I am switching from dial-up service to broadband over the weekend. I have two very basic computers at home. One is a Compaq Deskpro with Pentium II and the other is a E Machines 433 MHZ with Celeron(please, no laughing). I am planning to do a lot of downloading(music, video). I am also planning to purchase a burner as neither one of these systems have one. My questions:
1. Will either of these work for downloading from kazaa?
2. Should I just buy another system?
3. If I need to buy an external CD-R/CD-W, which one would you guys suggest? Thank you guys for any suggestions.

I would buy another one. Unless you want to totally rebuild the one you have now. Matters what you enjoy. I personally don't have time to rebuild.

Much Love,
LoLinex

stymie said:

1. Yes, both of them should be fine
2. Not unless you need to
3. I wouldn't recommend an external one, they are too expensive. Also your PCs are old so it is unlikely you will have Firewire connectors on the back, and you probably won't have SCSI onboard already (most external CDRW drives are SCSI or Firewire). You might not even have USB on those PCs. Your best bet is to get an internal one, an IDE / ATA drive should work fine. You can get a really nice 32x CDRW for about $40 I'd imagine (e.g. Panasonic, LG etc)

ian

By the way, if you are switching to broadband this weekend, it is possible your new cable or ADSL modem will be USB. You should check your two PCs to see if they have USB ports. One of them probably will (e.g. the Celeron machine) but you never know...

Ian

ian said:

Actually they both have USB ports. Also, Ian, if I get an internal CD-W, how do I install it? I have no clue.

Note: You can get a relatively loaded replacement system for less than $500.

teller said:

I am thinking about that. Thank you to you and lolinex for your suggestions. A new system may be a little while away though.

stymie said:

Dead easy, if your PC has room for it. Look at your PC, where your CDROM drive is. You might have a blank plate below or above it where you can install another drive. The blanking plate can be easily removed. You slide your new drive in, you hook up the power cable and the ribbon cable, and screw the drive into place, and that's it really.

That said, if you are nervous about opening up your PC yourself you can always take your PC to a "repair center" type of place where someone can install it for you.

Ian

ian said:

You are the bomb! Thank you very much!

ian said:

I attempted this task a couple years ago, and agree, its very easy. I have a CD-RW and a DVD drive in my computer. The CD-RW is slaved to the DVD drive, and the DVD drive runs to the sound card. I try to only use the CD-RW to burn stuff, and not to play regular CDs because I heard the CD-RW's will wear out faster (This is just what I was told, correct me if im wrong).