Upgrade Guide

Until a rewritable-DVD standard asserts itself (not likely for another year or two), your best option for creating CDs is CD-Rewritable. This "write-many" technology has largely supplanted CD-Recordable, thanks to its ability to add and erase data on CDs--something the "write once" CD-Rs can't do. While CD-RW discs cost more than their CD-R counterparts ($20 versus $1), their rewritability makes them appropriate for backups and thus worth their higher price.

If you are considering adding one of these CD-RW drives to your system, they're available from a variety of manufacturers, including Hewlett-Packard, HiVal,Philips,Ricoh, Smart and Friendly, and Yamaha. Prices for internal EIDE drives start around $300 to $350, external parallel-port drives at about $400 to $450. Internal and external SCSI drives are available too, but at higher prices, starting around $500. (You may also need a $100-to-$200 SCSI add-in card.)

The most economical EIDE CD-RW drives still write at 2X speed and read at 6X. If you're willing to spend a bit more ($100 or so extra), the latest EIDE CD-RW drives (such as HP's CD-Writer Plus 8110i shown here) write to CD-R discs at 4X and read at 24X (the Plus writes to CD-RW discs at 2X and reads them at 8X). Write speed can make a difference; creating a full CD-R takes about 35 minutes with a 2X drive, about 18 minutes on a 4X. But you'll need an internal drive (EIDE or SCSI) or an external SCSI drive if you want the speed; parallel-port CD-RW drives are limited to a write speed of 2X.

SCSI drives usually offer higher performance and are designed for heavy use, mainly for corporate installations that regularly need to create lots of CDs. These days 4X SCSI writers are pretty standard, although 2X versions can still be found for budget operations; 8X writers should become available soon.

Here's a nice bonus: You can also use CD-RW drives to press CD-R discs. If you're like most users, chances are you'll write more CD-Rs than CD-RWs. It's a simple matter of economics. Blank CD-Rs cost about a buck apiece and are widely available for free with manufacturer rebates. Blank CD-RW discs cost about $20 each--a lot for 529MB of storage space (CD-RW discs don't have the full 650MB capacity of CD-Rs because of required formatting and directory information).

If your PC has a free front-accessible 5.25-inch drive bay, opt for an internal CD-RW drive. You'll want to keep your existing CD-ROM drive for its faster speed in reading source discs, whether the drive is internal or external. Here are the steps for installing a CD-RW drive; for EIDE start with step 1, for parallel-port with step 2.