Dvd - Rom

[achin]

I'm looking to purchase a DVD - ROM for my PC, any suggestions? Please provide models:cool:

[Mr.Tweak]

I use a Pioneer DVD drive - Fairly cheap and good quality.

[Beefy]

The Pioneer drives seem to be the way to go...

[Thoric]

a Pioneer 16x (40x CD Read) slot oem is around $145 AU...and i agree, they are good quality...!!!

[Maxpowers]

The one i got is the Pioneer slot w/o tray really nice its the newest one 16x... think its model 106 but not sure

[zeradul]

Can anyone give me a reason why a normal person would need a 16X cd-rom over a slower one?

The only situation I can think of is if you were ripping right into DIVX, or some other type of DVD piracy.

[Beefy]

i'll give you two things to think about:

1) DVD drives aren't just for DVD movies. Some people use it for file storage / programs. A good example is the latest Britannica Encyclopedia on DVD. Faster drive = faster loading time...

2) you said 'Can anyone give me a reason why a normal person would need a 16X cd-rom over a slower one?' (I'm assuming you meant DVD, not CD...)

Well, why would anyone need over a 8x CD drive? Unless they were ripping MP3s, or some other type of Audio piracy....? [/sarcasm]

[zeradul]

Ok, heh, so there's a few software titles... Come on now... File storage?? I said the average user.... someone without acess to a DVD burner...

For years now CD's have been the standard, DVD's have a few years to go yet before they begin to be. So having faster than an 8 X CD-rom is beneficial on a Daily basis! CD-Burners are also common place (and have been for quite a while)

I'm just saying spending alot for a 16 X DVD right now is dumb, when you can get a 4X really cheap.

And an Encyclopedia is currently the Only example.... It is still far cheaper for a company with a HUGE software title to burn off 3 CD-ROMS opposed to 1 DVD.... the encyclopedia is a bit different because of the disc changing factor. Other software titles just copy the wanted program files to the drive.

I didn't mean to imply that fast DVD drives can only be used for piracy, and in fact, when they are I am in favor of it ! What I meant was, doing that is one of the ONLY reasons to have that fast of one right now.

For the great great majority of people, a fast DVD is like having any expensive item that they rarely/never use, and it rarely/never saves them any time. The CD-rom comparrison is not the same, everything comes on CD-Rom, and almost everyone uses CD-s Very frequently. DVD's are simply not used for anything more than movies as it stands now. And so I can't imagine paying so much more for a feature that does so little for todays user.

[Beefy]

i agree with most of what you are saying there.. but why bother buying a slower DVD drive when the new, fast ones are still pretty darn cheap. It's like buying a Duron 800 when you could get an Athlon XP 2000+.. Sure, it does the same job (sort of) and it's a lot cheaper.. but it's just not as much fun.. It's the whole 'faster is better' mentality..

Also, for the file storage, it's not as far out as you think.. Sure, I don't have a DVD burner myself.. but i've got access to one at work, and have a friend who has one.. so burning DVDs for me is a very big option. I know most people probably won't have access to one yet.. but it will happen..

how about we just call a truce and leave it at that? :D

[JealousMidget]

Not meaning to interrupt your truce, but something else for the novice to think about. As graphics improve and eye candy is added you are going to need storage space. Some older games have been re-issued on DVD due to storage space. Riven comes to mind, because I own it. Originially issued, the game came on 5 cds. It was reissued later on a single DVD. I would have appreciated not having to swap disks. Medal of Honor is pretty graphically intense. It would never be acceptable to have to swap disks during a FPS game. To avoid this, you dump almost a Gig worth of data on you harddrive to avoid disk swapping. I would imagine that it would be favorable to many to only have to dump 100Mb or so of core files on their HD and read the rest from a disk, if they could count on decent loading speeds.

Just my $.02 :hammer:
JM

[Bahamut Zer0]

Buy the 16x dvd rom you povo *******

:p

Ok, all joking aside, you can pick em up rather cheap these days anyway. I own the Pioneer DVD-106s Slot load 16x DVD/40X CDROM model. (along with 99% of everybody else in the world- these drives are awesome)

I use it for audio ripping, dvd ripping, installing games, reading cds (duh) and well, anything bloody else i can think about doing.

I got the britannica on DVD and its bloody fantastic. Tonnes more content compared to the cd edition and it cost no more than the cd edition.

52x cdrom - $70
DVD - $130

the extra 60buks was well worth it. Because not only can I read dvd discs, the drive looks fruckin awesome. (slot load)
audio ripping speed of the dvd drive ive found is much faster and more reliable than the 52x cdrom. Better quality laser I guess.

As for dvd drive speed, well, its the same as comparing a 40x cdrom with a 52x cdrom drive.

[poormodder]

Just buy a 16x DVD rom. I got a lite-on DVD-ROM at Best buy last christmas for sbout 75 bucks. It came with PowerDVD 3.0.

[zeradul]

i agree with most of what you are saying there..

ok, so then we agree.. fair enough...


But now look at this, which drive looks sharper??

Pioneer DVD-106s Slot load 16x DVD/40X CDROM on the left, Asus on the right.

[Bahamut Zer0]

Why, the pioneer of course.
:)

[zeradul]

Hee hee....

hmm...
say no to crack!!

hehee