Suggestions & ?'s about optical drives

[frldyz]

I have about half the components for my 1st build.
A lot of people are telling me optical drives are becoming less and less necessary.
That kind of confuses me because how else would I install CD software that I buy and play games? I understand a lot can be purchased/downloaded online.

So after looking @ optical drives I see there are now Blu Ray" and "Blu Ray burners". I assume these are also optical drives? Are these drives that will also play Blu Ray DVDs? I also saw something about using a "Blu Ray" disc to use to copy/store files? And I read something about BDXL that can store upwards of 128gb per disc? They are not cheap. And it might be cheaper to purchase just an Ext. HD, but I also like the thought of knowing everything is backed up on discs...
'1: Can a Blu Ray drive also be used as a basic optical drive?
2: Does a Blu Rau burners drive differ from a Blu Ray drive by lets you burn/copy files from your PC onto a disc?
3: Is external or internal the better choice? Or does it not matter?
4: Any rec. brands/models? I've read a lot of positive thinks about LG Blu Ray burners w/BDXL. Same with Pionner/Panasonic.
5: When choosing a Blu Ray drive I assume I want to look @ speeds of writing/burning?


Thanks everyone for helping answer all these ?'s for me over the last week. I have learned a lot from all of you.

Cheers
-Michael MN

 

[PP Mguire]

An optical drive is a disc drive. It's just another way for saying "piece of crap thing that uses discs".

You don't need a BD burner, as optical media is not the best way of backing up any data as I'm quite sure you don't have the perfect climate controlled environment to do so. Not to mention as you already said, it's expensive for large discs.

A Blu Ray is not a DVD, so please don't say "Blu Ray DVD". A BD drive will read both Blu Ray and DVD discs. Your PC will play movies from either standard as long as you have the necessary software. Blu Ray playback requires paid for software like PowerDVD.

I would personally get an external DVD burner and call it a day. They are usually pretty cheap. Don't worry about brands or speeds as they all do the same thing slowly.