My cdrom makes a lot of racket when it powers
up.  Vibration and such.  Since I have been toying
with the idea of purchasing a cdrom writer, probably
an HP, I thought that maybe I would use my noisy
cdrom as an excuse.  My knowledge on this topic is
somewhat dated, so I have several questions about
the cdrom writers (HP ones in particular) which should
be of general interest.

1.  Are they well made?  I think that the cheap cdrom
readers of today are not too well made.  I have had to
replace several already.  Everything else on my computers
has had a much longer life span.  But the cdrom writers
are quite expensive and, hopefully, well made.  (Do not
vibrate excessively, because they are better balanced
and heavy duty.)  Is this so?

2.  I understand that some cd's that are written by these
contraptions can not be read on audio cd players.
(Particularly the re-writeable cd's.)  Is this the case
with the HP burners?  (I have seen several versions of
the HP ones, but all are all write-many, so I worry that
they will not do.  I understand the the write-once cd's
generally do well with audio.)

3.  I have seen three different versions of the HP writers
varying in price from about $200 to about $400.  SCSI,
EIDE, and another (I forget).  Since I would like to use
it to replace my noisy cdrom reader, I assume that I
should get an EIDE one.  This seems like the least
hassle, too.  But will the poor performance of the
cheaper ones annoy me?  Any recommendations?
(I am neither poor nor rich, so I make a decision
based on my needs and the value of the product.)

TIA for your advice.

Dean Kukral  [log in to unmask]

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