If this is the route you choose, there’s not much else to explain. The first is to buy an external optical drive. Solving the Internet issue is an important step, but it doesn’t address the other big problem: what the heck should you do with your DVD collection?
If you’re happy with your current, slower connection, and upgrading is an extra $20 per month, you’ll be spending $240 per year to ditch your disc – and not everyone will find that worthwhile. The cost of this upgrade is worth some thought. A connection of 2 Mbps extends the download to over four hours, and a person on a 0.5 Mbps line could start the download before leaving for work, only to find it not yet complete when he returns home.Īnyone not already on a 10 Mbps connection should upgrade before buying a disc-less PC. Reduce the speed to 6 Mbps, however, and the download will be closer to two hours. Buying a Blu-ray at the nearest store would probably take the same amount of time. If you’re on a 10 megabit per second (Mbps) connection, and the actual speed of the connection is close to what was advertised, the file will take about an hour to download.
You opt for the HD version, so the file size is about 4GB.
Since you have no disc drive, you decide to buy the movie from iTunes or Amazon. Let’s imagine that you want to watch a movie on a new Ultrabook. This is the first item to check before turning your back on physical media. Can you really download everything?Ĭan you really download everything? The answer is yes … if your Internet connection is up to the challenge.
Let’s cover a few simple points that will help you decide if going disc-less is ideal. Computers without a disc drive aren’t so different.
What happens if you have to install software or – worse – recover the operating system? However, many people still rely on discs for software and media, and, if you’re among their number, ditching the disc can be intimidating. Digital can be just as convenient and allows for thinner, lighter computers. For those already immersed in technology, losing the drive is an obvious move. There’s a good chance your next computer won’t have an optical drive (that would be the place on the side of your laptop where you insert discs).