology" like the one from Asus?! I don't believe the Sony drive has this feature by the way.

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: Dance123

Originally posted by: ketchup79

Originally posted by: Dance123

Originally posted by: Peter
The better drives monitor how fast the application is taking the data, and spin down to an appropriate speed if they're faster than required. E.g. I'd expect every decent DVD drive to spin down to 1x when viewing a DVD. Furthermore, most drives accept a speed limit from special configuration software.

But if the application would all of a sudden demand much more again, won't there be any latency between the time the monitoring notices the higher demand and the drive going back to the required higher speed.

You get used to it.

You get used to it? Not very convenient when playing a game and all of sudden it needs a higher data transfer speed from the CDROM drive and the drive has to recalculate its speed which I could perhpas give latency. That's why I was asking if it wasn't smarter to get a drive with a fixed speed instead of one with "Built-in AI Auto Speed Adjustment Technology" like the one from Asus?! I don't believe the Sony drive has this feature by the way.

Has this ever happened to you? I have never played a game when the CD access got in the way of playing the game. This is because the game loads all the info it needs for a particular level into memory, so you don't have to worry about that. If the computer has to access anything, it is on the hard drive, which can be accessed much more quickly than the CD-ROM drive. In fact, I don't think the CD-ROM is even spinning in the middle of a game.