Dell 8250 - two writeable drives - any software conflicts?

[BJBBJB]

First, I have built PC's from scratch and also bought assembled and am familiar with CD-R technology, however new to DVD recorders. I have read and searched for quite a while and found this a great resource. However there is still one answer I am looking for.

I want to be able to burn CDR's at a reasonable speed, and convert analog video/audio to DVD's, and possible copy non-copy protected DVD's. O yes, make backups via DVD also.

For this particular PC, I plan to buy a dell 8250. My problem is they will only put ONE writeable drive in the box. IE the combo 4x DVD+RW/+R Drive w/CD-RW with a DVD-ROM or a generic CD-reader. Or you can get a CDR with a DVD-ROM or a generic CD-reader. My problem with this is the combo writer is dog-slow on CD writing (16X). However due to authoring software incompatibilities, they will not configure the system with TWO writers. They do not offer a DVD writer-only solution...

Question is this. I know for a fact that I have seen many boxes with two CD writers and there is no problem with software compatibility.
However being new to the video burning world would there be an issue here? I do not have a problem adding the right drive later.

Do I order the box with say a DVD-ROM/CDR drive as drive 1 and then
add a DVD writer (aftermarket) as the second drive? Or perhaps, so I have all the right audio/video connections, order it with a DVD-ROM/CDR only as drive 1 and a DVD-ROM as the second drive. I could then swapout that second drive for the aftermarket DVD writer. I could always use it as a coffee-holder.

I guess the bottom line is what kind of compatibility issues have people seen when having a DVD writeable drive (or combo drive) along with a DVD-ROM/CDR drive on the same system?

Also, I find the multiple-format Sony very interesting, but sure see a lot of posts about getting it working.... What's the recommendation?

Thanks,
BJBBJB

[BJ_M]

nah -- no problem .... load them up .. but IDE can be a little picky at times as for writing to more than 1 device on a channel at same time .. easy cheap solution that works perfect and all the time is to put all burners in a firewire case and have them external .. i have had as many as 4 burners hooked up this way -- works perfect..


otherwise use each one on a seperate channel -- using a promise Tx2 controller is cheap way of this ... i have used this before also -- on the end of a 36" IDE cable hooked up to both drives and burners at times external to main case (in a old scsi external box for power) for a quick hookup and dump..

[BJBBJB]

Thanks for the reply! Firewire sounds like a good solution.
If I am going to have two or three writeable drives, what is the preferred software that can handle that?

I am aware that the OEM versions of software that I am sure Dell uses and each drive mfg. ships with will only work with THAT manufacturer's drive. Dell uses Roxio for their CDR, not sure of the DVD writers.

I understand the full version of Nero will work, however if I have a DVD/CDRW combo not sure how Nero will interact with the software they throw on that.

Geez... things used to be easy when just burning a CDR at 16x audio!

BJBBJB

[BJ_M]

i used PrimoDVD and it worked perfect for this ... supports up to 16 drives at once ..