Need advice on Internal DVD/Cdrom Combo drives

I am getting a new computer. I need to know what drive(S) to get if I
want to burn and read both a dvd and cdrom.I have heard of combo drives
but do they burn and read both types of media? Also do these drives take
up 1 or 2 5 1/4 slots in the computer? Lastly, what speeds are these drives?

Thanks in advance,

BS

"barb" <> wrote in message
news:1M3hh.2304$JL5.12@trndny03...

> I am getting a new computer. I need to know what drive(S) to get if I
> want to burn and read both a dvd and cdrom.I have heard of combo drives
> but do they burn and read both types of media? Also do these drives take
> up 1 or 2 5 1/4 slots in the computer? Lastly, what speeds are these
drives?

Go on line to the web sites of either retail vendors
or manufacturers of computers you are likely to
buy. You may be guided by either brand name
or the Operating System you plan to use. You
will usually find modern DVD drives
1. can read and write several types of CD (video
or data or audio) but not all. Technical information
for each model of drive lists all the "media" it can
read or write.
2. fill one full-size bay in the PC case. (Laptop
CD drives are even thinner.)
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

On Sun, 2006-12-17 at 04:33 +0000, barb wrote:
> I am getting a new computer. I need to know what drive(S) to get if I
> want to burn and read both a dvd and cdrom.I have heard of combo drives
> but do they burn and read both types of media? Also do these drives take
> up 1 or 2 5 1/4 slots in the computer? Lastly, what speeds are these drives?
>
> Thanks in advance,

You can get combination drive that does everything.
It takes up one slot and has the same number of cables etc.

If you want to copy media, then you save a copy on your hard drive and
then change disks to write the copy. There is software that does this,
but hides the details from you. If you do a lot of this then you need
two drives.

Speeds vary - fast for read and quite slow for write.
But CD's and DVD's do not have a constant speed profile - they transfer
faster at the outer edge than they do near the axis. So all this speed
thing is a bit fake. You tend to get what you pay for.

--
Jeremy Boden