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Would you miss the optical drive on MBP if apple removed it?

nuckinfutz said:
I'm confused by your post. If you carry a Superdrive as an extra accessory you still have it when you need it on the go. I don't understand why your posts suggests that external drives are mutually exclusive with using them on the go.
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He's not saying that external drives are mutually exclusive with using them only on the go, he's basically saying (and I agree) that what's the point of buying a notebook without a superdrive, then buy an external superdrive, then take it with you on the go when you need it? If you have to take it with you, you're better off getting a Macbook with a built-in optical drive. It's more inconvenient to carry the external vs. having it built-in.
 
advan031 said:
Yes, I would miss it greatly and would not buy a new MBP if it didn't come with an optical drive. Why in the world would you want to carry it as an extra accessory for those moments you need it on the go:confused:
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At the rate my hard drive is filling up, I may need an external HDD within the next year, so I would much rather have an external optical drive than an external hard drive or being tethered to a power socket more often, since I rarely use the optical drive.
 
peapody said:
He's asking why would you want to carry an extra accessory. If you can have it consolidated in the machine - that would be preferrable.
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It's preferable for some and not for others. If you use your optical drive all the time then integrated is preferred. If you rarely use your drive then integrated optical is merely taking up space.

I can see if from both sides even though I'm the type of user that barely uses optical so making it external doesn't hamper my ability.

I'd love to see two drive bays. Hell you could make a bay support 1.8" drives if you wanted (for SSD) and then leave a 2.5" bay for larger storage. Both would occupy the space that the optical drive formerly took up.
 
HLdan said:
He's not saying that external drives are mutually exclusive with using them only on the go, he's basically saying (and I agree) that what's the point of buying a notebook without a superdrive, then buy an external superdrive, then take it with you on the go when you need it? If you have to take it with you, you're better off getting a Macbook with a built-in optical drive. It's more inconvenient to carry the external vs. having it built-in.
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Convenience...pffft. From a functional standpoint a drive is a drive. As long as I dont need an external power connection internal/external gets the job done. I realize this is a matter of personal preference but I'm an endgame person. I don't care how you do it ...just get the job done.
 
Now that I bought a car that has a direct ipod hook up, and the whole ipod interface, I really don't need the superdrive. But i still make cds and dvds for friends so that would be kind of difficult without the drive. :)
 
redshovel said:
that a serious question:confused:

mmm...well one reason is that the MBP is better value for money.
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it's absolutely a serious question. For example, if you compare the base MBP with the high end MBA, for 600 dollars, you get a better screen, lightness, and an SSD. If you don't need the optical drive as it is, the MBA is a good proposition.

I'm not saying one choice is universally better than the other, but there is a real argument to be made for the MBA
 
DoNoHarm said:
it's absolutely a serious question. For example, if you compare the base MBP with the high end MBA, for 600 dollars, you get a better screen, lightness, and an SSD. If you don't need the optical drive as it is, the MBA is a good proposition.

I'm not saying one choice is universally better than the other, but there is a real argument to be made for the MBA
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True, but performance isn't the same either and you get no optical drive at all (shame they don't include an external).

The Air is 50% more expensive than the MBP 13" (calculated on the top of the line Air vs the cheapest MBP 13" so the processors would be closer in speed). That's a huge increase in cost.

I pack my HP work laptop around all day long (which is ironically lighter than the MBP 13") and find no issues with weight (and I have slipped disc in my back). I find no value in saving 2.5 lbs in weight. If I were hiking several miles with it, sure, but for general use, it's negligible.
 
iMacmatician said:
That was exactly what I was thinking, right down to the SSD. :D
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Isn't the Xserve SSD option a 1.8" drive? That's the lovely thing about Solid State. The package size doesn't really matter. I love it.

I'm seriously thinking about moving my user folder to a second drive on even my home computer. I've only read of a few issues (syncing odly was one for one user) and I'm hoping that any bugs with regard to separate boot and user drives is quashed with Snow Leopard.

Snow Leopard is so compact you could buy a small SLC SSD as the boot drive, remove the optical and go with a Optibay drive for mass storage. The SLC would give you no write issues, 10x the durability and speed.
 
I use the optical drive when I install the OS.

When I buy software, I image it to my Time Capsule and movies are all on TV & iTunes via the ITS so yeah I don't need the optical drive anymore really.

And honestly the software I do have on CD is Office, iWork, iLife and Adobe CS4. I've imaged all of those disks to my time capsule so I honestly don't need those either.

Considering just buying the $99 MacBook Air super drive and getting a 2nd SSD for this machine (RAID 0)
 
nuckinfutz said:
Yes but if people keep creating threads about the optical drive then I'd say there's merit to the idea.
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What merit? Like that of all the people who said they didn't need FireWire, of that an SD slot is better than ExpressCard?
 
cube said:
What merit? Like that of all the people who said they didn't need FireWire, of that an SD slot is better than ExpressCard?
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If the question keeps coming up from multiple people then that would seem to indicate that people are re-assessing what computer peripherals are important to them and promoting/demoting peripherals accordingly.

This is a forum so I expect people to engage in discussion about computer technology and what they find relevant to their needs.

Truth be told we shouldn't have to choose between an optical drive or a second hard drive. Good engineering should have delivered an acceptable solution from Apple which supports their "build to order" program.
 
cube said:
We don't need yet another thread on this ridiculous subject.
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"Yeah guys, Why would Apple ever get rid of the floppy drive? I mean come on, us professionals use it every day! This is ridiculous!" :rolleyes:


The future is coming. Physical media is going away eventually. Apple has a history of jumping on these trends early, some would say a little before they are ready. I wouldnt be surprised if this was the last generation with an internal optical drive. Unfortunately I think Apple will reduce size and weight upon its removal, not replace it with extra battery capacity and a second 2.5" bay as I would prefer.

For those still burning CDs, buy a thumb drive. Buy some for your friends too. They are cheaper then buying a spindle of blank discs. Optical discs are fast becoming a niche product for home theater playback and data archiving. There is no need to support an internal drive for those purposes.
 
Removable base, and Clip out Optical Drive, then you can clip in an extra HDD or extra Battery.

Would be an awesome option.
 
Mactagonist said:
"Yeah guys, Why would Apple ever get rid of the floppy drive? I mean come on, us professionals use it every day! This is ridiculous!" :rolleyes:


The future is coming. Physical media is going away eventually. Apple has a history of jumping on these trends early, some would say a little before they are ready. I wouldnt be surprised if this was the last generation with an internal optical drive. Unfortunately I think Apple will reduce size and weight upon its removal, not replace it with extra battery capacity and a second 2.5" bay as I would prefer.

For those still burning CDs, buy a thumb drive. Buy some for your friends too. They are cheaper then buying a spindle of blank discs. Optical discs are fast becoming a niche product for home theater playback and data archiving. There is no need to support an internal drive for those purposes.
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You miss the whole point. People are still buying CDs because it's the only legal source for uncompressed music.

And the internet is far away from being able to serve Blu Ray quality. The day it catches up with that, we will have something like Super Hi Vision discs.
 
cube said:
You miss the whole point. People are still buying CDs because it's the only legal source for uncompressed music.

And the internet is far away from being able to serve Blu Ray quality. The day it catches up with that, we will have something like Super Hi Vision discs.
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CDs are compressed (but I understand what you're saying ;) )

I'm not for a complete eradication of optical drives but moving to external isn't going to kill anyone. Plus it puts Apple in the position to have people wondering why their Superdrive hasn't been replaced by a Blu-ray drive.
 
cube said:
You miss the whole point. People are still buying CDs because it's the only legal source for uncompressed music.

And the internet is far away from being able to serve Blu Ray quality. The day it catches up with that, we will have something like Super Hi Vision discs.
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1: Consumers dont care. If they do, services will appear.

2: Blueray playback on a laptop makes no sense. The viewing experience is so compromised the additional quality of BR is irrelevant. Apple obviously considers their 720p downloads to be good enough for laptop use. In the home theater, I dont see BR being replaced in the near term.
 
MattZani said:
Removable base, and Clip out Optical Drive, then you can clip in an extra HDD or extra Battery.

Would be an awesome option.
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That would be nice, but the framing to allow for that might take up a lot of space. Good idea though...I would go for that. I'm just not ready to say goodbye completely to the Optical Drive just yet.
 
nuckinfutz said:
CDs are compressed (but I understand what you're saying ;) )

I'm not for a complete eradication of optical drives but moving to external isn't going to kill anyone. Plus it puts Apple in the position to have people wondering why their Superdrive hasn't been replaced by a Blu-ray drive.
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CDs are quantized, not compressed.

It sucks to carry an external. If you don't want the drive, just buy a stupid MBA netbook.
 
Mactagonist said:
1: Consumers dont care. If they do, services will appear.

2: Blueray playback on a laptop makes no sense. The viewing experience is so compromised the additional quality of BR is irrelevant. Apple obviously considers their 720p downloads to be good enough for laptop use. In the home theater, I dont see BR being replaced in the near term.
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Yes we care. I can buy uncompressed catalog CDs which already provide me with a backup from Amazon for less than what it would cost to download.

BD playback on a laptop of course make sense when you have a 1920x1200 screen. If apple still has lame displays on the 15" that has nothing to do with it.
 
cube said:
CDs are quantized, not compressed.

It sucks to carry an external. If you don't want the drive, just buy a stupid MBA netbook.
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edit:

Actually by definition you are right. While quantization affects datasize it's not compressed according to audio
compression definition.
 
i don't use my optical drive very often. but in the few occasions i do i really want it.

if they make the notebook much better (dedicated GPU, longer battery life, more ports, express card, faster CPU, better heat dissipation) then i could settle for an external.

i usually have my laptop bag with me with powerbrick, card reader, mouse, dvi-vga adaptor and such. so i can throw an external superdrive in as well.
 
nuckinfutz said:
Both actually. Production is done at 20 or 24-bit 48/96/192 khz and the final 20-bit/24-bit master is then dithered down to 16-bit hopefully keeping the best parts of the audio and reducing noise. That's compression.
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The technical word is not compression. And the point is that CD content is of higher quality than downloads. I would be buying DVD-A and SACD if it were not for the stupid protection and inflated prices.
 
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