How Does the Data on a CD-ROM Affect a Computer's Speed?

CDs usually hold either 650 or 700 megabytes.

A CD-ROM drive is a drive that uses optical compact disks. Whether you are using a CD ROM, CDRW, DVD or other optical disk the data is read very similarly and the effect on the computer's speed is the same. Understanding how a computer's speed works will help you understand how the CD affects it.

Computer speed

The speed of a computer is based largely on the CPU and the memory, also known as RAM. The speed is also somewhat limited by the time it takes to access data. Therefore the speed of the drives and the amount of RAM affect the overall speed.

CD speed

The speed of the CD drive does affect the speed of the computer when it is accessing data from the drive. CD drives have a read speed and a write/rewrite speed for CDR and CDRW drives.

Data

It doesn't matter what data your computer is accessing from the CD, but it does matter how large a file is. Of course, images files are usually bigger than text files and audio and video files take even more space. If you have a slower drive, or if you are accessing large files, your computer's response will be slower.