Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
be critical. Many small cases accept standard optical drives, but Mini-ITX and
other very small cases may require a slimline optical drive and may limit the
depth of the drive.
Unless there's good reason to do otherwise, install a DVD writer in any system
you build. Saving $10 by installing a read-only DVD-ROM drive instead of a
DVD writer often turns out to be a poor economy, given the additional flex-
ibility the writer provides.
If you need Blu-ray support, you can choose among three types of drives:
Blu-ray writers
Blu-ray writers can read and write Blu-ray discs, DVDs, and CDs. Write
speeds for CD-R/RW and DVD±R/RW discs are typically a bit slower than
those of standard DVD writers. Blu-ray writers can write to single-layer (25
GB) or dual-layer (50 GB) write-once (BD-R) or rewritable (BD-RE) discs.
Write speeds for BD-R discs are typically 8X, 10X, or 12X, which means it
takes about 8 to 12 minutes to write a full BD-R/SL disc and twice that for
a BD-R/DL disc. BD-RE discs are written at 2X, which means it may take
about 50 minutes to write a full BD-RE/SL disc, and twice that for a BD-RE/
DL disc.
Blu-ray writers are still niche products, primarily because the drives and
discs are expensive relative to DVD writers and media. On a per-byte basis,
BD-R discs are nearing price parity with DVD±R discs, which is to say that
a BD-R/SL disc has roughly six times the capacity of a DVD±R/SL disc and
costs roughly six times as much. BD-RE/SL discs are considerably more ex-
pensive, but may make sense in some applications. BD-R/DL and BD-RE/DL
discs are extraordinarily expensive and should be used only if there is no
alternative.
If you install a Blu-ray writer, we recommend that you also install a stan-
dard DVD writer. Use the expensive Blu-ray writer only to read or write
Blu-ray discs, and use the cheap DVD writer for reading and writing stan-
dard DVDs and CDs, to save wear and tear on the expensive drive. In fact,
we might go further and install three drives in the system: a Blu-ray writer
that we'd use only for burning BD-R/RE discs; a Blu-ray reader that we'd
use for reading Blu-ray discs; and a standard DVD writer that we'd use for
everything else.
Blu-ray combo drives
Blu-ray combo drives read Blu-ray discs, DVDs, and CDs, and can write
DVDs and CDs (but not Blu-ray discs). Installing a Blu-ray combo drive
makes no sense unless you happen to need this particular combination
of features in a system that has room for only one optical drive, or you're
short of ports. Otherwise, install two drives: a standard DVD writer and a
read-only BD-ROM drive. The total cost will be the same or less, the indi-
vidual drives are likely to have better specifications than the combo drive,
and if the reader outlives the writer (as is likely) you can replace just the
$30 writer when it fails instead of replacing the $100 combo drive.
