Question about optical drives

Solution
Retail software and games come on Discs so you need a DVD or Bluray drive to read it. You don't need one if you only install software from the internet or USB drive.

c_for

Distinguished
Oct 13, 2010
129
0
18,710
Are you buying a computer or planning on building one?
If you are buying one then your operating system(windows) will likely already be installed so you would not "NEED" one. Especially seeing as how most programs can be bought online and downloaded with a decent internet connection.
If you are building one and plan on using windows then you will have to hook one up to install windows since windows can only be found on dvd(I may be wrong). You could however unplug and remove the optical drive after everything is installed.

However, optical drives are so cheap these days that there is little reason to not have one. Especially seeing as how almost any computer program you buy at a physical store will come on a cd/dvd. If you just don't want one because of the aesthetic value you could always get a portable dvd drive that you could hook up only when it was needed.
 

JA_MC365

Honorable
Apr 22, 2013
14
0
10,510
wait, so computers automatically come with disc holder things so you can watch movies and such??? or am I getting this all wrong and thats what a optical drive is?
 

popatim

Titan
Moderator
some computers come with optical drives and some don't. If you want one so that you can throw a movie in and watch it then you'd better make sure you get one. remember you can always get an external optical drive and hook it up when you need it.