*Question for all ~PC~ Gamers*

Just a quick question guys...how long does your optical drives last? I spend( when possible) up to 5-6 hours a day playing games and my last pc's optical drives went out after only one year of gaming. My last pc was an HP and I purposely bought the most expensive Sony Light Scribe Drive and it went out on me. So this time I bought 1 cheap CD-Rom drive and 1 DVD drive so if they go ut they'll be easy and cheap to replace.

I know this maybe should be in the Hardware Forum but I wanted to hear from gamers who spend a ton of hours abusing their drives. So any replies would be very appreciated!

Thx for any replies!



---W_aV_y---

 

Had a Liteon DVD burner that I've used for ages and it hasn't died yet, must've had it for at least 2 years.

 

i have a liteon dvd-rom player thats lasted me a little over 3 years now and still going.

 

my lite-on 16XDvd burner has lasted about 1.5 years so far, I usually upgrade before my CD drives go out ( I guess I have been lucky)

 

Wow, I seriously need to get me one of those Liteon DVD players. Great replies everyone, Ty.




_--W_aV_y--_

 

Last Sony burner I had died at the 1 year mark too.

 

Yeh, maybe Sony just makes a bad opti drive. What got me pissed was I had 2 LightScribe Drives on my HP, I only used one the whole year( for games only) but I never burned with it. That drive went out, so I went to my secondary backup drive which had never been used and it worked only once then it went out. I try not to buy Sony products( for the pc) and I will Never buy a Hewlitt Packard ever again.

Thx for the reply


---w_AV_y---

 

I know this is wrong (yes, I have read http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=3423 ) but I do use cracks to save the life/wear & tear(both meanings) of both my assests.....CD/DVD & Optical Drives. I've had a debate with Codemasters over the use of cracks since they can't provide the original copies of my favourite game/s after 5 years because I'm worried that my grandkids will scratch my discs.

I've had my Diamond Data CD burner for over 3 years now and it's still going strong.....It was just my floppy drive that died first @ 2 years.

 

The CD drives from both of our computers (at least 5 and 3 years old, I think) haven't shown any signs of dying yet, even after endless hours of usage a day. I can't recall the brands, though, but I know they're pretty old.

 

Probably right. But it seems that most people who use this LiteOn Drive are more likely to experience a long drive life than if you went with a Sony. Only Adrynalyne and me have posted Sony products with bad results, is there anyone else who uses Sony?

Shock Troop and Kaos have very impressive life spans on their drives;Im going to look up the prices on both the LiteOn and Diamond Data drives.

And Shock, if you can remember the brand please post it. Thx for the replies, this is great info


---w_AV_y---

 

Mine has never conked out. My HDD always goes faggish when I play though.

 

Sony don't make their own drives, they're rebadged, and sometimes it's from LiteOn (and BenQ).


I've never had a drive die on me yet, and have always used LiteOn.

Their DVD burners however, aren't of the same quality as their CD burners.

 

All my drives have been going strong.

LiteOn 16X DVD-Rom: 2 years
LiteOn 32X CDRW: 2 years
Pioneer 16X16 Dual Layer DVD burner: 1 year
LiteOn 52X CDRW: 2.5 years

 

My only criticism of LiteOn is that on some drives, the tray can seem a bit flimsy, and they can be pretty loud.

That doesn't detract from their performance or reliability though.

 

This thing is a savior to all gamers in my opinion:

GameDrive

I'm using Gamedrive 9.0, It came in a bundle package with my video card. This program is awesome, after compressing and saving your primary play cd for your game onto your hard drive, you can use it just like any other disc drive. Your OS will read it as a "Virtual Drive" I would highly suggest looking into buying a copy of this program if DVD-ROM longevity is a concern for you.

Best of Luck

 

The only problem I see with that though are some copy protection might stop you from playing. there are some protections that detect a virtual drive and won't let the game work. Also a company called StarForce makes protection that can hurt the hardware on your pc. killing cdroms and HDD's completely. Google it and read up on this very hot topic.

other than that Virtual drives are cool.

 

"Copyright Protection Support: All major copyright protections, such as SecuROM, SecuROM 7 and earlier versions, Starforce 3 and earlier versions, Safedisk1, SafeDisk2, Smarte, and LaserLock are supported''


Doesn't the above statement relieve these problems. The program looks great, but I wouldnt want to screw up my drives either. Ive been looking for something to create "virtual drives" on my pc, that is the ONLY good thing I like about Steam, I can play for hours without using any opti drives.

Im going to google this info, but if any others have any opinions on this GameDrive please post it.


Thx for the replies Ian( great link thx) and Lube


---w_AV_y---

 

That Gamedrive would really only have a limited market, mainly for older games that have multiple CD's which are used during gameplay.

For anyone else, there are easier ways, something which I won't discuss.

 

I just looked up one of the CD drives, and it's a HL-DL-ST, whatever that is (apparently the default CD drive with Dells 3 years ago). I haven't had access to the other computer lately, but it's also whatever the default was 5 or so years ago. Both are CD-RW.
On a random note, I've heard Plextor drives are rather good.

 

No Problem Wavy, I haven't really done a lot of research on the program, like I said: it only came with my video card. But, I do know that I have used the following games with it, and they have worked without ANY problems:

Far Cry
Doom 3
Quake 3 & 4
Counter-Strike
Fear
WOW
Medal of Honor
Call Of Duty (1 & 2)
... and a few other little crappy games that were like $5.

Ah, and I just thought of this: one problem that you MIGHT have is slight lagging. I see in your sig that your HD is a single 200GB drive... I am using two raptors in raid 0, so my HDD responce time is much faster than a single drive. Although, I have never tried this program on anything BUT the raid 0 drives, I'm not sure how the responce time would affect gameplay.

 

But battlefield 2 will not work with it due to it's encrypted files within the cd.

 

I just finished copying battlefield onto the drive, and tested it: it worked too. The GameDrive program is designed to catch all of those encrypted files on discs. Did Battlefield not work for you? BTW: I am using Battlefield 2 without any expansions, so I can't speak for the expansion discs.

 

What encrypted files are they?

I don't own BF2, but I've never heard of a game using encrypted files.

They generally use an anti copying system like Securom or SafeDisc combined with a CD check, and for online games, an extra layer like PunkBuster checks for cracks etc.

 

Thx for the reply How bad of a lag do you think I would have? Would it be considerably noticable?

I guess I should start thinking of adding a secondary HDrive;my current HDrive supports the Raid config. I still think I should try getting the program as soon as I upgrade my pc again( probably within 6months)....and the games you posted are pretty much the same games I own (plus the multitude of $5dollar titles)... so Im glad to know they work.


---w_AV_y---

 

Well, to be honest: I really wouldn't know what type of lag to expect. I mean, if your already using a sata drive, your speeds should already be pretty darn high. Is it a 10k drive? I'm just guessing here, but I don't think that you'll have too many problems with your current configuration if you purchase gamedrive.

 

Why would it lag?

Hard drives are much faster than optical drives, so if it didn't lag previously, it certainly shouldn't now.

 

See, that is why I was only assuming: I wasn't sure. But, Now the entire game is running from one drive (or set of drives), so I could see that there would be a possible lag, like I said though, I'm not sure, just a guess.

 

Heres the model( got the number frm an everest scan)


http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...sktop Storage/DiamondMax Family/DiamondMax 10



I think its a 7500rpm not a 10000..


edit: its a 7200rpm.


---w_av_y---

 

I've never had a Lite-on fail on me either, but the most impressive survival has consistently been Plextors. I've seen Plextors survive damage that would just have to break other drives (disc breaking inside, drive falling some 10-15 feet -- although the case was bent beyond the ability to install it in a new case).

The only bad Plextor drive I've seen was one that someone accidentally broke off the molex power connector for. And that was like a 2x burner 24x reader or something, so it had already lasted several years.

 

Yea, even without a 10k, you've still got sata, so the drive should operate a game pretty fast

 

Yes, why wouldn't an exact image of the disc work? Would that not circumvent the cd's inbuilt protections? I can imagine something external like Punkbuster catching it, but encrypted files? How are they not going to be included in the image, if a bit by bit copy is taken?

I realize I'm skirting the borders of piracy here, but I have to admit; I play my games from HDD and love it. (Also, backing up media you legitimately own is not a crime here) I am definitely going to have to try this with my copy of BF2 and expansion tonight. I will post results tomorrow!

 

Very true, keeping in mind I have no idea how to do this( Im going to have to google it).But I figured I already own these games so I'd try it out. Besides most of my games are DVDs and I dont have a DVDburner

I'll definetly be checking in to see your post results.



----w_AV_y----

 

Ooops! I forgot to report back! I can confirm that you can indeed image BF2 and run it from the hard drive! It's GREAT!!! Now, to implement my SATA RAID configuration....heheehhehe.....

Not sure how well it plays online like this though! I wouldn't do it and expect not to get caught!