Desktops: Do home pc's need two CD/DVD +/- r /rw
Do home pc's need two CD/DVD +/- r /rw
by gflash128 - 11/25/06 4:59 PMHi Forum readers!
I have bought a dell dimension E520 Pentium® D Processor 805 with Dual Core Technology (2.66GHz, 533FSB), Genuine Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition, upgraded memory to 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs and a 13 in 1 Media Card Reader. This computer is configured with a 48X CD-RW/ DVD Combo Drive.
Why is there only one CD etc. drive and not two? Am I missing something? Is there newer technology that does not require the use of two drives to burn? And could you comment on speed, I have Cable service.
Any Help?
Gordon
$ signs.
by R. Proffitt
- 11/25/06 5:42 PM
In reply to: Do home pc's need two CD/DVD +/- r /rw by gflash128
Nothing I know of requires 2 CD/DVD recorders. However if we reach back in time we remember we would fit 2 floppy drives for convenience after the price of such drives dropped. For the majority of users the dollars for this convenience is an issue.
You can always fit the second drive if you wish.
Bob
Combo Drive?
by gflash128 - 11/25/06 5:49 PM In reply to: $ signs. by R. Proffitt
Hi Again,
I'm learning that my CD+/-rw/DVD Combo Drive does not burn DVD's. From your experience is this true and what if any is the impact.
Thanks for the help
Gordon
Impact? None at all. . .
by Coryphaeus - 11/25/06 5:58 PM In reply to: Combo Drive? by gflash128As Bob said, two drives cost money.
If you only want to burn CDs and watch DVDs, you have all you need. But if you want to burn DVDs, a new DVD burner is dirt cheap now. I have a dual layer DVD burner (I use mine for data only) and a CD burner in my system. There's nothing I can't do.
Wayne
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Having a separate CD-DVD burner makes life a little easier
by VAPCMD - 11/25/06 7:20 PM In reply to: Combo Drive? by gflash128For example...if you want to make a copy of your music disc for your car (I keep the original in the house use the copy on the car) it's much easier to put the original in one drive and blank disc in the second drive, start the copy process and do something else for a moment or two. And a CD-DVD Dual Layer burner allows you to back up much much more per disc whether it's home videos or system backups.
For me...they're just too cheap ($30-$40) not to have two....your $, your time, your call.
Hope this helps.
VAPCMD
CD-RW/DVD
by MarkFlax - 12/1/06 3:38 AM
In reply to: Combo Drive? by gflash128
A strange combination to me. Usually you would see a combo CD/DVD-R/RW, eg it would read/write CD's and DVD's.
It's unfortunate that your combo doesn't RW to DVD's as well as CD's, as DVD disks have much more storage space on them than CD's.
It depends what you intend to do with your computer, but as people here say, combo's that RW to both CD/DVD are fairly cheap now, and you may benefit from adding one.
Mark
Technology marches on...
by Willy - 11/26/06 8:04 AM In reply to: Do home pc's need two CD/DVD +/- r /rw by gflash128You answered you're own question: you said, '48X CD-RW/ DVD Combo Drive'. That alone is the reason for singular CD drives. In the past, CD drives just read disks, then they could burn to disk, then DVD got in, and too they offered read only then burner. Now, its a combo drive. Of course, you install a physical 2nd int. drive if space aloows and/or ext. port allows it.
tada -----Willy 
a New DELL E520..
by castingRod47 - 12/1/06 3:24 AM In reply to: Do home pc's need two CD/DVD +/- r /rw by gflash128Sounds great..you have what's real good for starts..since you went w/MS Media Edition I quess your going for DVD-movies..
..Yes..one DVD-drive is not real helpful..what's next..I went w/CREATIVE Audigy 2ZS..the IEEE1394 FireWire connects to my SONY DRU-720UL Drive..SONY iLINK..then I have a TOSHIBA-Combo Drive(dash)Format..and a DELL Combo Drive contained in my TOWER..NERO 7 Ultra Edition does favor a COPY from Drive to Drive..So I would say YES..get an External Drive(use a FireWire)..and get DL..the SONY DRU-720UL is nice..1-GB of RAM/I'm wondering about an UpGrade in RAM(I use 512MB)always have-never a problem..I think the DVD-drive these days is a DUAL-format/both/PLUS..DASH formats..but you might want a Dedicated format..Dash or Plus..who knows..??My TOSHIBA is a DASH-drive(NERO 7)likes the PLUS DVD format..ROXIO was good on DASH formats..maybe things are differant at ROXIO(don't know)..I miss my FLOPPY Drive at least once per week..if your 2.0 USB equiped/go External..My Cheap DELL B110/1100-series is not real good at the USB level..but my D915GAGL(selfBuilt)is excellent at the 2.0 USB option..I would say-YES.....you need twoDRIVES..get an External BURNER(DL).
Miss your floppy
by pacollins - 12/1/06 5:42 AM In reply to: a New DELL E520.. by castingRod47If you miss your floopy drive why don't you get a USB flash drive and use it like a floopy? They are also dirt cheap now.
DIRT CHEAP
by TheDifferent1s - 12/2/06 7:18 AM In reply to: Miss your floppy by pacollinsHave you seen the price of dirt lately~! ? I had to cut back on my bags of Potting Soil.
Floppy-yes
by castingRod47 - 12/3/06 1:06 PM In reply to: Miss your floppy by pacollinsI do have a SANDisk Cruzer mini 256MB...and I placed an old FLOPPY Drive from my DELL Dim. 2350 into my DELL B110/1100 series this morning..I also pulled the DVD-combo Drive from the DELL B110/1100 series and replaced it w/DELL CD-ROM from the DELL 2350..useing the DVD-combo into my PC-build(D915GAGL)..so now the D915GAGL has a TOSHIBA(dash)Drive and a DELL DVD+ - Drive..and the External SONY iLINK[IEEE1394]DRU-720UL Burner(DL)..I've used all these drive this week and all perform just great..even was able to make a DASH-DVD movie from NERO 7 Ultra Edition..<<---that's a first.
No, you don't NEED two burners....
by gkamer - 12/1/06 6:19 AM In reply to: Do home pc's need two CD/DVD +/- r /rw by gflash128gflash,
The delevlopement of cd technology was incremental. The first cd players were slow and cost an arm and a leg. But like everything else, as the technology developed, it got better and the price dropped.
It started with slow cd players. Than the speed got better. Than the players also became burners. I can remember one of my first cd burners was about a 16x speed burner that cost about $250.00.
Next along came dvd players. These than cost an arm and a leg. As the techynology progressed, the cd player was mated with the dvd player for an all in one package. Finally they came out with a combo cd player/burner dvd player.
Now you can get both a cd/dvd player/buners combo if you want to spend the extra money, which is not all the considerable. The lastest advancement right now is the dual layer dvd burner. These are just ball park figures, but a standard cd disk can hold about 620 meg of data. A standard dvd disk can hold 4.6 gig of data and a dual layer dvd disk can hold about double the stnadard dvd disk capacity.
Currently, with a cd/dvd combo burner, the software your using to do the burn copies the data of the disk you want to burn to your hard drive. Once the copy is done your prompted to insert the blank cd/dvd disk and the data is then burned from the hard drive back to the burner and onto the disk.
If you elected to invest in a 2nd cd/dvd burner, you could insert the disk containing the data you wanted to burn into one of them and a blank disk into the other and burn directly from one to the other.
So in answer to your question, do you NEED to have 2? No you dont. Would you WANT to have 2 or would it be NICE to have 2? Well only you can answer that. But when you consider the low prices of these units, and the fact that your current system will not allow you to burn dvd's I would recommend you take the plunge.
yeah, it's optional, but has it's pros and cons
by ackmondual - 12/1/06 11:32 AM In reply to: Do home pc's need two CD/DVD +/- r /rw by gflash128Since many prev posts alr covered some good points, here are some further notes:
U mentioned you have a home PC. Keep in mind home doesn't necessarily imply desktop. Many have made laptops the primary/only PC at home. In that case, most laptops do not have the space to accomodate 2 optical drives, so in their case, they'd need to decide on shooting for a more expensive combo drive that does much more or a cheap, more essentials only functionality.
an even more minute issue, IT folk recommend reading discs from the ROM drive only as opposed to also the burner drive as well. You get best results doing so
No, I build computers with one combo drive.
by RandyWill - 12/1/06 10:44 PM In reply to: Do home pc's need two CD/DVD +/- r /rw by gflash128You can get a combo good drive for about $40, from Newegg, Tiger, etc. They can read and burn CD-R/RW, DVD+R/-R/DL. You just want to make sure you have a big enough hardrive to copy from one disc to another. The burning software will have the drive read the disc and copy it to the hardrive, then the disc will eject and you will be prompted to put in a blank disc to burn what was copied to the hardrive. I used to have two drives before there were combo drives, I just prefer using a single combo drive.
(NT) No.
by Ryo Hazuki - 12/2/06 7:35 AM In reply to: Do home pc's need two CD/DVD +/- r /rw by gflash128
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