RANT: Why do you need two optical drives?

I personally have a DVD-ROM drive and a Lite-On CD-RW drive simply because the CD-RW will burn a hell of a lot faster than a DVD-RW drive will. It's always nice to have more drives simply for CD insertion. Heck, I actually want to purchase an IDE controller for more IDE channels to add a DVD-RW drive to the mix too. You can never get into trouble with too much in this case, just too little.

Dark Assassin
 
Like Pirateface said, not all drives are equal. Many DVD+/-RW drives (I would even say most) don't write CDs as well or as fast as dedicated CD-RW drives. There are major quality differences in writing a CD, even if the average consumer doesn't know, it can affect the longevity and quality of the data on the CD. For example, my 3-4 month old NEC 2500A does a great job writing high quality DVD+/-RWs, but can only write CD-Rs at 32x and the write quality isn't very good. But in contrast, my 2-3 year old Lite-on 48x (Can't remember model name or exactly how old it is) writes CDs at 48x with great write quality and reliability). Check out the forums and reviews at a site like cdfreaks.com, they have all kind of write quality and compatibility tests.
 
Why I use two optical drives (answers will overlap with others')

1.) Disc to disc copying.
2.) My Lite-On has a 52x CD-R burning speed and reading speed, faster than my NEC ND2500-A (32x each).
3.) The Lite-Ons CD burns are of a high quality than the NEC's CD burns (except when I use CMC magnetics)
4.) reduce wear and tear on my NEC DVD burner. The DVD-RW drive was much more expensive than the Lite ON cd burner, so unless I'm burning or reading DVDs, I use the Lite-on drive.
 
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