Mhz requirements

[robert70]

My computer is 900Mhz and I would like to install a DVD burner. The particular one I am looking at is a "Sony DRUJ 510A". The min. requirements for this burner is 800 Mhz. I am also using win xp,and my question is will my computer really be able to handle this burner since I am so close to the min. Any suggestions or responses from people who are using DVD burners at levels below 1GH would be appriciated. I thank you in advance.

Bob

[indolikaa]

I shoved an Optorite DD0203 into an Athlon 700 last week, to backup an existing hard drive and install a new OS load on a clean hard drive.

No problems in data mode in B's Recorder or in packet-writing mode with B's Clip.

[Craig Tucker]

1 post is enough.

Edit: Just read you other post and removed it.

[trossin]

I would think a 100 MHz pentium is fast enough. I bet my 66 MHz 486 could do the job as well. The data rates required to burn a DVD are way slow compared to your processor speed. I use a 600 MHz computer to burn at 2.4x and have had no problems. It takes about 25 minutes to burn a full DVD at the 2.4x speed. That comes out to about 3.1 Mbytes/sec. Damn slow by processor speeds and slow by disk drive speeds as well. As long as you can do DMA transfers you are set.

If you need an excuse to upgrade then go for it. Don't let me spoil your party.

[Gazorgan]

You need a UDMA disk subsystem to use a DVDRW. No 486 has that. Most pentium systems are PIO or DMA.

Pretty much any PII or higher system will support a DVDRW. Same goes for Athlon systems.

[robert70]

I would think a 100 MHz pentium is fast enough. I bet my 66 MHz 486 could do the job as well. The data rates required to burn a DVD are way slow compared to your processor speed. I use a 600 MHz computer to burn at 2.4x and have had no problems. It takes about 25 minutes to burn a full DVD at the 2.4x speed. That comes out to about 3.1 Mbytes/sec. Damn slow by processor speeds and slow by disk drive speeds as well. As long as you can do DMA transfers you are set.

If you need an excuse to upgrade then go for it. Don't let me spoil your party.

Having to upgrade ( Estimated at $1200. CAN) is exactly what I am trying to avoid. And that is why I came to this forum to check out if my system can handle the Sony Dual Rewritable dvd/CD Writer.

[robert70]

You need a UDMA disk subsystem to use a DVDRW. No 486 has that. Most pentium systems are PIO or DMA.

Pretty much any PII or higher system will support a DVDRW. Same goes for Athlon systems.

You have lost me in regards to PIO and DMA. How or where would I go to check what my system has in this regard.

[trossin]

I'm sure your machine is fast enough for this DVD drive. PIO stands for Programmed I/O (slow software polling technique to transfer data from hard disk to memory then from memory to DVD drive).

DMA stands for Direct Memory Access. This uses hardware state machines to transfer data from an I/O port (disk drive controller) to/from memory without bothering the CPU (except that it eats memory bandwidth). DMA generally has much higher transfer rates.

I think UDMA is ultra DMA some Wintel word that is a faster DMA protocol.

My 600 MHz machine is about 3 years old and is still plenty fast for my needs. Back up DVDs, capture MPEG-2 video, author DVDs, write OpenGL 3D graphics applications, develop embedded software for PIC processors, run Verilog simulations for CPLDs and surf the web.

Your machine has lots of life left in it. Don't add to the garbage heap.

[akbor75]

i agree with trossin, cos burning a dvd is in fact just copying data, which is not cpu consuming.

however, if you want to author a dvd video, the cpu is very important, but i guess you know that. if you only want to burn data there's no need for a fast cpu.