External Optical Drives

[Michael McAllister]

In a few years, Puget Systems might want to consider offering external optical drives and getting rid of internal ones entirely. Why you ask? Simply put- much more content is available through digital distribution and is going to get more robust in the future. Getting rid of internal optical drives would essentially mean one more unnecessary heat source is gone from the computer. How often do people actually use their optical drives? This would also mean that customers would have a quieter PC. The loudest component would probably be their video card(s).

I used the introductory clause "In a few years" because I do not believe this is necessarily practical at this particular time. The reason being is because many ISPs still enforce data caps. Hopefully, they will change their tune in a few years time since many services are offering digital downloads to entice impulse buyers. Thoughts and/or criticisms are welcome!

[PCC-William]

We already have a laptop which doesn't have an optical drive, and carry external drive options for it instead (both DVD and Blu-ray). Those could easily be shown on desktop configure pages too, but I do think for the time being most folks expect to have those built-in. You may not use it often, I certainly don't, but when you want it having to go find your external could be annoying

[Michael McAllister]

True. It will very much depend on where the market is at in five years or so. I'm not expecting Puget to implement this any time soon, as the circumstances don't allow for it currently. Not everyone has access to the best Internet connection. Our Internet infrastructure still needs work. I just thought I would mention it, so the seed is planted in your minds.