Hello, I've recently decided to purchase my first notebook, it will mainly be used for retro gaming. I realise that I will be required to also purchase an external disc drive, my question is: Having never used an external DVD drive before, does it work exactly the same as an internal variant, and if the game requires that the disc is inserted thoughtout the time I'm playing, will it read it fine all the time?. I realise this is probably a dumb question, as I'm aware the answer is probably 'yes, it's the same', but I don't want to fork out £300 on a notebook without first checking. Thanks for any help anyone can give me.
Hello! Yes, external drives work pretty much exactly the same way internal ones do. They are external however and use a different Interface. I don't know wether there are eSata ones, but USB will probably be just fine. If you will use it for retro gaming though, I think you may no even need one. Assuming you really have the games, it would be legal to make an image out of them and play from the mounted images. I can tell you more about that if you can tell me which games particularly you will play.
Thank you for replying. Yes I do own all the games I wish to play, examples being: Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 Planescape Torment Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 Starcraft System Shock 2. I own them all on DVD disc's, and I know for a fact that Baldur's Gate & Planescape require the disc to be in the drive at all times whilst playing. To be honest, I've never been too clever when it comes to copying game files and such, and I would'nt know where to start with making 'mounted images'. Any help would be much appreciated, but if it's a particulary complicated process, I'm just happy to know the DVD drive will work in much the same way as my desktop version (of which I feel much more at home with), Thanks a lot.
I take it you mean netbook? I would look for a usb powered external drive that way you wont need a mains plug to power it.
You don't necessarily need an external drive, if yoou check Ebuyer they do small notebooks (13.3") with onboard DVD drives, I think you're looking at netbooks It should work exactly the same, unless you disconnect it accidentally, that's the only difference
Thanks to everyone for your advice, it's nice to see a forum where people actually take the time to help rather than bleating on about which machine is better than which. You've given me a lot of help, and I'll use that to make my decision. Thanks & merry Christmas.
