is there any point in a CD ROM?

[ability]

I was wondering, with all the DVD RW and CD RW drives, is there really a point to have a CD ROM anymore? if you can afford both a DVD RW and a CD RW drive, i just don't see the point

 

[ts3433]

Sometimes game copy protection doesn't play nice with burners and decides to make the game not work.

 

[Baked]

No. If you want a reader, buy a DVD-ROM.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Combine the two posts above 🙂 : you want DVD-ROM but not one that is also a CD burner. Get one "pure reader," and one DVD burner (Nec 3500a/3520a are the current favorites)

 

[coejus]

I haven't seen a plain CD-ROM for sale in quite a while.

Of course, there's no reason to look.

 

[funggorgor]

yes
thats a point in a CD Rom Drive
after i burn a cd-r disk, you may do a read test by CD Rom drive

 

[ponyo]

For majority of the people, I don't see the point of having multiple drives. One DVD burner is good enough for everything. If it wears out and dies, simply replace it.

 

[Dravic]

Originally posted by: Naustica
For majority of the people, I don't see the point of having multiple drives. One DVD burner is good enough for everything. If it wears out and dies, simply replace it.

Many dvd writers, unless hacked, wont read a dvd-rom any faster then 2x speed. An artificial limit put in to help slow down ripping.

A solid 16x dvd-rom (lite-on 166s) in nice to have for ripping/reading faster then a writer might. It will also allow you to copy/backup on the fly, saving you the time of ripping to disk, then writing to media. unless of course your decrypting in the middle.

 

[Zepper]

CD-ROM, NO! DVD-ROM, YES!
.bh.

 

[techwanabe]

Yes,

1) Redunancy - if one drive dies, you have a 2nd one to get you by.

2) You can copy on the fly without reading the entire disk contents to memory first

3) Games CP issues sometimes

The ideal setup these days has a DVD reader and a DVD burner, both backwards compatable to CD's.

 

[BOLt]

Right you are on all counts, techwanabe. I like Lite-On's 167T DVD-ROM drive, unfortunately, it is in white and black only, but it is a highly rated, very solid DVD-ROM drive, nonetheless.

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: BOLt
Right you are on all counts, techwanabe. I like Lite-On's 167T DVD-ROM drive, unfortunately, it is in white and black only, but it is a highly rated, very solid DVD-ROM drive, nonetheless.

Good point BOLt,

My newest PC, the Dell Dim 8400 only has a DVD-RW drive because of my budget goals when configuring it. I do need to add a 2nd drive to it for the reasons above - so the LiteOn drive will fit that bill nicely.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: coejus
I haven't seen a plain CD-ROM for sale in quite a while.

Of course, there's no reason to look.

I still buy them for work all the time.
90% of the people here would not even know how to operate a burner, let alone use it.
DVD-ROMs might be nice for future software on DVD, we JUST started using only DVD-ROMs in current systems. but CD-ROM's are still good for a budget system without need for anything else, however for a power user, combine a DVDRW and DVDROM together to do everything.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Most people will recommend pairing a writer drive with a vanilla DVD-ROM drive at a bare minimum.

When I build my first system about 4 years ago, I purchased a Kenwood 72x CD-ROM and a Plextor CDR/RW drive...while my Plextor has since upgrade to a DVD+RW PLEXTOR PX-504A , my Kenwood CD-ROM has been a staple component of every one of my systems.

I dont burn a lot of CDs and only got the DVD writer so I can transfer old home movies from VHS to DVD.

Really depends on what you intend using the drives for...my Kenwood 72x is dedicated to gaming, and while people have been saying for years that games will ultimately transfer over to DVDs, they are still shipping on CD-ROMs.