The CD-R drive is very different than a standard CD player because it  includes a special laser. The laser burns an image into the CD-R media's dye layer. CD-R drives are capable of reading disks as well as writing them. Most drives support a large number of formats, to enable the reading and writing of a wide variety of CDs. Speeds are specified as write and read. A 4X/8X drive reads data 8 times faster than the original audio CD player and writes data at half that speed.

SCSI is the interface of choice for the vast majority of CD-R drives. The main reason is that SCSI is a higher-performance interface that allows the flow of data to the drive to be maintained more easily, independently of what other activities are happening within the PC. This is critical for writing CD-R media because burning a disk requires an uninterrupted flow of data from wherever it is coming from, usually a hard disk to the drive. SCSI drive are more expensive and require an additional bus controller if you have a IDE system. CD-ROM drives are now also available for the ATAPI (IDE) interface, but are not as dependable.

CD-RW drives are similar to CD-R drives except they employ a different kind of laser to enable them to write the special CD-RW media. As with CD-R drives, CD-RW drives are capable of writing in different formats, and reading those formats as well. CD-RW drives can also write CD-R media, making them extremely flexible. Speeds are specified as write, rewrite and read. A 40X/12X/40X drive reads data 40 times faster than the original audio CD player, writes data 40 times faster than the original CD-R and rewrites data at 30% of the write speed.

SCSI is the interface of choice for the vast majority of CD-R drives. The main reason is that SCSI is a higher-performance interface that allows the flow of data to the drive to be maintained more easily, independently of what other activities are happening within the PC. This is critical for writing CD-R media because burning a disk requires an uninterrupted flow of data from wherever it is coming from, usually a hard disk to the drive. SCSI drive are more expensive and require an additional bus controller if you have a IDE system. CD-RW drives are now also available for the ATAPI (IDE) interface, but are not as dependable..