[STFC]

My daughter wants one to play Sims etc on. Do I need to get one that is powered by USB or by mains?

Any known models please, fairly cheap!

Cheers

[brookheather]

Look on Amazon or eBay for a cheap external CD or DVD reader - they will only need USB power when reading discs - I believe the newer Sims games come on a DVD so it is worth spending the extra to get a DVD drive.

I bought this CDRW/DVD drive from Amazon - price is £28 with free shipping:

Slimline-USB External CDRW DVDROM Drive: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

- Simon.

[SeanT]

USB powered is fine. If you buy the cheapest one you can find (CD-ROM only, etc.) you'll find that secondhand DVD-ROM/CD-RW or DVD-RW from the likes of Dell and Toshiba (ie. from busted laptops) will probably fit in the enclosure - so we have a cheap plasticky thingy with a Dell DVD-RW drive inside.

Or if you don't want to spend any money, for anything short of an OS install (unless you're feeling really clever) a network share / usb hdd and a copy of daemon tools lite or MagicISO / MagicDisk is what you need.

[STFC]

Originally Posted by brookheather

Look on Amazon or eBay for a cheap external CD or DVD reader - they will only need USB power when reading discs - I believe the newer Sims games come on a DVD so it is worth spending the extra to get a DVD drive.

I bought this CDRW/DVD drive from Amazon - price is £28 with free shipping:

Slimline-USB External CDRW DVDROM Drive: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

- Simon.

Many thanks Simon, just ordered