A single DVD can store up to 5 gigabytes, about 10-times what a CD can store.

"....the Vaio W will cost about $2000 and go on sale in the United States in August. Aside from its 17.5-inch display, the Vaio W PCV-W500GN1 model will incorporate a 2.66GHz Pentium 4 processor, 512MB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive and a combination DVD-burner and CD-burner drive, according to Sony’s Web site."

MSNBC article (http://www.msnbc.com/news/939339.asp?0dm=-18LT)

No they aren't and what's your point?
If I'm buying a labtop, a cd-rw would be my choice. Why get a dvd-rw for $300 more and pay $10 for blank disc? Unless your pirating movies or something it's not worth it. $0.20 a blank disc is so much better :D

Mmm CD burners are so sweet. I got one only recently and realized that I had been missing out big time. first off the urge to completely backup all 100 gigs of my hard drive was overwhelming, and seeing how as the cds are so damn cheep it's like no big deal.

My biggest problem is that those things are blank and all look the same. . . and I stupidly didn't have a marker on hand. . . now I'm stuck with scores of unlabeled disks and haven't really got any idea what all is on them, heh.

That nothing: Sony has come out with blue/violet laser Disk, unlike CD which use infrared light and DVD which use a red light this one can store 27GB per side! This is because the higher the frequency the tighter the beam and the smaller the data pits are on the disk, the more data pits per disk the more data.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-984520.html

Cool. What's next is we'll all have miniaturized atomic force microscopes built into our computers, that can read-write a terabyte on a postage stamp! I don't know what the hell that would be good for, but someone will find it useful :D

Dvd's are great for backups, hold 4.7 gigs per disk.

Cd's are also great when looking at the only other means you have is the 1.4 floppy. (unless you want to buy a zip drive or tape backup)

There are tape drives that hold over a terabyte per tape now. :eek: