Are optical drives still relevant?

[psydox]

I haven't really seen any modern gaming rigs to be using an optical drive, mine included.

Many cases just don't support them anymore, why is that?

I had been thinking of just hooking up one to my motherboard and letting it sit on top of my case, any ideas/alternatives?

[IdiotPenguin]

I believe you can get an external one but I’ve never needed one so I’m not sureee

[Guest]

It's very much a personal preference these days to have an optical drive. Most users don't need it - but some do.

 

An idea/alternative is a USB optical drive. I have used plenty over the years and I prefer the Dell ones.

[dizmo]

I haven't used or needed an optical drive in many, many years. I don't think you need one unless you're watching movies.

[Crunchy Dragon]

I think so.

 

Even if I only use mine once or twice a year, I still like to have it. I mainly use it for ripping CDs to my laptop, but I have been known to watch movies on my laptop in the past.

 

One time in high school I watched half of one of the Harry Potter movies in a study hall that I got bored in and happened to have both my laptop and the movie on me. Actually, I had the DVD in the optical drive since I hadn't taken it out from the night before.

[psydox]

1 minute ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I think so.

 

Even if I only use mine once or twice a year, I still like to have it. I mainly use it for ripping CDs to my laptop, but I have been known to watch movies on my laptop in the past.

 

One time in high school I watched half of one of the Harry Potter movies in a study hall that I got bored in and happened to have both my laptop and the movie on me. Actually, I had the DVD in the optical drive since I hadn't taken it out from the night before.

@Crunchy DragonYeah, I have a bag of old components that I salvaged from previous family computers. It's filled with optical drives, hard drives and really bad bulky old heatsinks. I was thinking of putting them to good use in like a home project such as a shared server storage for the family so they can store pics from holidays and such

[DrMacintosh]

I would say yes, but only somewhat. I use mine mostly for ripping DVDs and CDs. Also they are surprisingly useful as data discs if you don't have a flash drive  

[WereCatf]

I can only speak from personal experience, but I haven't used an optical drive in nearly 10 years now. We ain't got no datacaps over here on either mobile broadbands or regular ones, so there really is no reason to bother with physical media at all.

[XxDEATHB3TCHxX]

IMO, it's depends on personal preferences, I usually have one on my PC just in case I might need it if let's say I need to install drivers for devices that doesn't has any installed currently when I don't have access to WiFi or I don't have drivers installed for my WiFi card etc. something along those lines. (Although I'm sure now days Windows install drivers automatically)

 

It's always good to have one somewhere just in case.

Edited August 14, 2018 by XxRaPiDK3LLERxX

[Raspi454]

I always liked buying disc games, weather it was for the 360, ONE, or PC, they're cheaper if you can get them used, and unlike digital copies, you can re-sell them. 

[Salacious B Crum]

I installed one in my NAS for adding movies to PLEX but have no need for one in either of my rigs as I can just transfer from there

[psydox]

1 minute ago, The Cheeto Bomb said:

I always liked buying disc games, weather it was for the 360, ONE, or PC, they're cheaper if you can get them used, and unlike digital copies, you can re-sell them. 

@The Cheeto Bomb I totally agree with this one, there is a store in my country and they sell pretty much anything to do with tech. Their selection of disc games for all consoles is unlimited lol. But then again I don't really know who would buy a disc game for a good price when you can download games off online stores now like steam and ps4 store.

[XxDEATHB3TCHxX]

3 minutes ago, The Cheeto Bomb said:

I always liked buying disc games, weather it was for the 360, ONE, or PC, they're cheaper if you can get them used, and unlike digital copies, you can re-sell them. 

I still got my PS2 games that I usually shove in to my PC to play them on the emulators (even today). Which is another good thing to have optical drives.

[Raspi454]

Just now, XxDEATHB3TCHxX said:

I still got my PS2 games that I usually shove in to my PC to play them on the emulators (even today). Which is another good thing to have optical drives.

Can I stick a 360 disc in there? Use some emulating software?  

[XxDEATHB3TCHxX]

3 minutes ago, The Cheeto Bomb said:

Can I stick a 360 disc in there? Use some emulating software?  

Xenia is an Xbox 360 Emulator but just started a year ago I guess, although the progress is REALLY SLOW, RPCS3 is PS3 emulator, which seems to be doing really great.

 

At this time PCSX2 (PS2 Emulator) only supports running disc PS2 games off from your Optical drive (if the disc of cause is in your optical drive).

 

Plus I think Xbox 360 + Xbox One games are encrypted, you can't read the contents off from Windows unless I think you need a Blu-ray drive which needs to be flashed.

[Raspi454]

4 minutes ago, psydox said:

@The Cheeto Bomb I totally agree with this one, there is a store in my country and they sell pretty much anything to do with tech. Their selection of disc games for all consoles is unlimited lol. But then again I don't really know who would buy a disc game for a good price when you can download games off online stores now like steam and ps4 store.

You can add disc games to your steam library, and will show up just like it would if you had bought it from the steam store. And we do know that steam sales are insane, plus you don't have to wait for it to download if you have slow wifi.    

[Wolf ~ IRONI]

27 minutes ago, psydox said:

I haven't really seen any modern gaming rigs to be using an optical drive, mine included.

Many cases just don't support them anymore, why is that?

I had been thinking of just hooking up one to my motherboard and letting it sit on top of my case, any ideas/alternatives?

I only use a external one for windows on cd or gta v disc download

[Razor Blade]

IMO they're still useful. Not sure if I would bother putting one inside the computer case though. Once upon a time in a galaxy far far away external USB optical drives were a horrid,  bulky, power hungry, slow nightmares I wouldn't wish on my worse enemies... but with USB 3.0 and slim drives that simply isn't the case anymore. Recently I picked up an external USB slim drive that just plugs into a USB port with no need for a power supply. It serves my needs just fine and when I'm not using it, I can unplug it and stick it in the drawer.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I still use them, pretty much only for ripping movies and music. Many movies and music albums are available only on disc.