6 Things to Consider Before Buying A Cd-WriterJan 23 '00 Write an essay on this topic.Here are 6 things to consider before you buy a CD-R or CD-RW drive. You need to consider what your needs are as you consider the following aspects of a drive. 1. Price - What can you afford to spend? How much is the drive worth to you? It wasn't too long ago when the average CD-RW drive cost $300 or more but prices are falling quickly. I wouldn't recommend spending more than $150 on a drive. I predict that in a few month drives will drop significantly in price so you will be better off waiting until they become a little more affordable. 2. Speed - This closely relates to how much you are going to spend as the higher the speed, the higher the price will be. For most people a 2X writing speed should be fine. To write a 1 hour cd, it will take you 30 minutes. If you, however, forsee yourself writing many cds, and are a very impatient person, you may want to pay a little extra for a 4x or 8X drive. 3. Software - Does the drive include the software that you will need to fully take advantage of the drive? If it doesn't you may find yourself dishing out another $100 to buy a cd writing program such as Adaptec Easy Cd Creator or the like. 4. Requirements - Does your home system meet the requirements needed by the drive? Most drives will require windows 95, a pentium class CPU, 16 MB RAM, and at least a 1 GIG hard drive. You could get by with a smaller hard drive but to create an audio cd, disc at once (the whole cd at a time), you will need about 800 mb of free disc space. If your system doesn't meet the requirements, you should hold off on buying a drive as new computers are starting to come with them built in now. 5. Technical Support - Does the manufacturer provide a manual? Do they have a number you can call if something goes wrong with the drive? What does the warranty cover and how long does it last? If you buy a CD- Writer from a 2nd party (like on an online auction site), it will be alot cheaper but you may not be covered by the warranty. If buy the drive used, make sure that you are buying it from a trustworthy person. You don't want your drive to arrive inoperable and have no warranty to cover it. 6. CD-RW vs. CD-R - CD-RW drives allow you to rewrite one disc many times. This is great for things like data back-up which you may need to do periodically but not keep long term. CD-R's on the other hand can only be written once and once they are written, you can not rewrite them. CD-R's are compatible with any CD-ROM drive or CD-Player for audio cds, where CD-RW can only be played back in a CD-RW drive. CD-RW media cost a little more than CD-R's and CD-RW drives cost a little bit more than CD-R drives. If you find that the rewritable feature will be useful to you, then a CD-RW will be your best bet. In general CD-RW also function as CD-R drives as well. If you buy a CD-R only drive though, it will be a little less expensive. These drives can be very useful for data back up and very handy for creating your own audio cds from other cds, tapes, vinyls, etc. For many people, I think that a CD-RW or a CD-R drive will be well worth the money they spend, especially if they are careful to wait for a bargain whether it be a sale or a really great rebate.  |
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