🚀 go-pugleaf

In article: <817159608snz@pigeon.demon.co.uk>  Brian Tack 
<Brian@pigeon.demon.co.uk> writes:
> 
> I'm thinking of getting a cd rom.  Few questions though.

> 1 Is it worth it. (what are the advantages)

Most certainly !

Several advantages I can think of :-

1) Access to 'multimedia' applications, such as enyclopaedias etc
2) Lots of 'free' software from magazine cover CD's.
3) When installing software, if you get it on CD-Rom, you don't have
   to sit there swapping disks as you are asked for them. Much nicer
   to start it installing and go away and make a cup of tea until it's
   finished.


> 2 What sort is OK. (don't want to spend too much)

You certainly don't want anything less than a double-speed drive and you 
should probably be looking at 4 X drives these days as an entry spec to 
give you some kind of 'future proofing'.

You can pick up typical 2 X speed drives (Mitsumi, Panasonic etc) for 
approx 50-60 pounds these days. Quad speed ones are around the hundred 
mark. Six speed ones tend to be approx 150-180 pounds.

Having said this, I have a Mitsumi FX001D double-speed drive and this 
works fine for me. The main reason for going for a faster drive is so 
that they transfer data to your computer faster, though at the moment no 
software to my knowledge specifically demands a faster drive than 
double-speed. No doubt that in time, this will happen though.

There are standards set down for CD-Rom use : The MPC standards - these 
suggest minimum specs for PC, CD-Rom, Memory, Soundcard etc.

MPC1 refers to single speed drives and MPC2 refers to double speed 
drives. I'm not sure if MPC3 has actually been 'written' yet, but if 
not, I dare say it won't be long and will probably refer to 4 X speed 
drives.

Just about every CD-Rom you will see today will state MPC-2 standards 
for using it.


> 3 Is it easy to fit and get going.

Yes, there's not really that much to it. Obviously it involves opening 
up your PC (unless you're contemplating an external parallel port one),
so you must feel confident in doing so.

You've basically got 3 kinds of interface that they use :-

1) Proprietary
--------------

This is where the CD-Rom drive connects to either a dedicated interface 
card, or to a connector on a sound card. There are 3 kinds of 
proprietary interface commonly found : Panasonic, Mitsumi, Sony.

Double speed drives typically use proprietary interfaces, whereas the 
faster drives tend to be either SCSI or IDE


2) SCSI
-------

CD-Rom drives that connect to a SCSI interface


3) IDE
------

This is where the CD-Rom Drive connects to your IDE or EIDE interface. 
If you only have one HD, then you can connect it as a slave to the HD 
master on the same IDE cable. If you already have 2 HD's connected to 
your IDE interface, then you will need to get an EIDE card, that can 
take up to 4 devices, for instance - 2 IDE channels with 1 master and 1 
slave on each.



So, all you really need to do, is to open up your PC, physically fit the 
drive in a spare drive bay and then connect the relevent cables. 
There'll be 3 cables to connect - Main interface cable, Power supply, 
Sound cable (to a suitable connector on your soundcard, so that you can 
hear sound from the CD).

The next fun comes in setting up your software so that you can access 
it. Again, this depends on what interface method you will be using, but 
basically you'll need to load a couple of drivers in config.sys / 
autoexec.bat so that your system can 'see' the drive.

Most CD-Rom's come with an install disk that will set this up for you.

Go for it - they're certainly cheap enough these days and they shouldn't 
take more than an hour or so to fit.

-- 
Neil Barker : neil@nbarker.demon.co.uk
Birmingham, England.