my turn for help please

[tinhat]

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one is a cd dvd burner. he said the second would be good for copying cds easily or playing them. i think that whats he said so i told him to put the two in. are you saying both should be dvd cd burners. you are dealing with a real novice here. thanks.

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Since you've already decided on DVD, my suggestion is one dual-purpose DVD burner and one DVD reader, instead of the CD drive. Maybe I misunderstood OP but whether or not the CD you've chosen is a burner or just a reader, CD-only anything IMO is practically obsolete and therefore a waste of money.

With a dual-purpose DVD burner (AFAIK most are dual-purpose these days but still check that yours is) you burn DVDs and CDs in the same drive. So your second drive really only needs to be a reader. A DVD reader will read DVDs and CDs but a CD reader (or CD burner) can only read CDs.

Burners don't last forever so if you can minimze their use by only using them for burning, so much the better (and readers are at least half the cost of burners). But if your second drive is CD-anything (reader or burner) you'll have to use the DVD burner to read DVDs that you burn, or games that are DVD-format like Myst IV.

Therefore I suggest you check if the DVD burner you're getting is dual-purpose and if so, drop the CD drive in favor of a DVD reader. If the DVD burner you're getting is not dual-purpose, I suggest considering upgrading to dual-purpose. If there are DVD burners that are not dual-purpose, it can't be cheaper than having to buy a CD burner also. And DVD readers are cheap to begin with.

Mike

[MyMindIsGoing]

"Burners don't last forever so if you can minimze their use by only using them for burning"

The typical user uses it so little that it last longer than the computer could be considered "modern". The quality of the products today and the price they cost there is no need to buy one reader and one burner. Might as well wear out (never seen that happen) the burner and buy a new one if it actually wears out.

I would recomend the Pioneer 109 dvd burner.

[Ray Zee]

thanks so far guys. the sound card is on the board so thats what i get. i am beginning to understand the drives. so from what i gather so far i am basically not missing anything that may be a hassle later on. i am looking for a good computer that is hassle free and fairly good quality that wont be lacking two years down the road.

[MrTrik]

Within two years you will probably want more than a Gig of ram. So you might just wanna make sure you won't have to eat chips to add more. This is often an issue 2-3 years down the road.

[MyMindIsGoing]

[ QUOTE ]
Within two years you will probably want more than a Gig of ram. So you might just wanna make sure you won't have to eat chips to add more. This is often an issue 2-3 years down the road.

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Nah, for a general use computer (I assume this is no hardcore gaming box we talk about), 1gb will last as long, longer than the speed of the cpu. 1gb is much more than enough today. If you were a hard core gamer or would like to optimize the computer for video editing or something like that then maybe it would be good to get more ram, so you wont have to worry in the future, but otherwise just a waste of money. I would rather have 1gb of high quality ram (like Corsair) than 2gb generic.

Building a box that wont just make trouble has alot to do with the parts. For example, I would rahter have a 3.0ghz cpu with quiet zalman cooling, than a 3.4 with stock cooling. Hardly anyone would notice the change in speed (unless you told them) but the lower noice people will notice. Same with memory, I would rather have Corsairs budget memory (witch is not as fast, but fast enough) than some high speed generic no name ram. Less to worry about and hardly noticable decrease in speed. The quality of the ram and hd is the most important as far as I am conserned, then comes mobo and power supply.

Buying the latest/best/fastest is not the way to go as far as I am conserned if you want a troublefree computer. I rather go for the higher quality stuff, that might be the same price but a bit "slower".

My computer (in case anyone cares, not the hottest, but works perfect and fit my needs):
Case: Antec Sonata (semi quiet)
Cpu: 3.0ghz P4
Cpu-cooler: Zalman 7700
Ram: 1gb Corsair value
mobo: intel rock lake (built in sound and nic)
hd: 200gb sata maxtor with fluid bearings
dvdr: pioneer 109
gfx: ati radeon 9600, fanless
monitor: samsung 710T

All payed for with poker winnings of cource [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I like to build everything as quiet as possible. My last computer was so quiet that I mistakenly a few times turned it off since I didn't notice it was on (I never connect the front leds) [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]