Its differant...but DVD is great..

Installing the DVD-Drive is easy as any other Device that Fits the PORT..

You will need a 7200 RPM HDD(hard disk drive)..there are 10,000 RPM Drives for Hard Disk lately(don't know about those)..

256 MB of RAM is good..but 512 MB is even better..

Since your going in DVD..save your OLD HDD(maybe a 5400 RPM FAT 32)for an EXTERNAL Case..great for JPEG and TEXT Files..

For DVD-editing I would suggest no smaller a HDD than 80 GB's..I use a 120 GB..sometimes it fills up with 60 GB's of DV.avi or mpeg-2 Files..

Get a very Good Sound Card..I use the Creative AUDIGY 2ZS..its powerful..

you'll need a FIREWIRE..

USB 2.0

Create the Software UPDATES Library for the Digital Media Packages Software..its a differance of 20-minutes over 2-hours in DownLoad Time..

I have a TOSHIBA DVD-writer....its a DASH-drive.....there are also PLUS-drives..I spent $$100.00..Bundled w/software....ROXIO is excellent....the CYBERLINK POWER-DVD-player DECODER is excellent also..WMP-10 does NOT supply a DECODER.....get PowerDVD....it will save you time...

That's about it.....

Updateing the Editing Software is the Tricky Part......since the Video Files are so large I often need to RE-Install the OS to get the best performance.....

But I do need to UpGrade my INTEL P4....I use a 1.8(which is the minimum)for DVD-editing.....I can only go to a 2.8 GHz.....I might wait until my next PC to UPGRADE everything.....kinda' stuck in that area.....DVD-is tricky and time consumeing....

I point to remember on DVD-editing.....DV=Large File....mpeg-2=Compressed File for DVD-Blank Disk....RENDERING Time increases as your Details Increase.....you will only fit about 1-hour 6-minutes onto a DVD-blank.....I use about 50-minutes....

Your PC will be RUNNING about twice as long as your DVD-movie....or more.....

4.7 GB's.....about 1-hour 18-minutes.....most times it will NOT fit on a BLANK....

TDK---best blank in my opinion....

DVD-its tricky.

To answer your questions a bit more specifically, yes, it's just about as easy as replacing your existing CD-RW drive. I would follow Predator's Installation Guide. You do not need a new video card. You could even add the new drive and keep your CD-RW. It's up to you.

When you're ready to start shopping, I suggest your search begin at Newegg.com.

I am using a Pioneer DVR-107 in my 4100. The current Pioneer model is the DVR-109 (or A09, same drive). The new drive requires an 80-wire IDE cable. You'll also need software. Most forum regulars recommend Nero, but you need to do some homework to compare.

Your 4100 can take two optical drives. So you can have both your current CD-RW and the new DVD±RW.

Keep in mind, we all had to learn this stuff, so no need to apologize.

Is it necessary for me to uninstall my current CD-RW drive? If so, anything else I need to uninstall before proceeding with the installation of the DVD-RW?

Please pardon my ignorance.

I would concur with osprey4.  As a matter of fact, he helped me quite a bit when I upgraded from the CD burner to a DVD burner.  You really should check out Predator's site, it is quite informative !  There are a lot of great prior forum postings that contain a lot of useful information, use the search function to access.

Good luck,:smileyhappy:

B4runo

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DIMM 4400
BIOS – A06, date 6/12/02
Win XP Home Edition, SP2
Pentium-4 2.8 GHz, 400MHz FSB, 512K L2
1 GB DDR SRAM PC2100
80GB WD 7200RPM, 200GB WD 7200RPM EIDE/ATA HDDs
Iomega 80GB USB 2.0 External HDD
Pioneer DVR-109BK, Samsung DVD-ROM SD-616R
Leadtek GeForce 6600 GT 128MB DDR 8X AGP
17”, 1702FP Digital Flat Panel Display
PCP&C Turbo-Cool 425 Deluxe Dell PSU
SIIG US2275 USB 2.0 / 1394a / NIC PCI card

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Courteous Dell Community Forum members search first, then post.

Message Edited by B4runo on 06-07-2005 09:51 PM