Attached Link: http://www.flatbed-scanner-review.org/DVD-RAM_CD-R_ProDirect_CD-ROM/Panasonic_DVD-RAM_Maxell.html

I am seriously considering getting a DVD-RAM burner. 650MB is becoming too small for all the stuff I have and keep making. DVD-RAM is actually pretty cheap (don't confuse it with VIDEO DVD) The units are around $500 and storage is around 5 Gigs PER DISK. I've heard good things about it from pro's who need to store lots of big files... Anyone else use DVD-RAM?...

I've wanted one for a couple of years now, but, considering double-sided disks run (or used to anyhow) around $30 per disc, I figured it was cheaper to buy 100 700meg cds and deal with them that way. Not real sure who is making the DVDRAMs nowadays, but back when I was looking, it was only Creative Labs and that worried me. For now I'll live with my generic 12x CDRW. :)

Yeah, I agree. I just picked up an AOpen 12x10x32 CDRW for pretty cheap and I'm very happy with it. CDs cost pennies now, and you can get over 50 for the price of one DVD. Lately I've been working with pretty massive files, my texture files run on average 50-100 megs in .PSD form. The renders that I keep are about 25 MB .TIFs. It still takes me almost a week to fill a CD though, and it burns in 3 min. I hate Creative drives. I used to have so much faith in the company but I lost it when my 1 year old Creative 4x2x24 CDRW drive started giving me track servo errors after only burning about 80 CDs. Their tech support sucks @$$ too. Cheers

Oh, and I just read that article. Hes so wrong about DVD-RAMs being the most cost-effective storage. A 5.2 GB DVD RAM costs between 40-50 dollars in Canada. You can buy bulk 700MB CD-Rs for 45-60 cents each depending on the brand. So for the cost of 1 DVD-RAM you can buy almost 100 700MB CD-Rs. Thats 70GB of storage compared to 5GB. I'll stick with CDs. Maybe when file sizes increase so much that we're working with multiple GBs of fresh data DAILY ill consider one, but for now CD-Rs are an amazing value.

One more quick off-topic (sorta) note, but CD prices (the media) are supposed to go up come summer. The estimates are to be 3x what they cost right now. And yes, Creative sound card, sure, drive, no thanks. Here's one of the articles: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,49504,00.asp And another: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5082627,00.html Guess we'll see huh?

Yes, I have hundreds of 650 MB CD's, and price isn't that big of an issue with me, getting access to large storage is. The articles I've read about DVD-RAM by professional users is pretty good, and they aren't talking about Creative Labs stuff, its the stuff made by the REAL manufacturers- Hitachi, etc...

If price isn't an issue, that's the way to go. That's the main reason I think most people don't go that route. $500 for a drive and $30 for a disc isn't the cheapest solution in the world, but I guess it'd create less than clutter than 7 or 8 regular discs.

Well, the one other option I'm looking into is a network harddrive. 50-90 Gig drives are getting pretty cheap and if you have a 4-port type firewall-LAN box they can hook up pretty nicely that way- and more drives added as needed... Only problem is- you STILL haven't BACKED UP everything. The other backup option is streaming tape. It's too slow for access, but it can backup huge amounts of stuff. But then, you might as well get the DVD-RAM system once you factor in the total costs/speed issue...

You might also look into reconditioned JAZ drives--Iomega has an overstock page on their site, and I'm seeing the 1 Gig drives themselves at CompUSA for less than 100 dollars (usually for SCSI). I usually store my stuff on Zips until I'm ready to burn CDs--that usually saves on the clutter, and I'm only saving the stuff I can't reinstall from original software disks. Its a lot easier to find backup material if its categorized by content, rather than as a straight backup.

I'm just waiting for DVD RW. Unless the music/entertainment industry kills it. I just hope they come into existance in my life time. I hate how some industries in our country crush new technology.

Hmmm. 5.2 GB DVD RAM discs are about $30 each? Three disks is 15.6 GB at about $90. I can get 20 GB hard drives at Frys for $89-$99.

I don't trust any magnetic drive technology as back-up. Had a bad experience with Syquest drives years back and I want SECURITY, not the cheapest option. But I don't want EXPENSIVE either. Don't want SLOW (Tape Drives), and I am rapidly outgrowing regular 650 MB CD's. Don't want to wait for DVD-RW to SORT OUT all its stupid standards bickering and incompatibility, either (Could still take them a long time and I need a solution NOW)... DVD-RAM made by Panasonic, Hitachi (big, reliable Japanese manufacturers) looks the best. Lots of professionals say its good, media is widely available, several manufacturers supporting a COMMON STANDARD. I can always go on to the the "Next Big Thing" later on anyway...

Keep in mind that when you store data on a harddrive you arent really backing it up. All you are doing is lessening the chance of losing it. Harddrives are the most unreliable thing inside your computer. When I burn a CD I know that (after I check and make sure the burn isnt corrupt) all of my data is safe and sound.

Attached Link: http://www.panasonic.com/industrial_oem/computer/storage/dvd-ram/dvd-ram_default.htm

Here's Panasonic's product page, they are I think, the biggest manufacturer of DVD-RAM optical storage units... "The leading producer of DVD-RAM drives, Panasonic's second-generation 4.7GB single-sided and 9.4GB double-sided rewritable industry standard drives and media provide superior performance and reliability. Fully compliant with the DVD Forum's standards, the single-sided media is capable of storing a full two-hours of MPEG2 video. Panasonic's new drives and media offer unprecedented media interchangeability and seven times the capacity of CD-R and CD-RW...all for less than $.005/MB. Offered with both SCSI and ATAPI interfaces, the drive reads industry-standard DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-R, CD-ROM, CD-R/RW, CD-DA, Photo CD, and Video CD media. The random-access, drag-and-drop storage media provides in excess of 100,000 write/rewrite cycles and data life in excess of 30 years."