Which 2 Drives Are Best To Have & Why, CD-R & DVD-R Or DVD-R & DVD ROM

[whazzzdat]

If you want to only run two optical drives on your computer and you already have a CD Recorder, a DVD Recorder, and a DVD-ROM; which two drives would you chose and why?

My thought was to pick the CD-R and the DVD-R so you could save wear on the DVD-R by burning CDs on the CD-R. But some people say that a DVD-R will not play some DVD movies. Have you ever seen a DVD-R that would not play all DVD movies?

If you decided to run all 3 optical drives by buying a PROMISE ULTRA133 TX2 PCI IDE Controller Card, which drive would be best to run on the IDE controller card and which drive would best to run off the mother board Secondary IDE channel as Master with an 80 wire cable that has a plug in for master and slave?

[ComputerNut]

DVD Buner + DVD Rom. its rather a waste to have 2 burners. just use the ROM drive if you want to copy a disc

HTH,
CN

[Hi Ho]

I currently have a CD burner and a DVD-ROM. When I do upgrade to a DVD burner I will be replacing the CD burner. I'd rather have two drives capable of reading DVD's. I see absolutely no reason at all for running three optical drives.

[Panama Red]

Another vote for DVD rom + DVD burner. Like Hi Ho I used to use a DVD rom and CD-RW as the two opticals but now I've upgraded to DVD burners. I give my customers the option of which burner they prefer or think they will use. Cabling for a third optical is a pain in the tail if you stick with only the two IDE channels. You would need a longer 80 wire to connect the hard drive and one optical together. Best option for adding a third optical is to do it with an external enclosure and connect it thru firewire or usb.

[bailey]

I have all my optical drives on the motherboard ide ports, and all my hard drives on the promise controler card ide ports.
it is recommended to do it this way as optical drives do not work well on the promise controler, it is ment for hard drives.

[bigandy]

Originally Posted by Hi Ho I currently have a CD burner and a DVD-ROM. When I do upgrade to a DVD burner I will be replacing the CD burner. I'd rather have two drives capable of reading DVD's. I see absolutely no reason at all for running three optical drives.

Exactly what I did. Plus even if I wanted to, I couldn't run 3 opticals, since I have 2 HDs . Not without buying extra hardware anyway.