{"id":48968,"date":"2024-09-17T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.overclockers.co.uk\/blog\/?p=48968"},"modified":"2024-09-10T09:07:45","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T08:07:45","slug":"is-it-dead-optical-drives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.overclockers.co.uk\/blog\/is-it-dead-optical-drives\/","title":{"rendered":"Is It Dead: Optical Drives?!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Forget about bulky optical drives taking up space on your front panel. We want shiny RGB and high-quality mesh panels. Those enhance our aesthetic. <\/em>However, this sparks the question of whether optical drives are still useful<\/strong> today.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this blog post, we\u2019re taking a deep dive into optical drives, showcasing what they are, why you want one, and if they are still useful in 2024.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is an Optical Drive?\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An optical disk drive or ODD allows you to utilise CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs to listen to music, watch movies, and even play games. These drives harness powerful laser technology to read or write any data stored on an optical disc and translate this information into a format that your computer can understand.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two primary types of optical disk drives, including internal and external models which you connect to your PC or laptop via a USB cable<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Are Optical Drives Dead?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The majority of modern-day PCs and laptops no longer come equipped with an optical drive, with more games and content making the move over to digital. This has made optical drives virtually obsolete. However, we\u2019re not quite ready to call time of death yet, for they still provide some handy benefits.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vast majority of classic<\/a> video games are still stored on those dusty CDs. To play these games and scratch your nostalgia itch, you\u2019ll need to have a compatible optical drive. This is where an external ODD comes in! With a free USB port on your PC or laptop, you can plug in your external optical drive and jump straight into playing your beloved favourites<\/a>. Sims 2, here I come!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What\u2019s more, you can still find software installed on CDs, such as operating systems, drivers, or even editing applications. In order to successfully install and utilise this software, you\u2019ll need an optical drive to read and write the data on the disk.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, innovations made to optical technology could potentially bring optical drives back from the brink of death. Scientists have successfully developed a 1.6 petabit (Pb) optical disc, which is equivalent to one quadrillion bits of data. That\u2019s a whole lot of s-p-a-c-e<\/em> for your favourite games.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you want to know more about 1.6 petabit optical discs and what this could mean for gaming, be sure to check out our article.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why You Want an Optical Drive<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re still on the fence on whether an optical drive is useful in 2024, we\u2019ve rounded up all the pros and cons below.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pros<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n