Zip Disks vs. CD RWs: A Boring Comparison
Dec 02 '01
The Bottom Line This was more of a comparison between CD-RWs and Zip drives, and burners are better on every level. Inside - read why!!
Here at school, just as in all parts of the country and some areas of Zimbabwe, there is a unique subculture of guys who have nice cars – cars which they then make nicer by ‘pimping them out’ with things such as rims, body kits, and Garfield window decorations. I have a Jeep which, while being a fine truck and all, is not a viable candidate for pimping. Subsequently, I had but one choice:
I pimped out my computer.
It started little, with a few cool programs here and there. Then, as money allowed, I got into peripherals – the scanner, the web cam; you know, the usual deal. A CD burner soon followed, as well as more RAM and a new video card. Then, most recently, a 100 meg zip drive. Where’s this leave me? In a position to slew off a ridiculous string of computer-nerd-jargon, somewhere in the realm of 800-mhz-pIII-384-megs-30gigs-64-meg-video-card-with-tv-out-8-usb-ports-I-am-pathetic. Ironically, it would also leave me with no friends.
You might note, now, that I did indeed list both a CD burner and a zip drive. It might seem a bit redundant – both being removable storage, that is – but the Zip drive was necessary for my computer design class. You see, they use Macs for design, and the files are often very large. These Macs, however, did not have burners. So I’d burn myself a CD, but couldn’t save any work. Naturally, the Zip-toting Macs forced me into getting a Zip drive m’self, and then downloading some crazy program that lets them read both PC and Mac. What a damn hassle.
So now, after a semester of using both the burner and the Zip, which do I prefer? The burner, hands down, for a million reasons. In fact, I can’t think of one advantage to a zip, except maybe damage resistance.
Space
My Zip is 100 megs. New CDs are 700 megs. The little Pac-man-mouth lesser-than sign is ‘eating’ to the right on that one, folks.
Cost
My Zip disk cost $10, the commies. My CD spindle was free after rebates (but we’ll assume $20 for 100 discs, or $0.20 per CD.)
The Math
That means you pay $0.10 per meg on a zip, and $0.000286 per meg on CD. If those were gas prices, I’d be goin’ for the cheap shiznit at the CD station, I can tell you that.
Cost issues aside, I think CDs are more practical – you can use ‘em for data, audio, etc, as well as more common – if you burn a CD, you know that any computer will (they better by now) have a CD drive to read it on. However, you get no such guarantee with a Zip drive.
Some articles have cited the fact that Zip drives are usually external, so you can take the whole damn drive wherever you go. True, but you can do the same with a CD burner. No points awarded for that notion.
I guess, ultimately, I don’t see any point at all to own a Zip drive, unless you’re in the same circumstances I was. Zip drives sometimes have their place, but like a mouse in a muumuu, they usually just don’t fit.
I got very bored with this obviously one-sided comparison near the end. I’m gonna’ go have a taco.
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Epinions.com ID:
Sneil_IV
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Member: Neil Janowitz
Location: Rochester, NY
Reviews written: 93
Trusted by: 192 members
About Me:
Holy halibut, weekly humor columns at www.neiljanowitz.com . Join the mailing list, son.
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