|
|
What CD-RW is Right For You?Jan 23 '00 (Updated Mar 22 '00) Write an essay on this topic.Are you interested in purchasing a CD-Rewritable drive? Trying to figure out which one is the best for you? Have a certain amount of cash and want to get the most for your money? Let's try to figure out whats best for you.. by asking a few questions.. Necessity: Do you really need a CD-Rewritable drive? Do you know what it does? A cd-rw is a drive that, using special media (not your run of the mill blank cd, but rather a cd-rw cd which costs a few more dollars), can write and re-write. What would be the benefit of this? Well, let's say you're one that doesn't have much space on your computer and likes to save data. Well, you can use these cd-rw discs to write to, and .. when you no longer need the information on the cd, you can erase it and store new information on it. Most people don't benefit much from this unless you're one that doesn't have much permanent data and instead has a lot of temporary data which you might need to store in a temporary location. Things to realize are that the cd-rw drives will record onto regular blanks but those blanks can not be re-written to, since the cd-rw feature is exclusive only to the cd-rw media (usually 4-6 dollars, as compared to a dollar for blanks, on average). Speed: Do you want the fastest cdrw (hefty price to pay) or can you handle getting perhaps a 2x or 4x rw. They have 8x rw now and makin 12x too.. so I think its up to you, for a comparison.. 2x takes around half an hour, 4x takes 15 mins, 8x is like 7-8 mins.. so .. what does speed really matter that much? (you jump a hundred or so bucks from 4x to 8x) Quality: Plextor, Yamaha.. or do you want Acer or Sony. Plex and Yamaha have some of the best cd-rw's out there.. They do cost anywhere from 200-400 dollars depending, but the cheaper ones can be purchased for under 300 dollars. Whats your pocketbook looking like? Reliability: Goes hand in hand with quality.. the cheaper the cdrw, the more likely you're going to have problems earlier in the lifespan. You have to realize that what you are purchasing is a laser which burns information onto a cd.. this laser will eventually burn out and the motor will be worthless.. its unavoidable.. it will happen.. regardless of what you do.. now what you can do to avoid this happening quick is to purchase a better brand name.. you will not be let down.. they usually have a good warranty attached to their name. Plex and Yamaha have a few year warranties.. Overall: So, if you have 400 bucks, buy a plex 8x cdrw.. if you have 200 bucks.. buy an acer or sony cdrw.. 2-4x.. thats pretty much what it comes down to.. I've included a great link below that will get you started in looking around for a good price for these drives. You may also wish to figure in 40-60 dollars for a SCSI card that some drives use. The Plextor and Yamaha's use this card, but also have versions that don't. The card merely plugs into your motherboard. Then you can plug your drive into the card. Just another device in between your drive and your motherboard. Take your money, spend it wisely on something you're going to use. If you're really not going to use the drive much but want the luxury, you might want to consider purchasing a lower end drive. If you're more of an avid data transferrer or perhaps you make your own music and want to sell it, you might want to chip in a few extra dollars and purchase the higher-end models, it'll definitely be worth it in the long run. http://www.pricewatch.com  |
| Read all comments (3)|Write your own comment |
|
Ads by Google
|
