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DVD, CD ROM RW, ETC... Please clue me in

C

Caveman

Platinum Member
When I bought my last system, about the only option I had was a standard read only CD Rom...

With DVD and the read/write variations, I'm not sure what to get...

Do most people get a fast, dedicated CD ROM for reading only, and then a separate R/W variety for copying data? What about DVD? Can these play CD's also?

Building a new syatem and am looking to get the most flexibility/performance that I can at about 1-2 notches lower than state of the art...

Any ideas would be appreaciated. Thanks
 


<< Do most people get a fast, dedicated CD ROM for reading only, and then a separate R/W variety for copying data? What about DVD? Can these play CD's also? >>



I would say that's a pretty common config. Yes DVD-ROMs can play CDs. Getting a DVD depends on what you use your computer for. I would never watch a movie on my computer, so I didn't bother getting one.
 


<< What about DVD? Can these play CD's also? >>


yes
if you're interested, you can get an all in one dvd/cdrw instead of a seperate reader & writer!
 
If I were going to buy now and was looking at middle of the road...

1. 12Xor 16X CD burner (Plextor or Lite On)
2. 16X DVD (any name brand)

Both can be used as a standard CD ROMs. You have the options of burning and watching DVD's, and though these are not the fastest speed and newest models, the difference in burning with say a 16X and a 24X is only a coulpe of min. on a disk.

rb56



 
Thanks for the hints guys...

No, I don't plan on watching movies on my computer -- is there any other reason I might want a DVD that you can think of? I play games (mostly flight simulators) and do heavy engineering apps as well. I usually turn over a system every two years... Thanks for the input, any changes to what you wrote based on the previous few sentences?
 
Hmmm I don't know. Basically you want two drives so you can do cd to cd burning right? If that's the case, then you do need a drive in addition to the burner. And if I were you, I'd go for a DVD-rom over a normal CD-rom. Reason being that the DVD-rom's cost only $20 or so more than a CD-rom. Make sure you get a burner that has Burnproof, you don't want any coasters while doing CD to CD burning.
 
Yes, agreed, $20 is a small premium to pay for the flexibilty but will I sacrifice any speed? BTW, what's a hybrid hp burner? HP as in Hewlett Packard?

Yes, I plan on burning CD's and since some of the apps I use require a "key CD", I want it to run fast. What's "Burnproof" and what's a coaster?
 
Yeah, HP as in Hewlett Packard. The hybrid burner combines a CD-ROM reader, CD-RW burner, DVD-ROM reader. All that for $90.

And do you mean "cd key?"
 
I'd stick a DVDROM and CDRW in there, even though there are a few drives out there that will do both without needing 2 actual drives. why? so I can do a straight copy.

DVDROM because you might as well have it there and it doesn't cost all that much. You don't really sacrifice speed when going DVDROM.

Burnproof and Justlink are 2 technologies offered by CDRW drives that prevent the drive from burning a bad CD (called a coaster cause you could use it as one after a bad burn) due to the buffer on the drive or on the computer emptying.

they simply note exactly where they ran out of data and then start burning again right at that spot.

if you think it's odd, I agree. CD's aren't made the same way floppies and hard drives are (just copy the data!), so they have to use special software (2 most common are Nero and Adaptec Easy CD Creator).
 
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