Do you still need an optical drive?

[kyrax12]

Seems like optical drive in this day and age are pretty useless. Considering the drive port could be used as a secondary hard-drive and such.

 

[Raduque]

Several laptops have omitted the optical drive in favor of thin-ness. I personally haven't used an optical drive in the past 12 months.

 

[Charlie98]

I use my optical drive at least every 3 or 4 days.

 

[nubki11a]

How do you install Windows when you don't have a CD drive? Surely, USB isn't always an option right?

 

[ahenkel]

I stopped installing them in my builds a couple years ago. Got an external usb one for the occasional disk install.

 

[Galatian]

Call me old school but I still purchase my music on CDs and my movies on Blu-Ray. I just don't want to be in the hands of Apple an the likes on the quality of my digital rips. Of course this is for my desktop. I do enjoy the thinness of my 13" rMBP without the ODD.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

I use it for some of my games. I play a fair mix of games, but all my EA games are disks. Origin sucks.

 

[Sleepingforest]

How do you install Windows when you don't have a CD drive? Surely, USB isn't always an option right?

It is as long as you have USB2.0 ports coming out the motherboard, as those are always natively supported (no driver installation necessary) on modern UEFIs. That's how I installed mine.

The biggest restriction is that you'll need another computer.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

The biggest restriction is that you'll need another computer.

Yeah but only once.

I just took one of my old 8GB USB 2.0 sticks and made it my Windows installation drive. A lot easier to carry around than a CD and a better use of my ever-growing pile of old USB drives.

 

[Sleepingforest]

I definitely should have clarified that I meant just once to make an install stick.

 

[masteryoda34]

The optical drive on my main PC broke a few years ago and I haven't missed it.

For OS installs, I exclusively use USB sticks. Microsoft offers a tool to convert your Windows DVD image to a bootable USB. For Linux, there are other free tools to convert images to bootable USB.

For the other rare instances where I need to read a CD/DVD, I'll just find another computer with an optical drive and copy the contents or make an image.

If I didn't have any other computer with an optical drive, I would just buy an external USB optical drive as this point. I don't see the need for an internal optical drive for 95% of computers going forward.

 

[mfenn]

Tonight, I opened the front door on my case to put a disc in the optical drive for the first time in about 3 months. And that was only to check something for another user on this forum. So yeah, I'd say I could skip them next build.

 

[piasabird]

There is probably some way to download an ISO image at the time of purchase from Microsoft. It would be nice if you could just buy it already on a USB Stick. Of course you could just temporarily hook up a standard OEM DVD DL drive and install the OS and then just turn it off and unhook it and close up the case. Maybe they should make a network attached DVD. If they can make a wireless scanner, why not a wireless DVD?

 

[biostud]

I don't have one in my desktop.

 

[Cerb]

Yes. CDs, DVDs, and BDs all need an ODD for the first reading. These days, any of them will get unwrapped, ripped, then go to a shelf or drawer, as a backup. An ODD is critical to that process.

 

[smakme7757]

I have a Blu-Ray reader/burner in my desktop machine however I've dropped optical from all my other machines. I keep a USB DVD drive just in case though.

 

[NickelPlate]

Like 3.25 floppies, I'm using mine less and less and mostly just to install Windows. They're cheap enough now. You can get a full DVD multi burner for $20.

 

[Deathhorse]

i like having them i use mine every few days. I also burn random mp3 cds for my older car that has a basic cd/mp3 player in it.

 

[DeeeV]

Haven't had one for 6 years.

 

[mfenn]

There is probably some way to download an ISO image at the time of purchase from Microsoft. It would be nice if you could just buy it already on a USB Stick. Of course you could just temporarily hook up a standard OEM DVD DL drive and install the OS and then just turn it off and unhook it and close up the case. Maybe they should make a network attached DVD. If they can make a wireless scanner, why not a wireless DVD?

Obviously you just need to buy a Mac to use as a remote disc drive. :awe:

 

[norseamd]

you should at least have a external optical drive if you do not have an internal one. do you need the space? then go with the external one. you do not need the space? then an internal drive is like 20. to install a lot of programs and run older games requires a disk drive.

 

[DeathReborn]

I still play some old games that require the CD to be in the drive.

So yes I always use a Optical Drive, it gives me more options & security of content. I do have a USB drive as well but that is in a laptop bag along with a laptop that doesn't have a drive.

 

[MichaelD]

Yes. CDs, DVDs, and BDs all need an ODD for the first reading. These days, any of them will get unwrapped, ripped, then go to a shelf or drawer, as a backup. An ODD is critical to that process.

My thoughts exactly. (for desktop PCs)

Plus, if you have kids and your relatives are far away (and/or old) burning DVDs of the kids' BD party or school play is a nice thing to do. My elderly mother knows how to play a DVD in the DVD player but she doesn't own a computer.

Additionally, I am an amateur videographer. Whenever we have social group get togethers/events, I'm usually the one recording it and making 20 copies of the DVD for everyone. My two DVD burners get used at least once a month.

Interestingly, I only install Windows/Linux off a USB stick. Why wait for an hour when you can install from a thumbdrive in 15 mins?

ps
I own three laptops. Two don't have ODs and the one that does, I never use it.

 

[KeithP]

Call me old school but I still purchase my music on CDs and my movies on Blu-Ray. I just don't want to be in the hands of Apple an the likes on the quality of my digital rips. Of course this is for my desktop. I do enjoy the thinness of my 13" rMBP without the ODD.

Same here. If I buy an entire album I always buy the CD. That being said the ODD on my MacBook Pro has been removed and replaced with an HD (boot from an SSD in the original HD spot).

The ODD has migrated to an external device. I don't use it much but I do use it probably 1-2 a month.

-KeithP

 

[nwo]

Downloading 40GB games sucks, even with a 16Mbit connection, so that's one use for em... Then there is OS of course and system drivers. I do not have an optical drive in my primary rig (built 2 rigs afterwards). I use 2 optical drives in 3 rigs that I have total.