Can a DVD RW optical drive be used on an older machine

[Martin C]

This question sort of goes with my previous one for the power supply, but is
a different subject.

I currently have an old 350MHz AMD PC running Win98SE (Yes I know it is time
for an upgrade - hence my previous post).
The CDRW optical drive I have currently has just failed totally and will not
read anything.

As budget is a bit tight at the moment, I was going to upgrade my PC in the
near future and get a DVD RW drive for the new machine.

My question is whether or not I could use such an optical drive in my old
machine until such time as I can afford to buy the whole lot.?
It would seem a shame to have to buy a CDRW for now, only to have to get
another one for DVD RW as well.

I have looked at minimum specs for a DVD RW and they seem to require an
800MHz CPU for use.
The question is, if I only restrict the drive to reading and burning CDs,
could I actually use the DVD RW drive in the old machine as it is well below
the minimum spec - or is this spec higher due to the DVD side of the drive?

Thanks for any help

Martin

 

[Chris Hill]

This question sort of goes with my previous one for the power supply, but is
a different subject.

I currently have an old 350MHz AMD PC running Win98SE (Yes I know it is time
for an upgrade - hence my previous post).
The CDRW optical drive I have currently has just failed totally and will not
read anything.

As budget is a bit tight at the moment, I was going to upgrade my PC in the
near future and get a DVD RW drive for the new machine.

My question is whether or not I could use such an optical drive in my old
machine until such time as I can afford to buy the whole lot.?
It would seem a shame to have to buy a CDRW for now, only to have to get
another one for DVD RW as well.

I have looked at minimum specs for a DVD RW and they seem to require an
800MHz CPU for use.
The question is, if I only restrict the drive to reading and burning CDs,
could I actually use the DVD RW drive in the old machine as it is well below
the minimum spec - or is this spec higher due to the DVD side of the drive?

I don't believe there would be any serious problem.

 

[Conor]

I have looked at minimum specs for a DVD RW and they seem to require an
800MHz CPU for use.
The question is, if I only restrict the drive to reading and burning CDs,
could I actually use the DVD RW drive in the old machine as it is well below
the minimum spec - or is this spec higher due to the DVD side of the drive?

Yes you can but you'll find you are limited at the speed it'll reliably
burn a CD due to the IDE HDD transfer speeds. The 800MHz spec is mainly
to run the overbloated burning software.

 

[Martin C]

Conor,
If what you say is true about the 800Mhz spec being mainly to run the
'overbloated burning software', doesn't that effectively mean that my rather
puny machine will not be able to run the burning software?

Martin