Notebook advertising question...

[Dogdaysdude]

Hi, all. When a notebook is advertised as having a DVD/CD-RW, does that mean that it will write to DVD's also?
Thanks.

[jabarnutcase]

No...I believe it's a "combo drive" that will PLAY DVD's, but write only CD-R's and CD-RW's.

[Dogdaysdude]

ok...
If I wanted a drive that writes DVD's with a notebook, would it have to be an external drive?

[jabarnutcase]

Haven't gone Notebook shopping in a long time....my guess is that internal, swappable DVD Burners are available.

Stick around and I'm sure someone will know what's out there. (Or go to Dell or IBM's site for example and see what's available).

[classicsoftware]

Lisetn up:

I just fell in love with a beautiful notebook. I just setup an Acer Travelmate 4502LMI. All I can say is

WOW!!!

It has a dual layer DVD-RW, built in card reader, 80 GB hard drive,15" screen, 512 MB RAM and Windows XP professional for less than $1300.00. You will not touch the feature set for the price anywhere.

Setting up the built in centrino wireless was a snap. The touch pad is excellent.

I have always recommeneded Acer, IBM and Toshiba as the best laptops, but this just a great value. I enjoyed it so much, I almost didn;t want to sell it. When my daughter goes to college next year, she'll be getting one just like it.

Full specs here (http://us.acer.com/acerpanam/page4.do?dau22.oid=5570&UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=25&ctx1=US&crc=3179891045)

[saphalline]

Dogdaysdude - Some notebooks/laptops do indeed have swappable drive bays, but most do not. There are new models out there with DVD burners in them as classicsoftware showed with that Acer (most don't have a dual-layer DVD burner, tho). If you want to get an external unit, keep in mind that the cost will be significantly more than having one built-in because of the portability factor (using it on more than one machine) and the extra cost of making a durable shell for the drive.

classicsoftware - That is a really good deal, but not my cup of tea. My laptop love interest is my friend's tiny 12" 3Lb Asus! That's what I want! (Please, oh, please, Santa!!) What I want in a laptop is something tiny, tiny, and more tiny. Every new laptop under the sun has way more power than I will ever use on the road, so I don't mind cutting a few performance corners to get a small, nearly-weightless PC. What would I ever want to do away from my main machine? Play Doom3?? I don't think so! :D

[Dogdaysdude]

Wow, that is a good deal! Too late for Santa to bring one, I guess. Thanks, guys. Merry Christmas or Happy Hannuka or whatever applies.