Need advice on buying hard drive and DVD drive

[Louann]

My CD rom needs to be replaced, so I want to get a DVD Rom instead. I also want to get a second hard drive to use for backups of the first. So basically I don't want to spend much, and wondered if anyone has suggestions on what to look for to help me decide on brand, type, etc.
Thanks!

[harrykwong]

Ooh, you're going to have too many choices. Too bad you don't seem to be in the mood for buying one of each.
Let's see,
a regular CD rom drive
a DVD drive
a CD-R or CD-RW drive but not capable of reading DVD (I don't know if there is such a combination that reads CD and DVD and burns CD)
DVD burner (way too much money)
separate HardDrive
etc

I like the CD-RW combo as it lets you read CD's and lets you burn CD-R's and CD-RW's. I use the CD-RW to off-load seldom used files, sort of like a back up. The price of CD-RW disks has fallen and CD-R disks have become so cheap they are almost being given away for free. An external drive is the easiest to set up but it won't be as fast and convenient as an internal unit.

You can visit the price comparison sites, such as pricescan-dot-com or pricegrabber-dot-com or dealtime-dot-com.

I guess the system in question does not already have a DVD drive. Are you thinking of adding one? If so, does that system have the processing power to handle DVD movies? Meak systems will provide choppy and error-ridden performance, sort of like putting a Jaguar engine into a Chevy Metro.

[Louann]

I don't have any interest in making copies of anything, so no burners. I would never have the time to mess around with that and if I need some songs downloaded to a disc, I have friends I can get them from. And the second hard drive will be for my backups. So mainly want to watch movies in the future and I think my system is OK for that, and I want an internal DVD drive. I have a 1.2 g processor, a video card that supports MPEG2, which I read somewhere yesterday I would need, and 416 RAM of memory.
I will check the sites you recommended. Thanks

[S_Breeze1]

Originally posted by Louann
My CD rom needs to be replaced, so I want to get a DVD Rom instead. I also want to get a second hard drive to use for backups of the first. So basically I don't want to spend much, and wondered if anyone has suggestions on what to look for to help me decide on brand, type, etc.
Thanks!

we did some updates to both our puters recently... and my hubby got a good HD for a great price too.. its calld MAXTOR . Thought his puter was great before??? now its just awesome..

[harrykwong]

My system is a 450 MHz with 192 MB memory. Sometimes, when I play a DVD movie, the picture stutters (my PC isn't fast enough).

Louann, sounds like your system is fine for the watching of DVD movies. How big is the monitor? A 13 inch or 15 inch monitor is like watching a movie on a 13 or 15 inch tv. Everything looks peculiarly small.

Make sure you get the software for running DVD movies. Just having a drive that can read DVD disks doesn't mean you can play the movies. It sort of like getting an MS Word document from someone, but you don't have the MS Word program. The software may come with the DVD drive, or you may find freeware on the NET for that.

btw - a CD burner is for more than just copying songs. Regular files, especially digital photos go perfect with it. I use my CD-RW for backing up my financial files, photos, eBooks, etc. It's more flexible than a hard drive as I can always buy more disks.

Excuse me for pontificating so much.

[Louann]

Thanks harrykwong, I just sent you a private message to answer your questions.