retro games 100 wrote:

I would like to buy some old CD-ROM drives, for my DOS PCs. What speed should I look out? 2x speed perhaps? Maybe 4x speed? Or would just 1x speed suffice? (I really dislike noisy fast drives!!)

Please note that I would like to experiment with both IDE and SCSI optical drives.

Thanks very much for any valuable information!

Depends....but I would go for a 8-12x cd-rom since they are quiet enough and speedy
A 1-4x is painfully slow in a 486 system imho

If you plan to get a SCSI drive...get a caddy loaded plextor drive...I have a 32x caddy loaded Plextor drive....it's amazingly silent 😀

Plextor! Must get myself a Plextor! 😁

hehe i always wanted a plextor 😳

Anything 2x will probably be a proprietary interface like Sony/Mitsumi/Panasonic, so you'd have to pair it with the appropriate Sound Blaster 16 to run it. IDE drives started at 4x IIRC, but they weren't that good. IDE+CDROM wasn't quite perfected yet. Also, older CD drives of any variety have problems with some CDR or CDRW discs, so be careful. I once had a 24X CDROM that didn't read 10x CDRW discs. When I jumped to a 32X CDROM, it worked fine. Nowadays you don't even think about that.

A classic SCSI Plextor would be tops, but then you have to deal with SCSI cards and drivers in DOS, which takes conventional memory. OTOH, if you're a glutton for punishment like me, that's part of the fun. 😉

I was a SCSI snob back in the early to mid 90's. I built IDE for my friends, but I was all SCSI. 😁

I always wanted to know this - just out of curiosity - for the SB16 CD-ROM type connection, do you use the same cable that you use for an IDE CD-ROM connection, or is it slightly different?

Thanks!

I think it was a different line count, but I don't remember. Count the pins on a SB16 card or one of those CDROM's. It wasn't shielded and there is nothing special about the cable (like the twist in floppy cables, for example), so if it will fit, it'll probably work.

I'd consider looking for something that's CLV, so it's quiet. Usually 12X or lower. I have a Toshiba 12X that's nice. Toshiba made some good drives. I also had their 24X back in the day and it was good too. These drives will probably have problems with CDRs however. My 12X definitely struggles.

It might also be a good idea to look for old burners cuz they are usually higher quality (more able to read thru scratches) and quieter. Another plus is that old burners will read CDRs. I have a Sony 24X burner that is really very quiet.

I had a Plextor burner once, years ago. Something like 2001. It was junk! The thing became unable to read disks after awhile. One and only optical drive I've had do that. They had a good rep back when other drives were usually garbage, but became really overrated around ~1998 or so.

I once had a 16x Mitsumi that sounded like a vacuum cleaner. It was awesome.

I have Sony slot typed drive in my tower of power, like a Wii.

I've got that Plextor 32X caddy loading drive too. It's the best drive I've ever owned. Not easy to find, and not cheap...but very very cool.

I believe the model is 32CSi (Caddy, SCSI, internal)

I could always have 2 CD-ROM drives? One slow and one fast. Best of both worlds? Fast one = install the software. Slow one = play the game (when the CD is required for a particular game).

Just an idea...

You could, but it's your ide chain tangle adventure 😀

valnar wrote:

I think it was a different line count, but I don't remember. Count the pins on a SB16 card or one of those CDROM's. It wasn't shielded and there is nothing special about the cable (like the twist in floppy cables, for example), so if it will fit, it'll probably work.

Thanks! Really, I should have done that myself! - sorry, my bad. 😦

swaaye wrote:

I had a Plextor burner once, years ago. Something like 2001. It was junk!

Same experience here! I bought two new units around 2002. First one completely died. Second one was just horrible!

Noone ever made some iso based virtual cdrom driver for dos?

retro games 100 wrote:

I could always have 2 CD-ROM drives? One slow and one fast. Best of both worlds? Fast one = install the software. Slow one = play the game (when the CD is required for a particular game).

Just an idea...

Definitely!

I always like to have 2 CD Drives. Actually my Pentium 133 based system has 1 CD-ROM drive and 1 DVD Drive.

DVD drive is for those multiple CD games like Zork Nemesis, Gabriel Knight 2, Pandora Directive, etc. Fan made installers are available for these games, where you can install all the cds into a single DVD. And usually I backup the dos games according to companies,eg. Origin, Sierra,etc., sound supported, eg. MT32, GS, Adlib, etc., and save them to DVD-RWs. And use them when needed.

I have successfully tested the functionality of DVD drives under Dos 6 and Windows 3.11. Works normally, without hiccups or problems. I even can play any dos games using the DVD drive.

Yes, the only problem with the new drives are the noises!Just can't stand them. And it's just frustrating when the drive starts spinning up when a character is about to speak. The small pause before he speaks kills the whole game.

My CD-ROM is a TEAC 6x drive. Quiet and very fast access after loading a disc. I haven't yet heard it spinning, to the contrary of the noisy new drives!

The picture below shows my DVD drive on top and the TEAC 6x drive below it.

This picture shows the inside of my P133 system. As you can see the two drives on top, and two HDDs below. One HDD for DOS/Win3.11 and the other HDD for Windows 95.

Harekiet wrote:

Noone ever made some iso based virtual cdrom driver for dos?

http://www.geocities.com/jadoxa/shsucdx/index.html

Thanks a lot for the info Malik!

Also, regarding the iso based virtual cdrom driver for dos, this I have got to check out! This sounds a little bit like Daemon Tools, whereby you can mount a CD on to your hard drive - but in DOS! That would be such an awesome solution - no CD-ROM drive sounds at all! 😁

Why do you mount your harddrives upside-down?

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

Why do you mount your harddrives upside-down?

First, for cable management, then secondly, to increase the gap for better airflow between the two drives. But to do this, I had to turn the drives as such to meet the said requirements due to the type of drive bracket.