Replacing CD-RW with DVD-RW

[scmudslinger]

Hi, this is my first post so bare with me.
I own an HP Pavilion XT978 (2.0 GHZ Pentium 4, 512 MB SDRAM, 100 GB Hard Drive, CD-RW, DVD reader drive). I want to install a DVD-RW in place of my CD-RW, which will give me two dvd drives. The computer came with a 200 watt power supply, and both drives were in the pc from the factory. I was wondering what the differences were in power consumption levels between cd-rw's and dvd-rw's. Can my 200 Watt power supply handle the replacement? Thanks.

P.S. The DVD-RW is about a year old, and is a TDK 440N (4X DVD-R, 2.4X DVD-RW).

 

[DonNagual]

You can calculate how much power you need here:

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp

 

[A_DOG73]

For the system you are running, that is a very small output power supply. I would replace that one with a 450 or + power supply. As for the dvd drive, I would take out the dvd rom and install the dvd rw. You can probably sell the dvd rom on craigslist or ebay and get some money for it. You don't need two dvd drives.

 

[Sharam]

Look at the sticker on the DVD burner, you should see something like 5V 1.5A/ 12V 2.5A.

Compare that with your other drives. Note that a CD burner and a DVD burner require more juice when they are reading and yet more when they are writing compared to when they are sitting IDLE. Sometimes even ejecting the tray can cause a re boot if there is not enough juice.

There is probably 1A difference.

I don't know what HP uses for power supply, you have to look at the power supply and read the sticker, what does it say for 12V+.

I have a 350W power supply with 25A on the 12+V rail and another 400W with 15A on the 12+V rail. So, in my case the 350W one is better.

 

[Sharam]

We all posted together, kind of

Why not keep the DVD so he can copy DVDs easier? My hard drive already gets enough abuse, I don't want to have to copy 4+GB on to my drive every time I want to copy a DVD.

With me, I copy a lot

 

[scmudslinger]

Thanks for the advise, guys. I'm no expert, but I thought that 200W seemed a little small for the system as it is. And yeah, the reason I want two dvd drives is so I can "make backups" of dvd's easier.