What do you think of CD/CDR/CDW/DVD combos?

[Nuno]

...this one in particular: http://samsungelectronics.com/produc...ive/sm304.html

I can get a good deal at it. I am about to buy a burner, but would including DVD be a good idea?

For what I can see: pros - It support win2k (checked MS site, drivers are in win2k cd), I only have one IDE channel free and I would like CDR and DVD.
Cons - Costs more than a 8x burner, it´s an all-in-one so if it goes bad cdr and dvd go bad, only(?) 4x DVD.

Any opinions? I´m going to buy it tomorrow - either that or a plain cdr/cdrw burner depending on your opinions...

[Brian R.]

If I were you, I would wait for Plextor or HP (or another high-quality brand) to build one. Don't buy the first available if you can help it.

MHO

[DosFreak]

Don't get it.

1. DVD/CDR combo's are slower than if they were separate.
2. In my system I use my DVD as my main drive and my CDR as my burning drive. If you use both for the same things then the drive will wear out faster. Point is use separate drives. You don't want your CDR drive getting dirty.
3. 4x is slllllooooow. 6x came out what...last year? My current 8x DVD is slower than I want it to be when copying DVD's to my HD. Trust me 4x is slow. It won't matter with movies but when copying files it will be slow.
4. Have you read any reviews at all?
5. DON'T GET IT.

[Nuno]

Thanks guys...

I don´t really know what to do.
I only have 1 IDE channel free. I got 2 HDD and a cd-rom 40x.
So to get a dvd and burner I must dump the cdrom or a hdd or buy a ide controler That´s why I am considering a cost-efective solution... Dumping the cd rom/buying a ide controler, buying a burner and a DVD is way beyond the budget I got for now.

I think it depends of the price I could get on it....

[Sisyfos]

You might be interested in this one.
http://www.cdrinfo.com/#newsitem966858764,97896,

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[Pertti]

Nuno,

Definatelly go with separate drives, the all in one solutions are non-standard (more problems), and when you need to upgrade one, you need to do it for all at the same time.

Get a cheap SCSI controller, the CD/CDR/DVD... drives using SCSI interface are not that much (if at all) more expensive than the IDE ones, and they work so much better. You get the option of having 6 devices even with the cheap ones.

SCSI is not worth while for HD:s, but for other devices, it is the perfect solution.

I have a Asus PCI-SC200 (Fast SCSI-2) on my primary system for CD-RW and CD, no problems so far (previous motherboard had built-in U2/UW/... SCSI controller)

Pertti

[Nuno]

Thanks again for all your advice guys

I´ve just installed the Samsung combo drive. (yes, I know it...) But I´m just evaluating it, I can return it and trade for another drive. (Mom and Pop´s shop, good friends)

Now, it works pretty good. Really. I´m testing it so far, but I burned a cdr, I´m making an audio cd while browsing the net, DVD playback is very good (tested win winDVD bundled with my sblive).

It was cheap (cheaper than I though) and it seems to work well.

Just another thing - I forgot a liitle detail: In a UDMA66 chain ALL the devices must be UDMA66 compliant or else it defaults to UDMA 33 right?

[Joel]

I agree with the others, I would hold off if I was you. Do you not have two IDE channels on your motherboard? If you do then put both the DVD and the CD burner on the secondary channel configuring the DVD as the secondary master and the burner as the secondary slave.

Joel

[Rags]

Now try playing a DVD, surfing the net, and burning a CD all at the same time I do with my rig almost every night.

Rags

[Mark F]

Rags - <u>S H O W O F F</u>

Of course I'm just jealus,
Mark F.


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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
and burped out a movie

[Rags]

It's pretty simple get a SCSI burner, put your DVD/CD drive on your primary master, get at least 128 Megs RAM, 700 Mhz or faster coppermine, BX motherboard (haven't seen a VIA yet I can do this without coasters), and a G400 or other card that helps with DVD decoding. BTW, I CANNOT do this with an IDE burner. I don't care what the people say, SCSI is the way to go with these things.

Rags

[The PIT]

Isn't there a new burn proof used by Rioch that supposed to help prevent coasters.
I've got to admit using scsi makes life a lot better and you can use your computer to do other things rather than wait for the burning process to finnish.

[This message has been edited by The PIT (edited 23 August 2000).]

[Mark F]

Well 'burn proof' is on new PLEXTOR drives. It's by.. Oh I forget sanyo maybe? Hey it's late and I'm half asleep, maybe I need another VODKA to help me remember.
And yes, somebody else has a competing technology, maybe it's Richo. Just can't think of it now.
The September issue of MaxPC has a write up on 2 of the newest combo drives.

Mark F.



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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
and burped out a movie

[Nuno]

I ended up keeping the combo... It´s fast enough, I won´t record that many cdr that I would need 8x that much. It was cheap, it does cdrw 4x, it burned all cd´s I tied flawlessly. I might as well face it as a cdrw that reads dvd´s as a bonus.

I really couldn´t afford the separate solutions much less going scsi.

Thanks for your opinions anyway, guys.

[High_Jumbllama]

Originally posted by DosFreak:

4x is slllllooooow. 6x came out what...last year? My current 8x DVD is slower than I want it to be when copying DVD's to my HD. Trust me 4x is slow. It won't matter with movies but when copying files it will be slow.

I've never understood this, but I have to ask. Even with todays larger hard drives. What is the point of copying DVDs to your hard drive if they take up such an enourmous amount of space?