Fobbing off an old 12xCD-ROM

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One of my relatives asked about adding a second optical drive so they can listen to music on CDs without removing another disc in the main drive. They insist that that is ALL they wanted it for. They don't know how to do it themselves, and don't want to spend $100 to have the Geek Squad do it for them, which is why they asked me how much it would cost to get it and how much I'd charge to install it.
I looked at their computer, and according to the docs and the sticker still on it, it has both IDE and SATA ports inside.

Since they insist that all they are going to use it for is listening to CDs, is there anything wrong with giving them an old 12xCD-ROM for free that I've been sitting on for over ten years that nobody wants due to it being too slow, not a burner, and later unable to read DVDs? It should be fine for listening to audio cds or even MP3s. I've listened to audio cds and MP3 CDs just fine on a 4xCD-ROM in an old laptop in the past.

Saves them buying something, and I can clear out some junk from my scrap heap. Assuming it still works, it hasn't been installed in over ten years.

I'm just concerned that they might be resentful if I offer them something that old, thinking it's trash, even if it works and does exactly what they say they want it to.

I'll probably say something like "Let's just go out to lunch/dinner after I'm done" for the installation price. Endless Shrimp is still going on at Red Lobster until Halloween, and I know we both love shrimp. Considering that taking each other out to breakfast or lunch is not uncommon in my family, they probably won't consider it much of a price.

 

To just listen to audio CD's should be fine with just a 12x speed CD-ROM player, you'd get a bit rate of nearly 15 Mbit/s out of it (closer to 14.7 actually) which should be good enough for everything but advanced lossless audio.
There's a tiny bit of added delay in access time, but since we're talking milliseconds here it shouldn't be anything noticeable either.
As long as they have a free slot for the drive to fit on to and a spare unused IDE slot on the MB to plug it into, it should all work fine.

It all comes down to what the user wants - since there's already a working main drive they can simply use that to run their other discs, just make sure to inform them of the limitations of the new drive they'll be adding.
That said, doing a quick price check, you can get a 24x speed Dvd reader/burner combo for around €15, whereas the cheapest blu-ray player will run you around €55 (€65 for a blu-ray reader/burner) i'd imagine these to be in about the same price range in USD.
You can always inform them of those as possible options and let them decide what it is they actually want.

Honestly, $100 is a lot to pay for something as simple as installing an additional optical drive - at least if the hardware itself is not included in the price.
It's not something i'd charge more then €20 for myself, so getting them to take you out for lunch/dinner sounds about right

 

For $100, they're better off getting someone to rip all of the music from all of their CDs and teach them how to organize/play it.

2015 is so not the year where one should be considering a second optical drive. You shouldn't even be using the first one.

 

I still use my DVD drive at least once a week...to play movies I checked out from the library.

I was mostly concerned that my "aunt" (technically she's my mother's cousin. Her kids are my second cousins. I don't know what the proper term is) would get upset that I'm fobbing off some old junk rather than a modern drive, but on the other hand she did make it clear she just wants to play her CD collection with the second drive, so I saw nothing wrong with somebody finally getting some use out of that old thing.

I haven't used a 12x CD-ROM since the late '90s, when the Mac I got in '97 came with one, that I replaced with my first CD burner. Everything since has been 20x or better, except the 4x in a laptop running Windows 98 first edition (which was odd since it said "first edition") somebody gave me around 2003 when they got a new one.

Oh, BTW, the statement earlier about SATA drives not being plentiful needs clarification. My family often calls me when their computers break down. Also when they are going to get rid of an old machine, they often ask if I'd like to have it. If it is broken, I usually salvage some useful components like optical drives, memory, and hard drives to use as spare parts for when somebody else's components break, or to distribute the RAM from a broken computer destined to be taken to a place like Best Buy for recycling to somebody else in the familiy with an older, working computer, giving them a free memory upgrade (though lately it seems most manufacturers fill the memory slots instead of leaving one bank empty).

 

Heh, "library". It's been a long time since I've seen anyone use that word for anything other than their media collection.

 

Suffering from chronic unemployment and only having had temp jobs for the last 2.5 years, and from 2007 to 2011, the library has been my sole source of novels and DVDs for the last fifteen years, unless you count fanfiction, gutenberg.org, and FREE streaming video sites.

Besides, with fiction books, I long ago found that I have a tendency to read the book once, then it sits on the shelf until I clean out the bookshelf and donate a bunch of books to the library. Just checking out the book at the library is cheaper and I don't lose anything. I haven't bought a novel in over 20 years. People GIVING me books for Christmas, were another story, but I generally didn't ask for them. Twenty years ago my mother would tell my relative things like "he likes Tom Clancy", or "he's reading Star Trek novels" so they'd find out from her. Although I haven't read a Star Trek novel since I was in high school, as I see little difference between them and fanfiction.
Nor has anybody given me a book in almost ten years.

Textbooks like the Microsoft Press study guides are another matter, those I buy as it often takes me more than a month to go through the tutorials to prepare for an exam, and they make good reference guides.
Movies, I tend to do the same thing, so I just get them from the library, watch it, then return it. Same as the books really.

 

I read all my books on my computer and the only ones I actually buy are RPG rulebooks/splats, and even those only when I've read them and liked them.

I've never bought a DVD or a music CD. I haven't even been to the cinema in this decade. The only media I pay for are games.

The movie and music industry are both ridiculous these days, so I have no intention of supporting them, except in very rare cases when I can donate money to the artist directly.

 

I know, I stopped buying CDs when they started putting malware err DRM on the CDs that screwed up my computer and made me reinstall Windows 98 to get rid of it. I had to learn how to disable autorun/autoplay, then I took the CD back and said it was defective. It was, it wouldn't play in my player. Technically it wasn't defective, it was a pig in a poke and a Trojan Horse.

If you're going to install that kind of stuff without user permission just by inserting the CD or DVD, they need to have it clearly labeled that it is not just a movie DVD, but that it will also install their DRM software. Otherwise I consider it a Trojan horse and the DRM to be a virus/malware. Especially if the DVD can be played when autorun is disabled and the DRM is NOT installed.

I've had a movie or two try that, but I now disable autoplay and autorun at the first opportunity I can after installing Windows, though sometimes I wait until after I've installed all my applications from CD/DVD.

However, the library's stuff is safe 99% of the time.