I'd like to add a CD burner to my 1998 Dell computer. I see a lot of burners available on eBay for attractive prices. How do I know when I've found the right one that'll fit my computer?
[/b]
If it's an IDE burner, it will (should) just work.
]
I have an empty slot in the main part of the computer. It uses Pentium II, Win 98, runs 3XX? MHz, and already has a CD/DVD player on it.
Hmm... I have a 350Mhz AMD K6-2 powered machine that has absolutely no trouble burning CD-Rs at 12x. I doubt, however, that said machine would be able to burn at 52x or anything even close to that.
]
Is it critical to get software with the burner?
Well... no.
Honestly, I'm not sure if win98 will require a different device driver to handle CD burners. The phrase "ASPI layer" comes to mind, but I really am not sure what exactly you might need. Everything driver-wise, if necessary, can most likely be downloaded free-of-charge.
As for burning software, well, I never really liked those "easy burn" packages out there, like Roxio Easy CD Creator and the like. Roxio just kept doing strange, odd things.
Personally, I just use
cdrecord, but it's a bit "un-user-friendly" (it's commandline).
Therefore, if you want nice point-and-click stuff, you'll need a GUI frontend...
I would say the best CD burning GUI out there is
k3b, but that doesn't run in MS Windows (bummer).
I did find a windows frontend. I haven't tried it, I don't know if it works:
http://demosten.com/cdrfe/
Let me know how it works if you try it. :)
:-D
~psi42