DVD/CD-RW Combo

[Roch]

Hi all
I was wondering if anyone out there had any opinions (good or otherwise) on using a single combination DVD/CD-RW drive as opposed to seperate drives. I'm inclined to have a single unit as it only takes up 1 5" bay, (i'm hoping to go for 2 HD's within a midi tower and thought space between the Hard Drives would be a good idea) though no one seems to use / talk about them. any comments would be appreciated.

 

[lhgpoobaa]

Well weigh up the pros and cons:

PROS:
Possibly cheaper than buying 2 seperate drives
Saves space, good for small towers / laptops.
Lower power consumption
uses only 1 IDE spot


CONS:
Cannot do on the fly copying from one to the other,
Slower than dedicated drives
May be less good copying specialised things like copy protected CD's.

In this situation, the main thing is the slower speed. Combo CD/CD-RW/DVD drives ARE signficantly slower than specialised ones. Can you live with those speeds?

<b><i>The Very Hungry Caterpillar</i> - George W. Bush's favorite childhood book.
Note: This book was first published a year after Mr Bush graduated from College.</b>
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by lhgpoobaa on 01/09/03 09:06 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[AndrewT]

add... when one die the other goes with it

<b><font color=blue>Press 1 if you want to be on hold, 2 for disconnect, 3 for a representative who will put you on hold before disconnecting.</font color=blue></b>

 

[Roch]

Thanks for the replies. I think I can live with slow(ish) copying as i'll mostly be using it for gaming and don't intend to do any heavy duty stuff. Anyone know of a specific unit that's good? Being vain and fussy i'd like something black and possibly slot loading. Any suggestions would be fantastic.

 

[Spitfire_x86]

There's a Comobo Drive for you- Samsung SM-348B (48x/24x/48x/16x) It's as fast as a LiteOn DVD-ROM and LiteOn CD-RW. Read <A HREF="http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=164" target="_new"> CDRlabs review </A>on this drive

<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/community/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=26708#26708" target="_new"> Go to my CPU Vendor Poll </A><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Spitfire_x86 on 01/10/03 08:09 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[lhgpoobaa]

Impresive! I stand corrected.

<b><i>The Very Hungry Caterpillar</i> - George W. Bush's favorite childhood book.
Note: This book was first published a year after Mr Bush graduated from College.</b>

 

[phsstpok]

Yup, Samsung has been making a lot of headway. Their previous combo drive was the best in it's time but this latest one blows even that one away. Definitely the choice for people with limited drive bays, especially those with OEM systems which have only one drive bay.



<b>99% is great, unless you are talking about system stability</b>