CD-RW drives are simply CD-ROM drives they can read and write CD-R and CD-RW media. This means that you an take a blank CD and put nearly anything you want on it up to the capacity of the CD (which is usually 700MB). Think of a CD-R as 486 1.44MB Floppy Disks. That's a lot of data! When reading the box for a CD-RW drive it has 3 numbers for example: 32x12x40x Which means. Write a CD @ 32x, re-write a CD-RW @ 12x, and read a CD at 40x. In these numbers, the higher they are, the faster they are. We suggest never buying a CD-RW drive slower than the above mentioned. The speed in which you can write a CD-R is determined by the speed of the drive and the speed of the CD. If a CD-RW drive writes at 40x, but the CD is only 12x compatible, the CD will only be written at 12x not 40x. Make sure to read the label on the CD-RW drives, and CD-R Media before purchasing.

       Combo Drives are : CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW all rolled into one. DVD-RW and combo drives allow you to write up to 4.7GB per CD! That's 7 CD's! OR 3,264 Floppy Disks!! *puts calculator away*

Samsung Combo Drive