If I am using my drive for both reading and writing, some have told me this will shorten the life of my drive? and how long can i expect to get out of it?
It may shorten the life a little, average expectancy of a burner is 2 years or a thousand burns, nothing really addresses whether reading also plays any part into it. As burners are now reasonably cheap and getting cheaper, you can replace them for 40.00. I have a DVD-Rom Lite-on 167T that just reads and I paid 25.00 at WalMart for it. But now with the downward prices on burners, might as well just have two burners.
Yes two burners is the way to go also 2 hard drives use your slave drive for your temp. folder for movie backups that way you don't FRAG your master drive with your O.S.
Couldn't agree more with both arniebear and rbrock, computer only came with a dvdrom, bought a cyberdrive 16dl, second hdd, and video card, all for +/- $120 at bestbuy, all working great, no system probs, and has been over a year.
