I'm shopping for laptops and see several with this drive:

SuperMulti Double Layer 8x DVD±RW Drive

Does that read and write CD also?

Pretty much every DVD drive out there will read CDs too.

It should state so in the specs, though.

In the small print/promo it does confirm reads CD but I wonder about writing. I just bought a PC and it's drive will read and write both CD and DVD and the guy told me that this is common for drives nowadays.

Bummer that the specs don't say if it writes the CDs... so I'm guessing probably not.

These are lower end laptops I'm looking at...

Yep ALL DVD writers will also burn CD's as well.

Aha... answer is no. I'm seeing others that specifically state it:

SuperMulti DVD±RW/CD-RW

Yep ALL DVD writers will also burn CD's as well.

Wow, really?

Hey trust me I'm a Geek ;)

The SuperMulti name is complete marketing BSJust means it does + and - DVD's

So just to clarify... these two drives, then, would be equal?:

SuperMulti Double Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW
and
SuperMulti Double Layer 8x DVD±RW Drive

Might be different speeds, but if they burn DVDs, they will burn CDs.

the SAME thing ;)

Cap, the speed is ONLY referring to how fast they burn DVD+R's as it's the fastest one to advertise.
Bear in mine that 1x DVD burn = 20x CD burn equiv.

I mean the different drives might be different speeds? Since one of them doesn't specify..

Sweet. I'm making a spreadsheet comparing all the under $600 or so computers I can find... maybe y'all can help me make a decision.

I'm selling my laptop to my parents since they have to have WinXP (software issue) so I'm shopping for one for me.

So you mean 8x DVD burn is 160x CD burn?? So a 74 minute CD is burned in 30 seconds? I'd like to have that drive ;)

LOL, if only it was that simple.

Bear in mind the size difference as well.
DVD 4.7 Gb
CD 700 Mb
So it's an equivalent speed if scaled.

I don't like your black box :(

As a side note, a lot of "super multi" drives means it can read and write dvd-ram also.:)

Added question -- will it multi-session burn a cd? - [ Ive never figured out how to with my dvd burner - Savage

Multisession burning is down to the software you use and not the drive itself.
Why bother with it when CDR's are so cheap.

Multisession burning is down to the software you use and not the drive itself.
Why bother with it when CDR's are so cheap.
So what software best supports multi session? At time I have to burn one file to a cd for something and I just hate having a cd with just one thing on it lol. Using nero 7 now by the way. -- Savage

I'm a Roxio man and that supports multi session in creator classic mode happliy.

A multi layer DVD is different than a regular DVD I work with them all the time the multi layer hold 8 Gigabytes vs regular DVD a little over 4 Gigabytes and not all DVD-+RW drives write all CDs
You need the right type of DVD drive to read or write Dual or double layer DVDs they can only be read by a dual layer DVD drive