Optical Drives & Burners

Upgrading Your Computer With Optical Drives and Burners

If you want to use your computer to read CDs and other discs, you'll need a computer optical drive, and to write files onto blank discs, you'll need a burner. While some computers come with optical drives, they may not have burning capabilities. Some laptops don't come with optical drives at all. Optical drives add bulk to laptops, and many slim laptops sacrifice this feature for a smaller and lighter frame. Adding external optical drives and burners can provide you with all the capabilities you need.

Types of Optical Drives

There are two main types of optical drives and burners: internal and external. An internal optical drives is part of the computer, installed directly into the electronics. You can connect external optical drives to virtually any type of computer, and they're easily detachable. A portable DVD drive may be a useful idea if you want to watch DVDs with a slim laptop. If you're going to play your collection of Blu-rays, choose an external Blu-ray drive. For even more convenience when traveling, choose an external slim optical drive, as these are smaller and more compact.

Features of Burners

Most computer optical drives have burning capabilities. Some optical drives come with bundled software to help you burn your discs, or you can purchase optical media burning and ripping software separately. Some are CD/DVD burners, while others also feature Blu-ray burning capabilities. Another essential feature to consider is read/write speeds. CDs are easier to read and write to, and burners can write CDs with speeds of up to 48x or more. Many Blu-ray and DVD writers also feature fast read/write speeds of up 14x or 24x. Many burners and optical drives are compatible with both Mac and PC.

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