CD drives, who needs them?

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Sat Jul 06, 2002 10:32 pm

Is there any reason to buy a CD drive Now adays?
Will they soon be going the way of the floppy drives and 28,800 modems?

I was just looking at Cd writers, brand new 32x 12x 40x for only $64! Why pay $30 for just a reader that does nothing else?

DVD drives read Cd's also, 16x for $42!

Are they even still making regular Cd drives, or just blowing out existing stock?

Unfortunately there is still a need for the obsolete 1.44 floppy drives! Just the other day I had to re-install my network drivers, and yes they were on a floppy! Also had to fix a system that would not read the cd drives, Had to boot from a floppy to get to the cd to re-install windows for the guy.

But with the price of DVD drives and CD writers get down so close to the cost of a cd drive, is there any reason to even use a plain drive now?

I know I was using one for a long time, simply to not wear out my expensive writer and dvd player, but now it's like why waist the space and ide conector if you are building a system or upgrading one?

Of course if you already have one or more cd drives, use them. I just mean the reasoning behind buying new ones, is there a reason?

canton_kid

Schwartz · Post by **Schwartz** » Sat Jul 06, 2002 10:44 pm

I have a Kenwood 72x that I hold on to and use all the time. From what I hear those dirves either were great for people or sucked for people. I got lucky I guess.

If I had to buy a new drive unless there was a CD only drive that was signifiantly faster than other drives ala the Kenwood I would just buy a DVD drive.

I think it is high time publishers pull their heads out of their asses and start publishing games on DVD. Look at the difference in cinematics on Xbox or PS2 games vs a PC. That is reason enough.

I have Warcraft 3 and it came with the cinematics on a separate DVD in the collectors edition. It is a shame that the game was not on a DVD so those cinematics could be used in the game instead of the pixelated crap that is used.

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Sat Jul 06, 2002 11:27 pm

Where can you get warcraft 3 and how much is it going for?

I too would probably want the collector set/edition. THAT is the only game I really got into. I have had Warcraft 1 II and battle net, but I never liked playing online with battle net.

I just saw the other day a comercail of some type said it was supposed to be released this month, though I thought it was already out. I haven't found it, but I live in the sticks!!

Is it like warcraft has always been, or is this getting into a more one warrior aspect like Diablo?

I saw the preview demo long ago, and it looked like it was leaning towards Diablo, one big warior hero type game instead of the group warfare of take out large forces and attack from all sides at once!

I saw something about having 4 races now instead of just Orcs and Humans.

I agree they should start shipping on dvd instead of Cd's. Not everyone has DVD players yet though, and older systems may never get upgraded to them. So being they want the largest market they can get I expect it will be awhile before they do away with the CD's from the manufactorers. I don't think there is any reason to BUY a cd drive though since CD's play in DVD drives. And I've been seeing more and more CD writers that play DVD's too.

Now what we need is simply to come out with a drive that plays everything and records everything for about $99. One drive that does everything, and there is no reason other than marketing and profits that they cannot do that! More profits in selling old technology cheaper and New technology at bloated prices! Always has been that way and always will be.

canton_kid

Schwartz · Post by **Schwartz** » Sun Jul 07, 2002 12:09 am

To tell you the truth I have never played any of the other games in the Warcraft series so I don't know how they compare. There are units called heroes in the game and they must survive in certain missions. It is like most RTS games though, you need to gather resources and create units. There are 4 races, Human, Orc, Undead, and Night Elves. I have been playing the single player campaings and am almost through the Undead campaign. I got the game here:

http://www.ebgames.com/

Madness_Reigns · Post by **Madness_Reigns** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 3:47 pm

I agree they should start shipping on dvd instead of Cd's. Not everyone has DVD players yet though, and older systems may never get upgraded to them. So being they want the largest market they can get I expect it will be awhile before they do away with the CD's from the manufactorers.

That shouldn't stop them. And that never has. You probably don't remember the days when it used to be a big deal when a game REQUIRED a 3D graphics card. Now a 3d card is pretty much standard.
Heck, I even remember when I had to return a game because it required a mouse. Yes, I didn't have a mouse. I also remember when some games started to require Windows95.
All of these occurances propelled me to:
Buy a voodoo 3d card.
Buy a mouse.
Upgrade DOS to Win95.

I don't have a DVD player on any of my computers. Why? I don't need one. How anybody can or would sit there and watch a movie on their computer is beyond me.

If a game I wanted to play came out on DVD only...I'd get one. That's just the way it is.

surffguyy501 · Post by **surffguyy501** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 8:24 pm

ummmm....

I don't buy anything new until the old stuff is so obsolete it starts
messing up my work and costing me money.

(How is it that one day you're young and hip, and the next minute you've turned
into a crochety old pragmatist???? I wonder when it happened......)

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 8:26 pm

Frankly I think all standard CD's on new systems should be CD/DVD Players AND CD-RW. Crap, it's not THAT much more expensive to make one of those with the current state of technology.

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Tue Jul 09, 2002 11:04 pm

Yes I remember the good old days!

My first system was 4.77 mhz! It was a good system, but I kinda got ripped when I bought it. Once I had some computer friends and a modem (300 baud) I found out About the new state of the art 8 mhz AT clones! Lets see whats that modem in todays terms? .3K, or .03K

Don't remember a mouse, might have had one though, I did have 364k ram!! System came with with a 3.5 Floppie drive, don't recall if it was 720k or 1.44, I did buy an external also, got tired of swapping disks so much, couldn't buy a harddrive for it! I am pretty sure both floppies were 720k!

Anyone remember the NEW 1.44 floppy disk for $2.00 each? Punch a whole in a 720k disk and you had the same thing for 50 cents! For $20 or so you could even buy a device to put the whole like a paper puch so the hole was lined up in the right spot! Never bought that myself though.

As for watching TV on a computer?
Well I since I do a little video capture and editing I have too

I found that some things are so much clearer and detailed, and much better color too sometimes.
Now I am comparing a 17" KDS Xtreme Flat to a 19" 12yr old tv too! We're just not that much into TV and Movies here for the new expensive stuff yet, but soon I am buying all new stuff.

The VHS is about 7 yrs old my best geuss. I was playing with my capture card while the kid was watching a cartoon one day. The color on the monitor was so clear and rich compared to the TV! Tv was playing well, but a tv with TV quality dots and color. Monitor was like looking into a bucket of paint!
Straight pure color!

To put it another way, Tv looked like I was watching it through a window screen while the monitor looked like Painted Glass!!

All I have for a DVD player is the drive in the computer, so after getting a great deal on ebay for a couple dvd's for my kid, well you know where we watched them! Gonna buy her a DVD unit for the tv when she comes back home, gone visting for summer now.

Gonna start a new post, "one sytem or Two?" about TV, Stereo, Computers also.

canton_kid

Lostman · Post by **Lostman** » Thu Jul 11, 2002 10:19 am

Originally posted by Madness_Reigns
If a game I wanted to play came out on DVD only...I'd get one. That's just the way it is.

I'm with you. I have a tv to watch my DVD's on. Untill it becomes a standard I'll spend the $50 - $60 on something else.

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Thu Jul 11, 2002 10:39 am

Originally posted by Madness_Reigns
I don't have a DVD player on any of my computers. Why? I don't need one. How anybody can or would sit there and watch a movie on their computer is beyond me.

I'll agree with you there about watching a movie, but I have a DvD player on my PC for several reasons:
1. With a DvD player, I'm able to rip movie DvD's into SVCD or VCD.
2. You can use your DvD player as a CD-ROM reader to install software if your standard CD-ROM reader or burner has problems.

Slugbait · Post by **Slugbait** » Thu Jul 11, 2002 4:56 pm

I just bought a Plextor 40TSi about two months ago. But that's primarily cuz I love speed.

I still have my old Sony 5x DVD. I've got a couple of DVD games, been thinking about getting Encarta, and sometimes there's nothing good to watch on TV, so I pop in a movie while I'm working on a website or surfing.

I have an HP 9200i for burning. At 8x/4x/32x, it's slow compared to current burners, but it won't burn coasters while playing Castle Wolfenstein. Also, it's apparently not really 32x read, my Plextor beats the snot out of it when it comes to ripping my albums or installing apps...definitely more than an 8x difference in speed.

I love my floppy drive. I use it with a boot disc when it's time to format and either rebuild or drop an image. Also great for files under 1.44 megs...why burn a CD for a couple of files from the office?

The parallel port and the serial ports, on the other hand, are really the only "obsolete" devices in my system, as far as I'm concerned. Both are disabled in the BIOS, which frees up a couple of IRQs, and I understand there's also about a 5% increase in system performance when you do that...