Your first decision in choosing what kind of optical drive for your computer is to decide what things you want from your drive. Do you want to burn CDs and CDRWs? Do you want to watch DVDs? What about burning your own DVDs? Thinking of answers to these questions ahead of time will give you much better chances of being satisfied when your new computer arrives.
The chart below will give you an idea of what prices you can expect to pay for each kind of drive, as well as provide a simple description of each.
| CD-RW | ~$20 | This can burn and read CD-R and CD-RW disks. |
| CD-RW/DVD-ROM | ~$20 | This drive can do everything the CD-RW can plus read DVD movies. |
| DVD+/-RW Multiformat | ~$20 | Use this to burn your own single-layer DVDs on many media types. |
| Dual-Layer DVD+R | ~$35 | These drives can burn full-sized DVD movies. |
| Blu Ray | ~$750 | Blu Ray is Sony's new DVD format, capable of 25GB+ worth of data |
| HD-DVD | ~$1000 | The upcoming alternative to Blu Ray, capable of at least 15GB+ |
Terms:
CD-R: This is your basic CD. It is the format that programs, games, and music are released on. You can burn on this type of media with any CD-RW drive (which means that it can burn on both CD-R and CD-RW media). Most CD players can only read CD-R media.
CD-RW: This is re-writable media, meaning that you can erase and re-write on to the disks around 1000 times. These do not function like a folder without special drag-and-drop software. Without this, you must erase the entire disk before re-writing.
DVD-ROM: This is your basic DVD movie, although many games are starting to come out with DVD versions instead of multiple CDs. DVD-ROM drives can read single-layer (4.7 GB) DVDs, which are most of the earlier DVD movies produced, or ones with out many "special features". They can also read the larger dual-layer (8.5 GB) newer DVDs.
DVD+/-R: Two different single-layer DVD formats are available: DVD+R and DVD-R. The difference is negligible other than who developed the technology. Few drives (mostly the older ones) support just one or the other.
DVD+/-RW: The difference between these disks and the DVD+/-R disks is the same that exists between CD-R and CD-RWs.
Dual-Layer DVD+R: These disks are available for Dual-Layer DVD burners, and can hold 8.5 GB on a single-sided disk. This new technology will allow people to copy an entire commercial-bought DVD movie.
Blue Ray & HD DVD: With the push for higher quality movies and more space on removable media, these two formats were recently invented. Both formats are in their infancy and no one can tell which will become the standard in the coming years.
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Last Updated: 05/14/2008