DVD burner wear

[VinnySem]

I've read many people make the point in here to use their DVD burner exclusively for DVD burning and not use it for CD burning or DVD reading or ripping, because these operations cause wear and tear on drive components, and why not do them on much cheaper to replace DVD-ROM and CD-RW drives. While this makes sense logically, I can't help but wonder how many DVD-ROM and CD-RW drives die after 2-3 years of normal use before they were upgraded to faster drives anyway? I have a Sony 16X DVD-ROM and a Sony 32X CD-RW, both are around 2 years old, and work as well as the day that I bought them new. What makes more sense is to use discreet drives for speed, as DVD-ROMs and CD-RWs perform their functions faster than a DVD burner.

[cim]

That's a good point... after 2-3 years of normal use, we'll all think the DVD burners we have today are so far behind technology, we'll be hoping they fail to give us a reason to upgrade to the new 48X DVD burner! Well, at least I hope mine lasts long enough...