The most important features for an optical drive are speed, weight, size, and noise. And, also important are price and availability, as, over the years, we have seen products disappear from the market, or they have become fare for third-party price-gougers as optical drives are considered less relevant by users.
Must Read: Blu Ray Drives Review
Today, people rarely use these drives, they only get to use them when they deem them necessary to use at a particular time, so, it would be quite worthless to spend so much on a drive just to get something that is remarkably faster, since the drives that operate at such speeds are usually bulky.
When you go optical drive shopping, below are a few features that you should consider before making a choice.
- Read and Write Capability: DVD drives must be able to read DVDs and CDs, while Blu-ray drives should (must!) be able to read and write Blu-ray discs, DVDs, and CDs.
- Speed: The speed of an optical drive has two elements, and they are the drive’s read and write speeds, and the speed at which data travels between both the drive and the computer. A 6x Blu-ray drive would need a USB 2.0 connection, since the drives writes at a maximum of 27 MB per second, and a USB 2.0 reaches about 35 MB per second.
- Size and Weight: More people use their drives only at home, and do not need to carry them along when they travel, and there are a few that carry them along when they are on the move, so here, the size and weight of the drive is quite a very important factor to consider when deciding what drive to get. A portable drive easier to store when not in use.
- Noise: This is another very important factor to consider when choosing a Blu-ray drive. Since these drives operate at high speeds, noise is inevitable, but there are a few that have noise reducing features, and if yours doesn’t have that feature, just ensure that its noise does not drown that of whatever you are watching or listening to.
- Sturdiness: There are quite a number of drives that look pleasing to the sight, but ensure that these have cases that won’t fall under even light pressure, their connections shouldn’t wobble, either.