Opinion...CD drive vs DVD drive

[Bovon]

The widow of my bro-in-law has my old backup SS7 machine. I had put a Toshiba CDR drive it, and now..it is failing to read home burned CDs..it still reads commercial disks however.. IMO the laser is on its way out, and I will just buy a new unit and ship it to them..most anybody mechanical minded can swap out a CD type drive with a few instructions.

My question is... I know little about a DVD drive..I realize it will do everything a CD drive will...and more, but at a cost.

I just looked at Newegg, and a NEC CD drive is $17 bucks, the NEC DVD drive is $31 bucks.

I am not a cheapskate, and will probably just get a DVD (not necessarily the NEC however).. I just would like to know if a DVD drive is that much better than a CD drive?..are they better constructed?.. Lasers have been a very weak part of CD drives for a long time.. are they of a better class in the newer DVDs?..

Whatever I send them I would like for it to last awhile..but, I don't think the lady would use the drive for movies etc as a DVD was designed for. In other-words, what I want to give her will hopefully have better longevity than the 2 ~ 3 year use of a CD Rom drive has been providing.

[MJCfromCT]

Bovon,

I don't know about how they are constructed, but i have used a dvd drive for all my cd applications over the past few years (installing games, ripping audio) and it hasn't given me any problems...i'd say that if she will use the dvd drive a lot, whether it be for watching movies or dvd-rom discs, get that one...if she will utilize it less, it would be more of a toss up

[fishybawb]

In my experience DVD-ROMs don't have a longer lifespan than their CD-ROM cousins - if she's not going to watch DVDs then it's a bit of a waste of money. A quality CD-ROM'll do the job, although I'd advise against NEC, I've had problems with both of the drives I bought less than 12 months ago. Something by Sony or Pioneer would be good

[herosrest]

Unfortunatly it is not uncommon for cd's 'particularly older models' to have problems reading home burnt stuff. Some they do- some they don't. I never bothered going into it but that is my experience.

[Billforce]

I continually replace CDrom drives in customers machines that have taken a nose dive. It seems to follow a pattern i.e. almost all of the older 24X drives fail in a couple of years, some of the 48X are also failing rapidly. I disassemble most to see what went wrong and it is amazing the quality of some, total ****. Many are almost entirely plastic with a very few critical metal parts, others are seemingly well constructed. My own DVD drive died in 6 months (LG) but the one peculiar thing I have noticed is: I have NEVER had a writer fail, some are at least 5 years old, maybe they are built better. You might consider a economical (cheap) burner. I recently bought a couple of slower speed units (12X8X32) for $25.

[rangeral]

Agreed, cdroms don't have a long life, get a kid whose constantly gaming and they go in about a year normally. Don't buy acer or creative whereas a generic btc drive will last longer than those I mentioned.

[Bovon]

Billforce.. I kinda lean in that CDR vs CDRW direction myself. I have also been into both readers and burners.. I think maybe the laser assy in a burner might be of better quality..they have to work at a better level just to burn..more power to do that, so..it stands to reason they are different.

I have an extra Sony 4 X 8 X 32 Spressa around here someplace...caught several on a dutch auction last year and bought 5..one tested bad and I sent it back..the rest have been used in machines for others..I may just send her this extra Sony and see how that one goes.

I did mention that I am no cheapskate..but I also am on a fixed income, which is eternally going down into the bottomless pit...and I do not buy the top of the line stuff, nor buy stuff that a lesser item will do the job just as good.

I have a Toshiba in this machine that will need replacing one day..I now have to make sure the archived disks I have burned are squeaky clean..or they won't read..whereas, a year or so ago, you could put a coat of axel grease on one and the Toshiba would read right thru it (not quite..but almost, LOL)...sometimes now, I have to use the burner to read archived disks.

Thanks rangeral for the thoughts on which ones to lookout for..now, if I do decide to buy a DVD anyway..which one is good, at a fair price?...same question for a CD rom drive?..if I have already disposed of the Spressa, I will wind up buying her a drive of some kind..maybe even a used burner at eBay..donno.

[iceblue]

another thing is some DVD drives are much louder at reading regular CDs.

[$1500-P4 gamer]

Pioneer DVD 106S slot drive. Rock solid-fast and NO TRAY load. Easy for a women to use! Its just like a car cd player for pc. I love mine. Its over 6 months old still going strong too. No noise or anything creeping up. Ultra fast its even ata66 though it can fully use it of course. One note-use a ata 66 or 100 cable though or come pc's have problems downing it back to ata33 and then dont pik up cd till cable is right. Had that on a asus P4pe mobo once. But a simple ata 66 cable and all was fine! Most say the Pioneers last a super long time. BPB recomended this one to me a long ways back and Ive never been dissapointed with it. THanks BPB- my bro has one now and mos tmy friends too. They are just to good to resist at the price.

[Bovon]

Uhh ohh..glad you mentioned cables $1500-P4 gamer. I do believe the ribbon cables in that machine are 40 wire ATA 33..and there is no way she would tackle changing out the cable..if I can talk her into replacing the drive only will be a miracle... I copied several pics from the net, a CD drive..front and rear, a psu showing the power socket ends and an IDE cable. Put each image in PSP and made notes with arrows etc.. and placed each image in an email with notes...so, after she has a chance to look at that..maybe she can decide if she will tackle the change out.

Attached here is the rear view of the CD drive with notes...