Lol to the people who say they need an optical drive on a gaming laptop....

And not require an internet connection... ah those were the days.

 

Yep, I have a 4 TB external Hard Drive with all my back-ed up iso's. I can install a 10 gyg game off an iso in 3 minutes....

 

Y'all are some impatient dudes lol. My cable stinks, steam dl's cap at around 2MB. I start a download and go do something else.

 

Public library is only open for so many hours . Pls, laptops shouldn't be led unattended in public places.

Anyway, I average about 80 KB/s, according to Steam, and sometimes hit 200 for short bursts.

 

2MB/s is bad? I'm lucky to maintain 600 KB/s, and that's about three times what I was getting as recently as a year and a half ago.

Now 2Mb/s is pretty rough. 2MB/s? I'd take it.

Yeah, but don't you have huge bandwidth during the 9 months of the year when you're at school? That counts for something.

 

It's a bit more challenging from a design perspective, but you certainly don't need to pack dual 780m cards in there to run games at 1080p. Recent games like Bioshock Infinite and Far Cry 3 are still running just fine at 1080p on my three year old Envy 15 with a weak 5830m.

Not sure why you'd require a 192-bit GPU, unless you run games with 16xMSAA, or planning for more demanding releases in the future? There are a few titles that are super demanding, but if you turn off MSAA, most recent games will run fine on laptops with significantly weaker GPUs than even the mid-range 760m and 765m.

The market for gaming laptops is already a small niche market, but there seems to be a growing segment interested in a thin form factor with at least a mid-range dedicated GPU. Still not many models available, but there are a few, and folks seem willing to pay a higher premium for a thin and portable laptop that can run games without a bulky chassis (or disco lights). ;-)

 

Oops I meant Mbps. So, yeah...

 

Right. I'm not going to bother reading the 9 pages after the first two and simply state my opinion/fact here.

The need of optical drives depends on where you live and the technological standpoint of said place. I, for one, live in a third world country. I am also a laptop enthusiast. I *WILL* be taking an optical drive in my next machine, as I did with my current one. And even if I, being a person who is pretty competent with tech, don't need the drive or its usage that much; the minute you DO want/need it, you'll be annoyed you don't have it. If universities/schools give you stuff on a CD to use (has happened multiple times), or you win a movie on DVD on twitter (happened once. Was Noobz movie. Nice movie, ending though), or simply decide that one day you want to pop memtest on a cd or dvd or something to check if your RAM is bad without reformatting the only flash drive you have every time you need to run a bootable program because it's easier to use one of the stack of like 30 blank DVDs you have in your drawer there... yeah, I can think of many instances when an optical drive is useful to have.

If I was in the middle of america where my school would probably say "hey go download stuff" and our government websites didn't get hacked like this h4x0r3d (may be back to normal by the time you check it) because their security is about as good as a guard who just took sleeping pills, and where tech was cheap and accessible enough that it doesn't cost almost $200 USD for an optical caddy unless you order it overseas (in which case it'll probably cost almost as much in shipping/clearing alone, and take weeks to arrive), THEN maybe I'll be okay foregoing one in place of a hard drive.

But like the (all true) hilarious and seemingly uncommon instances listed above, I seem to rather like that it's there whenever I need it, and am perfectly happy to get my machines with them.

 

Like others here, I like having an optical drive because it's useful when I need it. I have Netflix (both DVD & streaming) and there is a lot of content that is only available on disc. I enjoy watching such videos on airline flights and other places where there isn't access to a television and disc player. While I typically use USB drives for OS installs, I do burn to and rip from discs, and the optical drive is useful for that as well. When I'm not using it, I can swap it out for an extra hard drive. But I like having the option there, and for me, it does get used and is a valuable part of the system.

 

Actually, it comes down to methods of production and materials being used.
The market and manufacturers conform to 'cost efficiency' or what's monetarily cheap to pull off. Therefore they use inefficient/cheap materials which aren't even maximized to their fullest potential, the methods of production they use are decades outdated as is the science being used, and you end up with relatively bulky solutions that use obsolete hardware, overheat easily, and are subject to planned obsolescence.

Laws of thermodynamics are not an absolute - they are temporary observations based on our limited understanding and approximation of what's happening in the real world, all of which is subject to change at any given time.

If we were using superior synthetic materials, state of the art methods of production and latest science... it would result in something completely different (actually it would likely produce technology that represents an exponential quantum jump - so large in fact we wouldn't be able to recognize ourselves - question of heat and thinness wouldn't even be in question with that kind of approach).
However, we live in a system where companies, manufacturers and markets focus on what's cheap and cost effective, therefore its always a question of monetary cost - they don't ask themselves 'do we have the resources and technology to pull it off? (for which the answer is virtually always 'yes') - and you end up with what you see in the market.

That depends on what you want to achieve.
Thinness can represent technical efficiency (which states we can do far more with less), lowering overall weight of an object and reducing the amount of used materials while increasing performance, battery life, durability, etc.

 

A fair question, if you're advocating use of the latest technology regardless of cost, is how many people would purchase $10,000 laptops created under such a situation?

 

Laws of thermodynamics? Guys, this thread is about an optical drive.

 

It's about using the space for improved cooling or other options... read the thread.

 

I did read the thread, LOL. The OP asked if anyone else felt the way he does, and now Laws of Thermodynamics are being discussed. Just thought it was funny...

Vaguely related, but by all means continue. :thumbsup:

 

Right now thinness seems to be design aesthetic that negatively impacts technical efficiency. Macs are weaker than they could be because Apples design choices limit hardware; and they run hot to boot. Firms like HP try to mimic Apple and come out with something like the Envy 17, which I bought, that runs scorching hot just from being on. Blade Razer also, I've heard runs hot. And that's a middling gpu in there for such an expensive rig. Afaik a big Sager with a 780m runs cooler than a 1" thin 17" screen Razer.

I was complaining about the w230st being chunky but after leaving it on all night downloading steam apps and the rig remaining cool, and the fan never spinning fast, I do like the design choice here. That may not sound impressive, staying cool just downloading, but my HP and MSI cannot manage this.

 

Agreed, but this isn't because we cannot, or do not know how to do a lot better - its due to manufacturers going the 'monetarily cheap' route. They don't really care about technical efficiency in the proper sense of the word - they just want to save money on production and earn large profits, which means cutting corners, producing not what the material is really capable of, designing products that break and end up obsolete after a certain portion of time for the purpose of generating profits with minor revisions (instead of giving us proper upgrades which should be far more encompassing than what we get now).

Again, this is a question of how the product is designed (and it doesn't have to be chunky at all). MSI went for the cutting corners route apparently if it cannot manage that.

 

I'll never be able to give up the Optical Drive on at least one computer (I only own mobile). I prefer CD albums over download MP3s. I like ripping lossless music. I've installed games. And I've burned ISOs to discs plenty of times. A lot of my software is still disc based. I don't use it often, but definitely enough.

 

Probably used it once to burn a music CD in like a year. I think your spot on about optical drives going the way of floppy disk drives.

 

I haven't used CD drive in a while but I wouldn't mind if it includes it. The laptop that I am looking at automatically has it so I'm pro CD drive for now.

 

Why is this thread still ongoing? Why do people care whether someone else uses an ODD or not? LOL to anyone that spends time worrying what others spend on their laptop.
- For the most part it's not permanent, can add a HDD caddy later. This is weird why this thread went beyond page 1.
- Though every time I think this thread was created by someone who LOL @ ODD users when he bought TWO Razer notebooks, yeah that's seriously funny. Concerned over ODD when spending over $2K on a mediocre hardware and a Mac Clone no less.

 

Because someone was wrong on the Internet! Or at least, more than a few people believe so.

I still like to have an optical drive. Strictly speaking, I could probably get away without one on my next laptop, but that's because I have one on my desktop and my Inspiron, and it's unlikely gaming will be a primary consideration when buying my next laptop. However, I still use it for a few things:

- Old games that I already have on CD (although a number of these I have backed up to ISOs - but some have copy protection that makes that not work as well as it should)
- Burning audio CDs to play in my car, since it's cheaper to buy a spindle of CDs, even high-quality ones, than to buy an mp3 player. Just did this tonight.
- Playing DVDs I've rented. Contrary to the OP's opinion, I think it makes sense to rent DVDs. It's more economical than Netflix if you only watch one or two DVDs per month, even factoring in the cost of transportation to get the the video store.

As for whether you need it on a gaming laptop... if you are buying a gaming laptop because you don't have a gaming desktop (as an only machine), then I'd want an optical drive. If you're buying it and already have another machine with an optical drive, it depends on your use patterns.

Over the next decade, though, optical drives probably will increasingly go the way of the floppy disk. Probably less thoroughly, though, since they're still commonly used for music and video as well as computer-focused tasks.

 

It's funny. I'm usually in the camp of not needing an optical drive, but I recently had an issue where I needed to load up some games on physical CDs because Origin sucks.

I had to network the CD drive of an old Athlon X2 laptop in order to get it done!

 

Then there's poor saps like me who live in a rural area and the only broadband service available is through satellite. I have a 10 gig per month limit and the speeds are nothing to write home about. If I want to watch an HD movie my only option is a physical disk in a blu ray player. Thank you AT&T.

 

I feel your pain man. Don't use my drive much anymore, but its definitely nice to have.

 

Lol, it is HILARIOUS that this thread is still going.....



Conclusion : Although everyone agree's that Optical drives are going the way of the doo doo, for many they still serve a purpose.




I think we can close this one now....:thumbsup:

 

Remember when you were trying to install a game (in my case, Knights of the Old Republic 1), it came with 4-5 disks, and there was ALWAYS THAT ONE DISK THAT WOULD FAIL AND YOU HAD TO RESTART FROM DISK 1?!?! I swear, I prayed to the heavens that attempt #6 would be my last, but LOLNOPE!

Same goes with Splinter Cell...that game...

 

Had the same exact problem with KOTOR lol. oh the irony.

 

Are we? Ok I'll chip in too I've removed the optical drive from my system simply because it'll save a bit of weight. I did this a year ago. Never missed it. As for the games on the physical discs that I own. I just download an ISO and use the serial codes I already own. Then I back up the ISOs to storage and the CDs go to...storage.

 

Well, that really depends on you, I for one know that I cannot live without a built in drive. I can't own an external without breaking it . I actually do think that Optical Drives are going in the floppy's direction, I mean when's the last time you heard/saw an ad about anything that has to do with a DVD player, blu ray, optical drive, etc? It's all online and hard drives now....

 

Well, that really depends on you, I for one know that I cannot live without a built in drive. I can't own an external without breaking it . I actually do think that Optical Drives are going in the floppy's direction, I mean when's the last time you heard/saw an ad about anything that has to do with a DVD player, blu ray, optical drive, etc? It's all online and hard drives now....

I just can't live without a drive cause I buy physical copies of video games

 

and how will i burn music for my car without cd drive...

Sent from my HUAWEI Y300-0100 using Tapatalk 2

 

The reason I want a Optical Drive is because it gives my laptop an extraordinary amount of swag.

 

I have been using usb for my car music for past few years now.

 

I think cassettes that connect to a ipod or mp3/mp4 players work too. Then again there is probably few people who use cassettes these days.

 

There's also those devices that use FM.

 

And bluetooth and Aux if the car is new enough.

 

The Bluetooth option and a USB port were 2 deciding factors in my most recent car purchase... Haha

 

Lets see, my cars are a 1997 Mustang and a 2001 Dodge Ram 2500. I don't think any of my vehicles have BT or USB options in them.

 

My wife's car is a 2008 and it doesn't have Bluetooth, USB or auxiliary stereo connectivity.

 

USB CD drive (or equivalent). Personally, I like to save internal space for things that cannot be easily externalized. Like cooling systems. At any rate, I know this doesn't apply to everyone. It just means I'm not going to buy it if has an optical drive (within reason obviously). If it's got an optical drive but meets all my other requirements, I'd still snatch it up. And try to replace it with an SSD.

As tvtropes says: your mileage may vary.

 

The problem with that is that most old games really require you to use a CD drive. Using an ISO system is frustrating enough as is, so having a physical copy of the drive is always a plus.

I can see the argument here, that and the point why, but I ask why you don't just use all three of the mSATA slots on the NP8275 as separate storage devices and run dual 1TB drives in your two drive bays?

I like having the drive there. Adds new options just in case. Or how about installing Windows 7? It doesn't support the installation from a USB drive last I checked, so the CD drive is your only hope.

 

what if you have sufficient file system blocks and insufficient optical drives?

 

Actually it does. All you need is an appropriately sized flash drive, an .iso of the installation DVD, and this Microsoft-supplied program.

 

That's only if you buy it from the MS store.

 

Well, I guess it's your preference. However, there are things with optical drives that many of us still like. For those who doesn't have a laptop or computer that is as great as yours, it is only normal to use optical drives because they are simply convenient.

US Telecom

 

Do I want to buy or need a laptop with an optical drive? I use a faster external optical drive so don't waste money with slow laptop drives if I can help it.

Most of my games are in digital download formats as long as I can avoid any Online Social Clubs and such. As noted, not everyone has fast connections so that limits your options a bit except for something that does not have any type of / or limited activation. Bring on the legacy games?

I'm old school a bit; I still buy music CD's and occasional BD (must have Master DTS) with the DVD disk to rip to my phone or movie/music server. I hate streaming, even with 30Mbps Charter cable. With good 720p movies, BD in my laptop is not needed as all looks good from 11" to 17" screen. Are 3D BD laptops still alive?

But, I'm just one guy..


As far as legal Digital River W7 downloads, as long as your laptop has the product key sticker, this MMVP said yes, the original link was from a Dell user who lost his hard drive. I have used links and activated, over phone, for three laptops with human activation and disclosure where I obtained ISO in the past.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/my-hard-drive-died-how-do-i-transfer-the-windows-7/d3929463-672d-4762-a042-447f0988f49f

"You can download a copy of Windows 7 from the following link that matches the edition that came preinstalled on your Dell Inspiron. You can identify the edition on your COA sticker, along with your product key:

Windows 7 (English) with Service Pack 1
• Windows 7 Home Premium (x86) - X17-58996

• Windows 7 Home Premium (x64) - X17-58997

• Windows 7 Professional (x86) - X17-59183

• Windows 7 Professional (x64) - X17-59186

• Windows 7 Ultimate (x86)* - X17-59463

• Windows 7 Ultimate (x64)* - X17-59465"

COA Certificate of Authenticity:
http://www.microsoft.com/howtotell/content.aspx?pg=coa


What is the Windows Certificate of Authenticity?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/What-is-the-Windows-Certificate-of-Authenticity

 

It's free. Ive used it countless times. Because it is on the Microsoft store does not mean you need to pay for it.

 

No I mean if you buy the Windows ISO at the MS store.

 

I've made an .iso of a Windows DVD and that tool has worked just fine for creating a USB installer.

 

Still use it to make Linux distro's and backups.
Thankful laptop already comes with 3 HDD bays.

Also my internet is 10/10 Mbit. At a cost of 110$ a month.