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You can copy audio cd's using your current drive.
When you copy music cd's, you're using "digital audio extraction" or DAE to copy them. That is, the source drive is ripping the digital data off the disk as fast as it can.
Now, as you know not all drives are created equal. Some can do DAE faster than others. My Toshiba 24x drive does it at 1x speed: If I want to copy a 74min CD, it will take 74min(!). Now, my Traxdata will perform DAE at 8x - that's abround 9mins max to copy a full CD.
So the higher the DAE speed the better.
However, when copying disc-to-disc, your burning speed is limited by your source drive; burning at 8x is useless if the source can only do 4x. Also, your hard drive needs to be pretty decent with little fragmentation since the buffer in your writer only has a few second's worth of data to use in the case of an emergency.
How long does it take to rip off your current drive on you HD? Try a program like Audiograbber which will accuratly measure it in real terms.
Copying in this manner is more secure than disc-to-disc as obviously your hard-drive is less restricitve than your CD-ROM.
If you do get a CD-ROM, try and find out from the manufacturer's web site what the theoretical DAE speed is before you spend your hard-earned cash.
As an added bonus, most new TOSHIBA drives are fairly cheap and GOOD at reading PSX titles - an added bonus if you're required to backup these (a lot of cd writers are deliveratly restricted in this sense). But again check what their DAE speeds are before comitting yourself.
Hope this helps.
All the best. :-)
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