Author Topic: Optical drives becoming obsolete? (Read 4528 times)

1212magicman · « **Reply #20 on:** June 24, 2012, 10:00:52 AM »

I think that optical disc drives are obsolete on a laptop. On a desktop they are extremely crucial, especially if you burn games.

However, on a laptop you have only so much space, and a SSD in the optical bay is a lot more useful than a disc player that you may never use.

This however, brought a concern to me. With no disc drive, what happens if you need to restore? I understand you can boot from USB, but still... there were a lot of hacking programs I used to love that required a dvd to use. For example OPHCrack

lapa321 · « **Reply #21 on:** June 24, 2012, 11:53:33 AM »

Kinda hard to make a comparison considering the different platforms.

An all around professional grade PC is a desktop, so it makes sense to be able to support everything in your workspace. Optical media included. My father is an architect and he has a rather impressive library of CAD resources on CDs and DVDs. Despite going digital, they still walk around with rolled up blueprints. His drawing table (it was a nice table) is put away in the storage shed tho. I remember that it was a while before they stopped using floppies. In a sense, mine's more powerful, but his PC is more decked out than mine.

A professional grade Mac is a laptop. Which, while already several times more expensive than a decked out work PC, is going to have even more components removed?

I've always thought of a professional computer to strive for compatibility with your existing workflow. Your tools are supposed to help you with your work, not be dictated by it. A USB drive that you can leave at home? For a casual user, yes. But not for a professional.

kitamesume · « **Reply #22 on:** June 24, 2012, 12:25:12 PM »

uhhh, USBIII has more bandwidth than SATAII tho, i can't imagine why it wouldn't be enough.

vuzedome · « **Reply #23 on:** June 24, 2012, 02:10:09 PM »

Quote from: kitamesume on June 24, 2012, 12:25:12 PM

uhhh, USBIII has more bandwidth than SATAII tho, i can't imagine why it wouldn't be enough.

We'll I was looking at USB2.0s.

Dhruv · « **Reply #24 on:** June 24, 2012, 02:26:47 PM »

It has been more than an year since i last burned a DVD

i wouldn't exactly say that they have become obsolete because i still see them selling like hot cakes whenever there is a music launch
ofcourse Blu-Ray is better but it is difficult to completely shun the usage of optical disks atleast for now

megido-rev.M · « **Reply #25 on:** June 24, 2012, 05:14:06 PM »

The discs won't become obsolete, but for most of us they won't be used frequently (e.g. rip the disc, then mount it on virtual drive), so like others have mentioned it's not necessary to install them inside laptops.

MTR · « **Reply #26 on:** June 25, 2012, 01:30:54 AM »

I tend to be indifferent of Apple, but I definitely support this decision. Just recently I made the decision to basically free myself from opticial media. I bought a netbook for my mobile computing needs, and ripped all of my CD Rom software to ISO files. All of my music and DVDs are also ripped to my desktop server as well. Although I still buy physical media, it is only for collecting purposes and most of it just sits on my shelf. I have no plans of ever buying a bluray player because that is not a road I want to go down. I am much more interested in seeing advancements in the digital and streaming scene than I am in the physical media scene.

That said, I dont have any plans of getting rid of the DVD burner on my desktop anytime soon. The fact is, there is still a need for optical media support although it is dwindling. Not to mention, a lot of my friends and family, especially those not well versed in computers,
dont share the optimism for digital and cloud usage as I do. There is a reason I am burning season 4 of Breaking Bad to DVD-R as I type this.

shabutie · « **Reply #27 on:** June 25, 2012, 01:49:59 AM »

I haven't had a disk drive in my computer for 3-4 years now. Haven't needed one. That's what torrents and flash drives are for.

Freedom Kira · « **Reply #28 on:** June 25, 2012, 03:17:51 AM »

Quote from: revo on June 24, 2012, 09:03:20 AM

USB bluray drives are too slow and too expensive

Quote from: vuzedome on June 24, 2012, 09:46:57 AM

It's not really sensible to be running a BD external drive over USB.

USB 2.0, maybe. But this is 2012.

halfelite · « **Reply #29 on:** June 25, 2012, 03:50:07 AM »

Quote from: 1212magicman on June 24, 2012, 10:00:52 AM

I think that optical disc drives are obsolete on a laptop. On a desktop they are extremely crucial, especially if you burn games.

However, on a laptop you have only so much space, and a SSD in the optical bay is a lot more useful than a disc player that you may never use.

This however, brought a concern to me. With no disc drive, what happens if you need to restore? I understand you can boot from USB, but still... there were a lot of hacking programs I used to love that required a dvd to use. For example OPHCrack

you can boot of a usb dvd rom just fine if the bios supports it. and most without a drive do, Plus all the ones with no drive the restore process is on a partition on the drive from factory

Proin Drakenzol · « **Reply #30 on:** June 25, 2012, 04:11:25 AM »

Apple is five years behind everyone else as usual; fullsize laptops have been shipping without optical drives for years. My midrange 2010 HP doesn't have a built in optical drive, though I do have a USB ODD that's come in handy several times

vuzedome · « **Reply #31 on:** June 25, 2012, 02:02:33 PM »

Quote from: Proin Drakenzol on June 25, 2012, 04:11:25 AM

Apple is five years behind everyone else as usual; fullsize laptops have been shipping without optical drives for years. My midrange 2010 HP doesn't have a built in optical drive, though I do have a USB ODD that's come in handy several times

Well apparently to the rest of the uninformed crowd, if Apple hasn't done it yet, then it doesn't count.

kitamesume · « **Reply #32 on:** June 25, 2012, 03:07:12 PM »

its as if apple is the mascot of technology

per · « **Reply #33 on:** June 25, 2012, 07:24:05 PM »

I have used a CD on my desktop about two times during the last 5+ years now, both times to install a really old game to try it again.

zzzYuyu · « **Reply #34 on:** June 25, 2012, 11:39:59 PM »

I need a DVD drive to install chipset drivers after a fresh install of Windows. And nope, can't download the drivers because the LAN port won't work before you install the drivers from the DVD.

buchno · « **Reply #35 on:** June 25, 2012, 11:45:47 PM »

Quote from: zzzYuyu on June 25, 2012, 11:39:59 PM

I need a DVD drive to install chipset drivers after a fresh install of Windows. And nope, can't download the drivers because the LAN port won't work before you install the drivers from the DVD.

You could make a customized Windows installation DVD/USB/whatever with the drivers already added :]

kitamesume · « **Reply #36 on:** June 25, 2012, 11:53:40 PM »

its meaningless if you end up reinstalling the drivers because they're outdated

buchno · « **Reply #37 on:** June 25, 2012, 11:58:50 PM »

Quote from: kitamesume on June 25, 2012, 11:53:40 PM

its meaningless if you end up reinstalling the drivers because they're outdated

How often do you update the drivers for your LAN port?

megido-rev.M · « **Reply #38 on:** June 26, 2012, 12:11:17 AM »

Better yet, why not just archive the driver installer beforehand?

kamuixtv99 · « **Reply #39 on:** June 26, 2012, 06:03:05 AM »

Another thing. There was a topic here in bbt on how do you store your downloads. I was amazed that some people here use HDDs and not optical media. You can't do that now, the warranty period before was 5 years and now it's only 2 years plus HDDs today are getting inferior they break in a matter of time. Maybe it's easy to replace for a new one but the trouble is not worth.