Computer CD drive.

Internal and External CD Drive

Modern PCs are commonly sold with a computer CD drive which allows reading information stored on a compact disc (CD).

Particularly optical drives are used to run and install the operating system and any other software on your computer system according to your desirable usage.

However, the type of computer CD drive can vary with the kind of finality you are looking for. Here are the available options to select the right optical drives.

CD-ROM drives. The CD-ROM (compact disc Read Only memory) drives enable to read audio and data stored on a CD. Usually it is the device you commonly find when you buy a complete computer system. Because they are only capable of reading, if you want to do more, such as record through your computer CD drive, you are obliged to procure one of these two optical drives.

CD-R drives. The CD-R (CD Recordable) drives, in addition to do the same tasks as a standard CD-ROM, allow you to write any kind of data on a compact disc. With this type of computer CD drive you can store data as a backup solution or simply record or compile your favorite pieces if you are a music lover.

But your record is made once and for all. The most interesting is that your recording or backup solution is usable by the CD-ROM drives and most of audio players.

Notice. Most modern computers come with CD-R or CD-RW drives.

CD-RW. The CD-RW (CD Read/Write) drives offer a lot of possibilities than the two others types. Whatever what you want to do: recording audio discs, doing backups or archiving data, the CD-RW drives is able to do it thousand times on the same disc instead of once. However it should be a CD-RW disc naturally.

But wait, wait! There are others specifications you must consider before purchasing.

Transfer Rates. The transfer rates or X rating refers to the speed of the computer CD drive. It specifies how fast the CD drive will access to the data stored on a CD. It is designated with a number and an “X”.

By example, 1X refers to the speed of the first CD-ROM which could transfer data at 150 KB per second. Today the transfer rates of a CD-ROM vary between 24X and 52X.

Nevertheless CR-RW drives are designed with three different speed ratings. By example a CD-RW may be specified as 52X/24/52X (or 52X24X52 or again 52/24/52). It means that the CD-RW drives can write-once a CD at 52X speed, re-write a CD-RW disc at 24X speed and read at 52X speed.

Buffer storage. The buffer storage is important only if you have or plan to have a CD-RW. Some are designed to record up to 650 MB of data or 70 minutes of audio. Whereas, others can record up to 700 MB of data or 80 minutes of audio.

Interface.It is another, and maybe, the most important specifications to consider. It’s crucial to know what interface your computer CD drive makes use of before purchasing. There are many interfaces used for optical drives:

IDE ( Integrated Electronics Drive)/E-IDE (Enhanced-IDE)/ATAPI the most popular used interfaces which allow connecting up to four devices.

SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) is faster than the IDE interface and usable with SCSI systems. For other systems a SCSI card has to be installed to receive the SCSI CD drive.

USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface which allows an easy installation and immediate utilization. In other words after installing the USB interface it’s not necessary to restart your machine to run the computer CD drive.