Very Computer

I may be shopping for a new cdrom drive in August. Of course it
has to be Linux-friendly. I not that some write cdroms and some
rewrite cdroms. What is the difference?

Anyone have any favorite beasties that they would like to
recommend? Cost is of course a factor  ;-)

John Culleton

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Err, "write cdrom" is an oxymoron.  CD-ROM stands for Compat Disc Read
Only Memory.  You are talking about CD Recorders and CD ReWritable
drives.  CD-R(ecorder) drives can only write onto CD-R media, which, once
burned, cannot be erased and rewritten.  But you can read a CD-R disc
in just about any CD-ROM drive (even older ones) or standard audio
CD player.  A CD-RW drive can write on CD-RW media, which, as its name
implies, can be erased and re-written.  The trade-off is that
CD-RW media is more expensive than CD-R media (although RW drives can
also write R media) and RW disks cannot be read in older CD-ROM drives
or any audio players (the reflectivity of the disks is much lower).

Quote:> Anyone have any favorite beasties that they would like to
> recommend? Cost is of course a factor  ;-)

Well, I like the Plextor SCSI models -- very high quality drives.  But
they are more expensive.

--
Joshua Baker-LePain
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Duke University

On Thu, 22 Jun 2000 11:15:57 -0700, John Culleton

Quote:>I may be shopping for a new cdrom drive in August. Of course it
>has to be Linux-friendly. I not that some write cdroms and some
>rewrite cdroms. What is the difference?

>Anyone have any favorite beasties that they would like to
>recommend? Cost is of course a factor  ;-)

If you want cheap, you'll almost have to go IDE.  Any IDE CD-ROM will
work, but stay away from anything that advertises transfer rates faster
than about 24x.  They're *lying* if they think they can get anything
faster, and drives that spin faster than 24x are A) noisy B) spin down
after about 15s, then take 10s to spin back up, resulting in much higher
latency for many normal tasks.  You can pick one up for about $30 or
so; check http://pricewatch.com/ .

CD-RWs are a bit different.  I've had excellent luck with a Philips 460
CD-RW, bought for $180 8 months ago.  It's "only" 4/4/16x, but I think
their newer models are 4/4/24x for the same price.  You should probably
stay away from the Iomega ZipCD; it doesn't quite follow standards and so
cdrecord isn't always happy.  Read the CD-Writing HOWTO and check
pricewatch again if you want something like this.  
http://linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/CD-Writing-HOWTO.html

--
Matt G / Dances With Crows      /\    "Man could not stare too long at the face
\----[this space for rent]-----/  \   of the Computer or her children and still
 \There is no Darkness in Eternity \  remain as Man." --David Zindell "So did
But only Light too dim for us to see\ they become Gods, or Usenetters?" --/me

CD-ROM is read only (that's what thr ROM part means)
CD-R means CD Record  (write once then trash)
CD-RW means CD Rewritable. (write, erase, and write again)

If you can afford it, SCSI is the best choice.
You should get a drive with the largest memory buffer possible
especially if it's CD-R or CD-RW. This will minimise the chance of
buffer underruns when writing.

Yamaha has a very good rep. I have a SCSI 6416 and am very satisfied.

Quote:

> Anyone have any favorite beasties that they would like to
> recommend? Cost is of course a factor  ;-)

Cost sould be the lowest on your list of priorities.

Quote:

> John Culleton

> Got questions?  Get answers over the phone at Keen.com.
> Up to 100 minutes free!
> http://www.keen.com

--
John Gluck  (Passport Kernel Design Group)

(613) 765-8392  ESN 395-8392

Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed here are strictly my own
and do not reflect any official position of Nortel Networks.

plextor.  you pay a bit for the quality but imho it's worth it.

a cheap pci scsi card can be had for about $40.  i recommend
ncr/symbios/lsi based scsi controllers for their low price and good
linux support.

Quote:> Cost is of course a factor  ;-)

consider also that you *need* a way to back-up your data.  a cd-r is
possibly the cheapest reasonable back-up system you can have.  don't
be caught with your pants down and no backup.  it's no fun being a
statistic.

plus with a cd-r you can make audio cds (as opposed to tapes which are
just computer tapes).

i prefer cd-r to cd-rw since
1) cd-r is about $50 cheaper than cd-rw drive.
2) cd-r media costs about $1, cd-rw is about $5.

if you're not rewriting, since a cd-r medium costs 1/5 of a cd-rw
medium, you can afford up to 4 coasters per good disk and still break
even.

how many times are you going to rewrite the thing?  you have to
rewrite *on average* each disk *at least* five times before recouping
the media cost.  then there's the extra $50 on the drive.

--
johan kullstam l72t00052

Quote:> > Anyone have any favorite beasties that they would like to
> > recommend? Cost is of course a factor  ;-)

This has been covered in a previous thread, but I'll repeat it
here. Be very leery of the HP 8250i. This drive was actually
OEM'd in two different versions by two different manufacturers,
Sony and Philips. No way to tell which you got until you open
the box. The Philips drive has a hinged door where the disc
carrier extends from the drive and has six* small slots (air
holes?) along the lower edge of the front face. The Sony drive
has no slots, no hinged door, the front of the CD carrier is
one piece with the carrier.

Beware the Philips version. It has a firmware bug that makes the
drive spin down permanently after a period of inactivity, requiring
you to eject and re-insert the disc before the motor will spin up
again. The Sony version works like a charm.

Unrot13 this;

Gene Heskett sends Greetings to Steve Martin;

Quote:>> > Anyone have any favorite beasties that they would like to
>> > recommend? Cost is of course a factor  ;-)

 SM> This has been covered in a previous thread, but I'll repeat it
 SM> here. Be very leery of the HP 8250i. This drive was actually
 SM> OEM'd in two different versions by two different manufacturers,
 SM> Sony and Philips. No way to tell which you got until you open
 SM> the box. The Philips drive has a hinged door where the disc
 SM> carrier extends from the drive and has six* small slots (air
 SM> holes?) along the lower edge of the front face. The Sony drive
 SM> has no slots, no hinged door, the front of the CD carrier is
 SM> one piece with the carrier.

 SM> Beware the Philips version. It has a firmware bug that makes the
 SM> drive spin down permanently after a period of inactivity,
 SM> requiring you to eject and re-insert the disc before the motor
 SM> will spin up again. The Sony version works like a charm.

I'll second this warning about the HP-8250i.  I returned the second one
and got a Yamaha after either one could only burn 1 or 2 disks and then
started making coasters.  Anybody want to dumpster dive?, must be half a
50 pack we tossed trying to figure it out.

Cheers, Gene
--



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This messages reply content, but not any previously quoted material, is
? 2000 by Gene Heskett, all rights reserved.
--

I only use SCSI.  That said: for CDROMs, I've gotten good mileage from
Toshiba over the years; for CD-R, Teac has given me no problems
whatsoever.

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