No optical drives?

Is tit my imagination or are they these days selling a lot of PC's
without DVD drives? If you say No, I'll look harder or look somewhere
else.

I"ve been looking at microcenter.com. They have the advantage of
having a store in Baltimore that charges the same price as their
webstore,

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 09 Aug 2020 01:23:49 -0400, micky
wrote:

Is tit my imagination or are they these days selling a lot of PC's
without DVD drives? If you say No, I'll look harder or look somewhere
else.

I"ve been looking at microcenter.com. They have the advantage of
having a store in Baltimore that charges the same price as their
webstore,

Here's just one example, 1000 dollars but doesn't mention optical drive
https://www.microcenter.com/product/...uter#tab-specs

I have lots of DVD drives, but I don't think these computers have an
external 5" drive bay to install one into?


Another one.

https://www.microcenter.com/product/...d)?storeid=125

micky wrote:

Is it my imagination or are they these days selling a lot of PC's
without DVD drives?

Normal people don't really use them any more, I doubt I'd bother on a
laptop, just use a USB optical if needed, with a new tower I'd probably
fit one for completeness.

micky wrote:
Is tit my imagination or are they these days selling a lot of PC's
without DVD drives? If you say No, I'll look harder or look somewhere
else.

I"ve been looking at microcenter.com. They have the advantage of
having a store in Baltimore that charges the same price as their
webstore,

Make sure PC has 5.25" bay, do what you want ?

As the computers get smaller, they may switch to a "slim" drive
instead of a "full" tray-eject-with-no-locking-hub style. But
be careful, as they may slip a "DVDROM" in there, rather than
a "DVD+/-RW Writer" in there, and "slim" drives aren't going
to cost $20 when you want one. A slim should cost more
because... marketing.

https://www.microcenter.com/product/...refurbished%29

Now, when I tried Newegg, I had to drill down past the
"CPU" choice in their PC collection, and then a DVD option
appeared in the left-hand selectors, near the bottom. I
clicked this link as a test case, as it claims DVD at
some level.

https://www.newegg.com/hp-elitedesk-...82E16883450312

OK, eye test. While using the Zoom box for viewing the product,
can you spot the tray in plain sight in the front bezel of that thing ?

If you can see the tray and the button, you can ask Motor Vehicles to
remove the "Needs Glasses" item from your drivers license.

See, this stuff is easy :-/

Hope you're not in a rush to buy this PC.

Paul

On Sun, 9 Aug 2020 06:50:19 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

micky wrote:

Is it my imagination or are they these days selling a lot of PC's
without DVD drives?

Normal people don't really use them any more, I doubt I'd bother on a
laptop, just use a USB optical if needed, with a new tower I'd probably
fit one for completeness.

I agree about most people not needing them anymore. On my laptops, I
swapped the optical drives for 2nd or 3rd hard drives, and on my desktops I
removed the optical drives to free up a SATA port that I can use for a hard
drive. If needed, I have a USB optical drive, but I can't remember the last
time I might have used it. There's just no need anymore.

Still, everyone is different. If someone still needs one, more power to
them.

micky wrote:

Is tit my imagination or are they these days selling a lot of PC's
without DVD drives? If you say No, I'll look harder or look
somewhere else.

I haven't even thought about an optical drive for years. I can't imagine
any piece of hardware requiring an optical drive nowadays. With a decent
or good Internet connection, media can be downloaded by the boatload.

Speaking of tit and optical media...
I really want to find "It's a Bikini World" (1967) on DVD, but that
would be online someplace. Need to figure out who the sexy "Liar Liar"
dancer is (Yes, some people think they know). It might be in the credits
on the DVD, but who knows where that DVD is.

micky wrote:
Is tit my imagination or are they these days selling a lot of PC's
without DVD drives? If you say No, I'll look harder or look somewhere
else.

You're correct. Since software stopped being distributed on optical media
(5-10 years ago), there's been little need/demand.

I"ve been looking at microcenter.com. They have the advantage of
having a store in Baltimore that charges the same price as their
webstore,

micky wrote:
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 09 Aug 2020 01:23:49 -0400, micky
wrote:

Is tit my imagination or are they these days selling a lot of PC's
without DVD drives? If you say No, I'll look harder or look somewhere
else.

I"ve been looking at microcenter.com. They have the advantage of
having a store in Baltimore that charges the same price as their
webstore,

Here's just one example, 1000 dollars but doesn't mention optical drive
https://www.microcenter.com/product/...uter#tab-specs

Look for an advert for the computer case itself, from Lian Li.

https://www.amazon.ca/Water-Cooling-.../dp/B085DPLBM6

The hard drives go in the bottom sandwich cooler, next to the PSU.

SSDs go on the backside of the case, requiring access to both sides of the casing.

I don't see your dreams of DVD supremacy being satisfied there.


I have lots of DVD drives, but I don't think these computers have an
external 5" drive bay to install one into?


Another one.

https://www.microcenter.com/product/...d)?storeid=125

OK, when that one has a DVD drive, it's above the central facade.
Still haven't figured out what the breakaway panel in the center is for.
Maybe the center cutout keeps your sandwich warm.

https://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggIm...97-746-V02.jpg

( https://www.newegg.com/hp-prodesk-60...82E16883997746 )

You'd need to find a review, to see pictures of stuff opened on that.

Note that refurbs at the moment are super-volatile on pricing.

And new computers aren't a lot better. It's back to school time.

Paul

Andy Burns wrote:
micky wrote:

Is it my imagination or are they these days selling a lot of PC's
without DVD drives?

Normal people don't really use them any more, I doubt I'd bother on a
laptop, just use a USB optical if needed, with a new tower I'd probably
fit one for completeness.

"Normal" people? For archiving, I still use the HELL out of my DVD
burner. I just bought a laptop while in a hurry. Got it home and
discovered that it had no burner, almost returned it. It's kind of like
the way a lot of newer TVs don't have RCA connectors on them so that you
can hook them up to your stereo. They want you to buy one of their
crappy sounding "sound bars".

I have data CDs from as far back as 1993. *All* of my CDs and the DVDs
that I've burned still work flawlessly. As long as they're stored in a
cool, dark and dry location, they are very dependable.

OTOH, I don't trust thumb drives simply because they can easily be
accidentally overwritten.

--
John C.

On 8/9/2020 2:51 AM, Char Jackson wrote:
I agree about most people not needing them anymore. On my laptops, I
swapped the optical drives for 2nd or 3rd hard drives, and on my desktops I
removed the optical drives to free up a SATA port that I can use for a hard
drive. If needed, I have a USB optical drive, but I can't remember the last
time I might have used it. There's just no need anymore.
Unfortunately they are removing the space for any drive on the new
laptops. Most new laptops the have solid state drives and no optical
drive. It looks like the average solid state drive is about 256GB with
some 128GB and 500GB.

Hopefully after the panic is over, the prices of computer equipment will
return to what it was.

"John Doe" wrote in message
...
micky wrote:

Is tit my imagination or are they these days selling a lot of PC's
without DVD drives? If you say No, I'll look harder or look
somewhere else.

I haven't even thought about an optical drive for years. I can't imagine
any piece of hardware requiring an optical drive nowadays. With a decent
or good Internet connection, media can be downloaded by the boatload.

Speaking of tit and optical media...
I really want to find "It's a Bikini World" (1967) on DVD, but that
would be online someplace. Need to figure out who the sexy "Liar Liar"
dancer is (Yes, some people think they know). It might be in the credits
on the DVD, but who knows where that DVD is.

Found this:

"https://www.thevideobeat.com/monster-teenage-movies/bikini-world-1967.html"

Kinda remember that movie. Came out while I was in the service, and a bunch
of us went to Mobile to see it (the base was ~25 miles away).
--

SC Tom

knuttle wrote:
On 8/9/2020 2:51 AM, Char Jackson wrote:
I agree about most people not needing them anymore. On my laptops, I
swapped the optical drives for 2nd or 3rd hard drives, and on my
desktops I
removed the optical drives to free up a SATA port that I can use for a
hard
drive. If needed, I have a USB optical drive, but I can't remember the
last
time I might have used it. There's just no need anymore.
Unfortunately they are removing the space for any drive on the new
laptops.Â* Most new laptops the have solid state drives and no optical
drive.Â*Â* It looks like the average solid state drive is about 256GB with
some 128GB and 500GB.

Hopefully after the panic is over, the prices of computer equipment will
return to what it was.


I would install a DVD drive on a system I built for myself. I find it
convenient to have an inexpensive and disposable to tote around or share
my data if desired. That may be an "old-fashioned" way to think about
it, but it works for me. I think I paid less than $25 for my last one.

"John C." wrote

| "Normal" people? For archiving, I still use the HELL out of my DVD
| burner. I just bought a laptop while in a hurry. Got it home and
| discovered that it had no burner, almost returned it. It's kind of like
| the way a lot of newer TVs don't have RCA connectors on them so that you
| can hook them up to your stereo. They want you to buy one of their
| crappy sounding "sound bars".
|
| I have data CDs from as far back as 1993. *All* of my CDs and the DVDs
| that I've burned still work flawlessly. As long as they're stored in a
| cool, dark and dry location, they are very dependable.
|
| OTOH, I don't trust thumb drives simply because they can easily be
| accidentally overwritten.

I distrust them because they're magnetic storage.
They're also less safe, because they're writable, to
pass between computers. I would never use a USB stick
someone else gave me, but I'd be happy to look at
their vacation photos on a DVD.
Thumbsticks are also undependable. I have at least 2
that are not recognized on all of my XP and Win7 computers.
I've never figured out why. So I use them mostly just to
move files between computers. And as secondary backup.

I built my current computer in 2015. The Samsung DVD
writer was something like $17. I buy blanks on sale for
20-30 cents each. I use them regularly for backup.
Sometimes I record movies or lectures to watch on TV.
(Yes, some TVs can accommodate a USB stick, but not all.)

These discussions always sound like a kind of neurotic
denial to me. People get emotional about it and pick their
"team", when it's really just a practical issue.

A great example of that was when Lord Jobs declared the
floppy dead and stopped putting floppy drives into Macs.
His devotees all echoed him: Floppies are outdated. It's
a waste of money and space.So they paid through the
nose for a new floppy-less Mac. (When they could have
had 4 PCs for the same price.) Then they all bought a USB
external floppy drive for $100. (Remember those blue drives
that suddenly showed up and existed for a couple of years?)
And none of them seemed to be able to see the absurdity
of their logic. Meanwhile, a magazine article said it had been
calcculated that putting a floppy drive into Macs would have
cost about $7.50. In a computer costing $2,000+.

Yet PCs not only had floppies for many more years. They
also had floppy ribbon cable connectors on the motherboards
for years after that. So one could retrofit a $10 floppy drive
fairly easily.

It was never about floppies being out of date. That didn't
happen for many more years. It was about the Apple
strategy to constantly force people to buy new product by
breaking the old and not providing backward support.

Similarly, removing DVD drives is not because they no
longer make sense. It's because the industry is moving
toward lightweight, mobile devices for consumer services.
On one side, the non-techie consumer is driving a market
for kiddie-usable devices. On the other side, companies
are trying to shift toward renting computation itself rather
than selling computation tools.

In article , Mayayana
wrote:


It was never about floppies being out of date. That didn't
happen for many more years.

yes it was. floppy sales had been dropping well before the first imac
was released, to where one of the only two remaining floppy disk
factories closed earlier that year. software distribution was mostly
online and transferring files between machines was done via ethernet.

It was about the Apple
strategy to constantly force people to buy new product by
breaking the old and not providing backward support.

that is not apple's strategy at all, as can be seen by the lengths to
which they go so that old products continue to work.

Similarly, removing DVD drives is not because they no
longer make sense. It's because the industry is moving
toward lightweight, mobile devices for consumer services.

nope. it's because software and movies are now distributed online, as
well as hard drives being much faster, much cheaper and far more
convenient than dealing with zillions of optical discs.

backing up a multi-terabyte hard drive to optical discs is not a viable
option. even a 500 gig drive, which is now considered tiny, would take
a ridiculous amount of time.

On 09/08/2020 14.38, Mayayana wrote:
"John C." wrote

| "Normal" people? For archiving, I still use the HELL out of my DVD
| burner. I just bought a laptop while in a hurry. Got it home and
| discovered that it had no burner, almost returned it.

You can get an external unit, via USB.

It's kind of like
| the way a lot of newer TVs don't have RCA connectors on them so that you
| can hook them up to your stereo. They want you to buy one of their
| crappy sounding "sound bars".
|
| I have data CDs from as far back as 1993. *All* of my CDs and the DVDs
| that I've burned still work flawlessly. As long as they're stored in a
| cool, dark and dry location, they are very dependable.
|
| OTOH, I don't trust thumb drives simply because they can easily be
| accidentally overwritten.

I distrust them because they're magnetic storage.

Unless I'm lost in translation, they are not magnetic, they are flash media.

They're also less safe, because they're writable, to
pass between computers. I would never use a USB stick
someone else gave me, but I'd be happy to look at
their vacation photos on a DVD.

Use Linux :-p

Thumbsticks are also undependable. I have at least 2
that are not recognized on all of my XP and Win7 computers.
I've never figured out why. So I use them mostly just to
move files between computers. And as secondary backup.

I built my current computer in 2015. The Samsung DVD
writer was something like $17. I buy blanks on sale for
20-30 cents each. I use them regularly for backup.
Sometimes I record movies or lectures to watch on TV.
(Yes, some TVs can accommodate a USB stick, but not all.)

Unfortunately, they are ridiculously small. I have a BlueRay writer,
which allows up to 100 GB. They are not cheap, but some are archival
quality.


These discussions always sound like a kind of neurotic
denial to me. People get emotional about it and pick their
"team", when it's really just a practical issue.

Quite so :-)

....

Similarly, removing DVD drives is not because they no
longer make sense. It's because the industry is moving
toward lightweight, mobile devices for consumer services.
On one side, the non-techie consumer is driving a market
for kiddie-usable devices. On the other side, companies
are trying to shift toward renting computation itself rather
than selling computation tools.

Well, it is a fact they are disappearing, like it or not. The blanks are
hard to find. They store too little. The drives are cheap but big, and
big is a no-no on laptops that try to be very slim.

Yes, I trust DVD media more, but...

--
Cheers, Carlos.