what's the big deal re: dual optical drives?

rokrok
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
why is everyone acting like having the two optical drive bays is some sort of way-cool feature. i am staring at two drive bays on the front of my dual ghz quicksilver right now.



am i missing something? <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" /> <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    leonisleonis Posts: 3,427member
    Direct CD Copy
  • Reply 2 of 6
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    [quote]Originally posted by rok:

    <strong>why is everyone acting like having the two optical drive bays is some sort of way-cool feature. i am staring at two drive bays on the front of my dual ghz quicksilver right now.



    am i missing something? <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" /> <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> :confused: </strong><hr></blockquote>



    yeah, and one of them is 2.5". Why on earth can't I directly copy a cd... I have my original apple cd-rom next to me, yet no drive bay, its been displaced by my internal burner. My internal 24x, $50, external same model, $150.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    kestonkeston Posts: 14member
    And i also can have a 16x dvd-rom is the top, and a 48x cdrw in the bottom. Instead of having a more expensive combo drive (8x-dvd/12x-cdr), which isnt cheap and there is also the penalty of the slow cdr speeds of combo drives and repaying for the same dvdrom when upgrading. So now i can spend $70 for a 48x internal cdrw, insted of $250+ for an external firewire, etc. Two 5.25 drive bays just makes life alot easier.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    It would be cooler, except Apple not only doesn't offer a DVD-ROM + CD-RW option, they require you to buy at least one combo drive. So you're stuck with a slow speed no matter what, unless you sell the combo drive once you get it and buy separate DVD-ROM and CD-RW drives. The only possible BTO configs are Super drive only, Combo drive only, dual Combo drives, and one of each.



    Having a combo + super drive makes a little more sense, but not much more. The Super drive is really only good for burning and playing DVDs. It's perfectly useful for anything else, but for burning CDs, you want a plain CD-RW. The best setup would be either DVD-ROM + CD-RW for 16x DVD read, 24x CD burn, and 32x CD read, or SuperDrive + CD-RW for 2x DVD burn, 24x CD burn, 6x DVD read, and 32x CD read. DVD read speed isn't that important. I've watched whole movies on a 5x DVD-ROM without a single skip. Having Combo + Super adds 8x DVD read instead of 6x, but it cuts the CD-RW speed in half. Kinda misses the point if you ask me.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    cobracobra Posts: 253member
    I would go with a Superdrive on top and then buy a fast as hell cd burner for the bottom.



    The best of all worlds.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    patchoulipatchouli Posts: 402member
    It is a VERY cool feature and I am very glad that Apple is offering it. However, I am not too thrilled by the way they are offering it. There should be an option to get the new 4X DVDR drive as well as a 40X CDRW drive. As it is now, any configuration you choose, you're stuck with slow burn rates. This is one of the things that pisses me off about their $5000+ price tags.



    [ 08-14-2002: Message edited by: Patchouli ]</p>
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