When a computer device upgrade really isn't an upgrade....

-megalithanod · August 9th, 2004, 02:03 PM

Well, I got started on burning the CDs that need to go out to those that asked for them, and found something out.

I recently upgraded the desktop system I had from a P3 866MHz 512M 80G HDD system to a AMD 3200+ 1G 160G HDD system.

The previous one I had added in a CD burner and was able to burn cds at 52X (really only 48X due to media). Took me 3 minutes to burn a whole CD. It was great.

Then the system I upgraded to had a DVD+/-RW, CD-RW drive in it. I thought cool, I can do CDs and DVDs. It was the fastest drive I could find for DVD burning, very nice system once I got my dual-monitor card in there.

Here comes the kicker....I found out when I started burning the CDs that the best I could burn them was at 16X. What the hell is that??

Oh well, the wife has the fastest burner now so I guess I need to coax her into helping [img]wink.gif[/img]

**thor16** · August 9th, 2004, 02:07 PM

This has been mega's moment of technical jargon that no one else understands.

**Drau** · August 9th, 2004, 02:09 PM

it's a trade-off of price for functionallity.

**baimun** · August 9th, 2004, 02:13 PM

Those combo drives don't burn nearly as fast as the CD-RW's. I'd move that one up to the top drive, use it as a DVD reader and occassional writer (when burning DVD's) and put a plain 48x CD-RW in the second bay. [img]smile.gif[/img]

-megalithanod · August 9th, 2004, 02:16 PM

Yeah - I know that now Baimun! Actually, I knew it before, it just never crossed my mind prior to getting this system. It a 48X reader in it now and I have been looking into changing that out. The only hang up I have with switching it out as I want the drive I put in there to be able to handle the facing mounted on it that the system has. It looks sleek and I don't want to have a drive that sticks out like a sore thumb in looks on it.

As soon as I can find one, it is going on there, don't worry about that! [img]wink.gif[/img]

Besides, I need to add a KVM, and a couple of UPS units to the home network anyway, so adding a fast CD-RW to the order shouldn't cause too much hassle [img]smile.gif[/img]

**Peter Peeker** · August 9th, 2004, 02:16 PM

at least yer burner is working...
I've killed a pack of discs trying to make cds for people... [img]mad.gif[/img]

**AngelsDemon** · August 9th, 2004, 02:35 PM

That's the unfortunate side effect of using a DVD-RW to burn CD-R's. The technology is there of course, but with the addition of the specific codings and reading ability of the new drive, along with the higher powered laser lens, it kinda kills some of your speed in burning a regular CD (they wouldn't want to melt it). They'll get there eventually on it, as they're still working on it (Hell, I remember when cd burners first came out, and now you have DVD burners for damn close to the same price as a CD burner, and cd Burners are cheap as hell). But for the technology, you didn't get smacked too bad on the loss of speed (I mean you CAN burn dvds [img]tongue.gif[/img] )

Hell I remember my first CD burner.. I could only burn a top speed of 8x. Now THAT'S slow.. half hour to burn a cd.