The CD-ROM Item

Aug 27 11:46 UTC 1993

How many folks out there have a cd-rom drive?  I'd like to get
one, but like computers there are so many models out there
choosing one can be confusing.
 
For example, the lowest you can go seems to be the Mitsumi;  you
can get one for less than $200.  On the other hand, you can spend
$1000 or more for a SCSI drive with a sound card and cd library.
 
Anyone have a clue on the best way to go?

response 2 of 25:

Aug 28 05:06 UTC 1993

  If you want a CD-ROM that will work on both DOS and Linux, you need either
a SCSI one (with a supported controller), or (I think) a Sony CDU something
or other...  (check the faqs)...

  As for CD-ROMs, there are a lot of factors... the millisecond access time...
whether it's double spin (make it transfer data at 300k/sec instead of
150k/sec)... lot's of other little factors, as well, like photo cd
compatibility and stuff...  Also, make sure you can hook it up to your
sound card, if you have one--it never hurts to be able to use it as an
audio cd player, as well :)....
  I've been shopping CD-ROMS a bit myself, and I think that I'm going with
the Texel.  It's a nice, fast drive, at 265ms, and double spin with either
300 or 330? transfer.  The only thing I don't like about it is that it has
a caddy (which will make it a pain for audio cd's, which is a priority, since
I don't have another cd player), but if I get some extra caddies, this
shouldn't be too bad.  It'll hook up and run fine with my Proaudio Spectrum's
SCSI, and do the audio thing to.  I hope to get it this Sat. actually, so
remind me and I'll let you all know how it is... I had a friend with one
(though he moved to Indiana for school before I got to play with it :) ),
and it seemed to work pretty nicely....

response 4 of 25:

Aug 31 03:22 UTC 1993

The best deals are on the Texel power is talking about and the
Toshiba 200ms. They are in the $400-$500 range, but blow the $200 Mitsumi
out of the water in terms of speed. After using the Texel and the Toshiba
I could never go back to the Mitsumi.

The Mitsumi is 150kb/s while the Texel and Toshiba are 300+kb/s. 

response 6 of 25:

Sep 5 06:07 UTC 1993

  Yeah, I have the same thing with my Texel.  Actually, I'm listening to
Hindemith's Symphony in B flat right now.. (just got the CD earlier today,
now that I have something to play it on :) )...  And you should be able
to hook a CD-ROM up for digitization, etc, on any sound card equipped
IBM compatible--you just need to call the manufacturer of the sound card
and get them to send you a cable to run between the CD-ROM and the sound
card... this is beyond the line-in input, at least on my PAS16... I hope
to order said cable Tuesday--$11, which isn't bad...
  The software to play CD's that came with the PAS is *REALLY* cool, too!
You can name tracks, CD's, etc, and it remembers it across sessions and
everything, and can recognize CD's.. you can also specify an order, or tell
it to wait until you start sampling, then to play--it's way cool!!! :)

response 8 of 25:

Sep 11 03:13 UTC 1993

The NEC is decent, but the Texel is 5ms faster and cost less, and the
Toshiba is about the same price and blows the NEC out of the water in 
terms of performance.

response 10 of 25:

Sep 12 16:33 UTC 1993

One free 3.5" or 5.25"? We have tape drives which will fit into a 3.5" 
bay, so you don't have to take up a 5.25".

I personally do not like external devices because they take up space all
over my desk (and those who have seen my desk know there is no room to play
around with). If you have a free 5.25" bay, get an internal CD ROM drive.
The advantage of an external CD ROM drive is if you are on a low budget and
have, say, a Mac and an IBM. You would be able to use the same drive on the
Mac and the IBM. 

response 12 of 25:

May 9 12:08 UTC 1998

So what's the current state of CD-Recordable?  How much other compute power
(AV disk drive, etc) do you need to make practical use of one?  It looks like
the street prices for a basic CD-R drive is now below $400, with disks less
than $2 in bulk.  Would be a cool way to do backups... and to build "mix" CDs
of fave music.

response 14 of 25:

May 12 18:37 UTC 1998

(Cheaper than tapes.)  Whether or not you can add to a CDR depends on how it
was written.  Usually, you can add tracks to a CDR.  However, sometimes the
writing program writes a "CD complete" notice, in which case you can't add
anything.

Generally, you want more than 750 MB free of disk, 24-36 MB RAM, and another
CD-ROM.  Oh, and don't run anything else while the CD is writing. :)

response 16 of 25:

May 12 23:39 UTC 1998

I keep two ZIP backup sets, of 6 disks each. Say they cost $12-per: After
36 backups, the per-backup cost averages out to $2. After that, the
per-backup cost drops further. Hence, after about a year, ZIP disks are
cheaper than using CDRs at $2 each. 

response 18 of 25:

May 13 14:13 UTC 1998

Yesterday I was in Computer City (Buffalo, NY), and happened to see a 
10-pack of zip disks for $119. That works out to $12 per disk. There 
may have been a $10 rebate coupon available as well, but I don't 
remember exactly.

response 20 of 25:

May 14 13:46 UTC 1998

For when you find that you deleted your much-needed file the day (or week)
before you made your oldest backup set.

response 22 of 25:

May 14 20:57 UTC 1998

Ah,' but you run MacOS, a more stable operating system than my Win95.  :/

response 24 of 25:

May 15 17:05 UTC 1998

Actually, this indicates that you're using your system (and its backups) only
for rather low-key, personal purposes.  Maintain a system used by several
different users, intensively, many hours a day for (say) the accounting and
correspondence & general record-keeping functions of a business, and you'll
sooner or later find that files were deleted or changed but you still need
them.  Three weeks is probably not anything like long enough, though that
depends on the nature of the business.

Files garbaged by the OS are a relatively small part of the problem.  (OK,
the OSs in question are more stable than MS-Win of any variety, but still.)
The fact that changes are made, and that people clean up files they think are
no longer needed, is a *much* more common reason for going back to backup.
(I know someone, who shall remain nameless (but it's not *me*), who recently
was deleting files.  His keyboard was a bit flaky - the "2" key sometimes
didn't type - and he used a template and deleted a whole bunch more files than
he intended to.  (I've inherited his keyboard & am interested in fixing it,
BTW.))