Optical drives can read and write DVDs and CDs and at times Blu-ray discs. They have been an important part in the personal computer world for a very long time. However, the need for them is growing day after day. Perhaps, you are among the many people who have not received software programs in discs for many years. If you need one, you prefer downloading it from the internet. You might also be among the people who stream and download movies from the internet instead of buying the shiny discs.
Optical drives have many advantages. Many programs such as the VeraCrypt rely on them as emergency boot tools. You are likely to receive DVDs and CDs as gifts when you buy from music artists in concerts. And when you receive the CD the first thing that you would want to do is upload it in your desktop or laptop computer. What if you needed a smaller laptop and a detachable optical drive? You will get it for $40 and use it at home. However, if you still need a laptops with built in CD DVD drive for personal use, here are some of the quality ones to try.
Acer Aspire E15 E5-575
The Acer Aspire E15 E5-575 is the most popular laptop with CD DVD drive on Amazon today. It offers almost every feature you would want including a CD/DVD drive. The laptop can stream and display movies in every format without shuttering at the full HD because of the integrated card and the processor. The integrated card is the most recent from Intel HD series and it will allow you to play as the number of games you want at the low setting. The manufacturer supplies a 4GB RAM, which you can upgrade to 8GB if you want to do some more video/photo editing.
The personal computer comes with Full HD resolution, which you are unlikely to get with budget laptops. However, the panel does not come with IPS technology to allow accurate colours and better viewing angles. The CD/DVD drive is not different from that of other laptops.
Dell Inspiron i565
Most people go for Intel based laptops – you cannot actually remember the day you saw an AMD based laptop. However, AMD laptops offer more value for money and the performance matches that of the Intel competitors. The Dell Inspiron i565 laptop with CD DVD burner comes with an AMD CPU, which is more powerful than the Intel Core i3 and quad core processor. It also boasts a dedicated graphics card that will help you complete video/photo editing faster and play as many intensive 3D games as you would like. There is no need to upgrade the device’s RAM because the manufacturer has capped it at 12GB, which is perfect for most heavy sized applications.
More like other touchscreen laptops, the IPS display provides better viewing angles and colour representation when playing old movies from DVDs/CDs in addition to gaming. There are no reports on the battery life, but you should expect it to last longer than the regular laptops – when using the touchscreen continuously. The manufacturer labels the CD/DVD reader as DVD R/W and can read all formats.
Acer Aspire E15
The Acer Aspire E15 is a huge upgrade of the Acer Aspire E15 and it is a good choice for people who require a laptop to run the graphic intensive applications. For people looking for a top-end laptop that offers powerful dedicated graphics cards for multimedia editing and gaming, the Asus ZX53VW Laptop with DVD/CD drive or the Asus FX502VM-AS73 Laptop with DVD/CD drive is a perfect choice.
When it comes to performance, the Acer Aspire E15 offers CPU and GPU power similar to that of the Dell Inspiron, something that makes it perfect for multimedia editing and gaming. The computer features SSD drive, which means that the reading/writing speeds when transferring files are higher than those you expect with HDDs. The time it takes to boot the computer is also less.
The display is more like that of the Acer Aspire E 5 but the battery life is shorter due to the more powerful components. Speaking of the design, its compartment is accessible for upgrading of the storage and RAM. If the SSD is not enough, you can insert a hard drive – you just need to remove a single screw.
HP High Performance Premium Laptop
The HP High Performance Premium Laptop comes at a low price and features an optical drive. The performance of the laptop is similar to that of the Acer Aspire E5. You can run many tabs when internet browsing, play a game at low settings and run some other basic software programs. The main difference between the two is that the HP laptop has 6GB RAM. It is high but that is not a great improvement.
The display of the laptop is 15.6 inches. Even though the display is not full HD, it has a dedicated graphics card to allow graphical intensive gaming – you can play them at the low settings. If you are a HP laptops enthusiast, you will benefit from the HP laptop that comes with a DVD/CD Drive for your entry-level gaming and complex applications that you have to consider. The HP Pavilion Flagship laptops with DVD drive is among the recently released laptops from HP that features optical drives.
HP Pavilion 15 Flagship Laptop with CD/DVD Drive
Gaming laptops are not generally considered value buys, but HP has changed that perception with their HP Pavilion 15 gaming laptop with optical drive. The laptop pairs a mid level NVidia GPU with an Intel Core i7 Processor for a great graphics performance. However, the slow data transfer speeds, slow battery life and the dim display lessen the value of this notebook.
At first glance, the laptop looks more like the bootleg Razer Blade that comes in a shady back alley. The manufacturer uses a matte plastic with chalky smooth finish in addition to the chrome HP logo, which is dark grey. If you place one hand of the lid, you will realize that the black surface flexes downward at a slight hint of pressure. The green backlit keys on the devices keyboard have a nice size and the space is good too. Therefore, you will manage to type as fast as 60 words per minute.
Bottom line
Most personal computer manufacturers have various reasons for not including the drives. Unlike SSDs and CPUs, the optical drives cannot shrink much. They add bulk to the laptops and today no one needs a bulky laptop due to the associated portability issues. In my opinion, the optical drives should not disappear completely. You definitely need a good way of accessing the old media. And because they are read-only, DVDS and CDs might prove to be a great archival format – provided that you will use only the right discs and if they remain available.
