On behalf of a friend (and this is all the information I have) –
Said person is being offered two different configurations for their PC.
First set-up involves (quote) “32/40x DVD/CDRW Combo Drive”.
Second set-up involves (quote) “40/10/40 CD-RW and 20/48x CD-Rom drives for an extra £12”.
What’s the difference and which is better? Hardware isn’t a speciality of mine; all I can guess at is that the former is a single unit, while the latter appears to involve two units and potentially greater speed – but no mention of DVD capability.
Depends on how he uses his drives. If he plans on doing a lot of disk copying/creation, the 2nd will probably be better. If he wants to play dvd’s, the first will better (and cheaper)–it just means that disk copying will be slower since the cd burning program will have to stash a disk image to his hard drive first.
That is what confused me. The numbers don’t seem to tally with the descriptions. I’ve asked for more details but unless they’re forthcoming I’m trying to provide advice on just those scraps.
Unfortunately it’s not my purchasing decision, and I’ve not even been told the manufacturer; it’s a standard either/or offer (well, that’s all I know).
The deciphering above is quite on target. One speed is the rate of burning, the other is for playback. Generally, thi higher burn speed, the faster you do a cope. Beware, though, it’s a little like speedometers on cars. They might show up to 180 mph, but nobody goes that fast. The higher the burn rate, the bigger the risk that you end up with a lot of coasters from “error burns”.
Getting two drives is a good thing, since it’s easier to copy. You can copy disc-to disc and don’t have to first copy all to the harddrive.
Getting a DVD-rom, makes sense, even if you’re not planning to watch movies on the 'puter. More and more software com on DVD. My own copy of Encyclopædia Britannica is on DVD. Much better than having four or five CD’s.
We’re getting to the point where soon a loot of software will be on dv´d, so you might as well go for that now, and not have to bother about upgrading in 18 months.
Listing two speeds for a CD-Rom is called “honesty”.
The max spin rate for a CD-Rom reader is the same whether the lens is on the inner or outer edge of the CD. But on the outer edge, there are more bits so the player is reading more bits per revolution. So the reader can read (in this case) as slow as 20x or as fast as 48x and everywhere inbetween. Note that the beginning of of the data is at the inner edge and therefore the first data is slowest. If the CD is only partially full (like an ISP’s Internet setup disk), then most of the reading is done at slower speeds.
In the world of sleazy PC advertising (where a Gigabyte isn’t a Gigabyte), most companies leave off the lower number and hope you’re not smart enough to notice.
(Note that the “x” refers to good old standard 1 speed CD-Rom read rate: 150Mb/s. Older CD-Roms actually did vary the speed of the disk to get constant rates, as do some CD-Writers.)
Generally, when quoting CD-RW drive speeds, three speeds appear, as in: 48x12x40. The first speed is the CD-R burning speed, the second speed is the CD-RW burning speed, and the last speed is the CD reading speed. In a DVD-ROM, you’ll see two speeds, as in: 16x40, meaning the drive reads DVDs at 16X, and CD-ROMs at 40X.
In the first quote mentioned by the OP, the DVD speed is not mentioned at all. This leads me to believe it is probably 8X or so. In the second, I would agree that since DVD support is not mentioned, it is not included. However, that leaves us with the mystery of what the 20/48X figure means. Can you ask the manufacturer/reseller?
I’ve tried but have had no reponse - this was a question from a friend trying to help their boss decide which PC to buy for home use. Once I’d fed back that the second set-up was better for copying CDs he decided to go with that, I believe.
Thanks for all of the information – I found a useful FAQ on CD and DVD speeds, but you’ve all made it a lot easier to understand. Cheers!
Try for a Pioneer A04 they are very common.