Is a combo drive in the 2nd bay overkill?

cosmocosmo
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
When you configure one of the new g4s and try to place something in the second bay, the only option is a combo drive. The superdrive can already read DVDs, so why wouldn't apple allow users to select a fast cdr drive instead of the combo. The combo drive only writes at 16x and new cdr drives can write at 40+x. The conbo drive seems like overkill and i don't think many people need to read two dvds at once.



Then again even if apple allowed users to make such a configuration, it would be grossly overpriced, so i guess its better to get the super drive and buy you own internal CDR.



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

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    xaqtlyxaqtly Posts: 450member
    Exactly. if you want a fast burner, get it seperately and put it in the 2nd bay.
  • Reply 2 of 15
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    At least if you want a SuperDrive, you have the option of going SuperDrive + third party CD-RW. Then you get 2x DVD burning, 6x DVD reading (DVD read speed doesn't matter very much, as I've watched an entire movie on a 5x DVD-ROM and it never skipped), 40x CD burning, and 48x CD reading.



    What if you don't need a SuperDrive? Your only other option is a Combo drive - 8x DVD reading, 16x CD burning, and 32x CD reading. You can't just get a CD-RW and buy a third party DVD-ROM. You can't get a no optical drive option. You have to be stuck with a 16x CD burn speed. If you were allowed to get no optical drives, then you could get a 16x DVD-ROM and a 40x12x48x CD-RW, giving you much more impressive speeds than a Combo drive, and allowing for no-swap CD copying. I suppose getting a Combo and a CD-RW would be okay, though.



    I suppose it's just Apple's way of making more money. They only offer their two most expensive drives with it. They wouldn't make as much money if they let you get it without optical drives, or if they allowed you to get two really cheap optical drives. I'm sure the designers know that having more choices would make more sense, so this is just the marketing department at work.
  • Reply 3 of 15
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    what about making copies of DVDs... ever thought of that? much easyer if you have 2 DVD drives...
  • Reply 4 of 15
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Yes, that's true. I think what most people are saying is not that it's bad to have a Combo + Super drive setup, they're just saying that Apple should give us more options. They have lots of hard drive options, everything from a single ATA hard drive to four Ultra SCSI hard drives, so why not have many optical drive options? It would be cool if you could select any drive (CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, Combo, or Super) for any bay.



    Hmm... what about a dual DVD-RAM setup? It'd be the dual floppy SE all over again! Well maybe not
  • Reply 5 of 15
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    [quote]Originally posted by Paul:

    <strong>what about making copies of DVDs... ever thought of that? much easyer if you have 2 DVD drives...</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Can you make copies of DVDs?
  • Reply 6 of 15
    leonisleonis Posts: 3,427member
    [quote]Originally posted by EmAn:

    <strong>



    Can you make copies of DVDs?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Copying the DVDs that you made.
  • Reply 7 of 15
    allenchristopherallenchristopher Posts: 135member
    Tired. Wrote everything everyone else wrote, but longer. Was it a hallucination? I thought this thread said something wholly different....



    Weird. So ignore me.



    [ 08-16-2002: Message edited by: AllenChristopher ]</p>
  • Reply 8 of 15
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    Is the PM's Combo unit reall up to 16X CD-burning?



    That's quite good for a combo unit. Do you really need to burn faster than 16X? 5min for 700MB seems pretty fast to me, especially when you consider it's hard to find media certified above 16X at a decent price.



    Do the standard Mac Superdrive Combo or CDrw units support over-burning and/or CDR-90 & CDR-99?
  • Reply 9 of 15
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    [quote]Originally posted by Leonis:

    <strong>



    Copying the DVDs that you made.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    But you can't make copies of retail DVDs, right?
  • Reply 10 of 15
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    [quote]Originally posted by EmAn:

    <strong>



    But you can't make copies of retail DVDs, right?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    no, but mainly because the media (dual layer dvds) arnt available.... <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> god damn entertainment industry
  • Reply 11 of 15
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    I don't think that any of the current DVD drives would be able to burn dual layer media even if it were available. That might require a whole new drive.
  • Reply 12 of 15
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    [quote]Originally posted by Matsu:

    <strong>That might require a whole new drive.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    damn computer industry and their built-in obsalecance..
  • Reply 13 of 15
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    [quote]Originally posted by Matsu:

    <strong>Do you really need to burn faster than 16X? 5min for 700MB seems pretty fast to me, especially when you consider it's hard to find media certified above 16X at a decent price.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    i burn @ 24x. 4 min for a cd, 2 min would be better. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />



    [ 08-17-2002: Message edited by: serrano ]</p>
  • Reply 14 of 15
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    [quote]Originally posted by EmAn:

    <strong>But you can't make copies of retail DVDs, right?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    What do you mean by this? Is it legal? No. **** the DMCA. Is it possible? Of course. Where do you think bootleg DVD's come from?



    sorry for the double.



    [ 08-17-2002: Message edited by: serrano ]</p>
  • Reply 15 of 15
    allenchristopherallenchristopher Posts: 135member
    DVDs are in fact copied by commercial DVD production equipment owned by bootlegging rings. It isn't particularly expensive. You simply set up shop, stereotypically in Hong Kong but in reality anywhere you want, and buy the facilities needed to produce pornographic films, often with mob money. Then you produce the appropriate films but copy commercial DVDs on the side. It's a piece of cake. Profit on the bootleg units is so near 100% that you might as well be counterfeiting money.



    DVDs are also ripped by amateurs and encoded again at lower quality and/or using a more efficient codec, then stuffed onto media to which consumer equipment can write. They hand you a shiny disc, you play it with your deck or some program and chalk the degradation up to the bootleg process then walk around spreading the word "bootleg," but it isn't a DVD copy per se. It an imitation.



    A full commercial DVD can't be exactly duplicated by consumer equipment. It's just not the same format. We're not exactly talking about a limitation here. You can't overclock these drives. They're different machines. They write to different kinds of discs that look similar under one colour of light but totally different under another.



    [ 08-17-2002: Message edited by: AllenChristopher ]</p>
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