With streaming services at hand, large storage USB drives, easy access to cloud storage, very wide internet bandwidth and super fast WiFi Speeds…most people no longer find  CD-DVD drives useful.

As of late 2024, companies no longer manufacture laptops with built-in CD DVD Drives.

However…

You can still find laptops with CD-DVD drives if you search for older models.

Now now…

Don’t panic.

Older models are not SLOW or used. They will be NEW (unused) and though they’ll have older CPUs  they will be plenty fast for every tasks and some gaming. You can check out their relative performance to modern CPUs in my post:  Intel CPU Generation Performance Comparison.

Let’s not forget that…

Like most people you aren’t likely to use this laptop to run hardcore games & software. If you are limited to eveyrday tasks, photo editing and watching movies/photos/games….these CPUs might even be too fast. One thing you can’t skip on is the amount of RAM though, you want at least 8GB or 16GB. We’ll get to that.

If you insist on a modern 2024-2025 CPU….

Buy one and just add an external optical drive.

5 Best laptops with CD-DVD Drive in 2024

Don’t want to use external CD-DVD drives? Relax this post will ONLY show you laptops with built-in CD-DVD drives.

Note: You can find dozens and dozens of laptops with built in CD-DVD drives on this link. However, most of these have CPUs that are WAY WAY too old and will definitely give you a hard time navigating through windows for simple tasks. The following list of 5 laptops only includes those with old but FAST CPUs. Prices shown below are as of Nov 2024.

Laptop	CPU	RAM	Storage	Display	Price
HP 17-by3065st	10th GEN i5	8GB	128GB SSD+1TB HDD	17” HD+	699 (New)
HP 2020 Laptop	Intel Core i5-1035G1	8GB	256GB SSD	17” HD+	861(New)/311(Used)
Dell Inspiron	Intel i7-8550U	12GB	128GB + 1TB HDD	17” FHD	1035 (New)
HP 17.3	Gen i5-10210U	12GB	1TB HDD	17” FHD	845 (New)
HP 2019	i5 8265U	8GB	256GB SSD	17” FHD	999 (New)
HP 17.3	Intel Core i5-1035G1	12GB	1TB HDD	17” FHD	793 (New)
HP 17.3	Intel Core i5-1035G1	8GB	256GB SSD	17” HD+ Touch	989 (new)
HP 15.6	Intel i5-8250U	4GB	1TB HDD +16GB Optane	15” HD	749 (New)

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1. Dell Inspiron 5000

Best Dell Laptop with CD DVD Drive 

  Intel Core i7 8550U

  12GB DDR4 RAM

  ‎Intel UHD 620

 128 GB PCIe NVMe SSD

  17.3” FHD IPS

  5 lbs

  8 hours

    WiFi 5 802.11 AC

  DVD RW Drive

The Dell Inspiron is  the most expensive laptop in this list. The reason why it’s on the list? It’s got the best specs out of all the laptops with CD-DVD Drives and will likely remain that way in 2025:

• FHD Display
• An old but very fast CPU 
• More than enough RAM
• Solid State Drive + 1TB HDD

If this is to watch movies or play old school games, then it becomes the perfect option. Already has 16GB RAM, has the fastest CPU on the list (though an old CPU in general) and a FHD display for better visuals.

The FHD display is CRUCIAL for multitasking (having several windows next to each other) , gaming and run video/photo editing software (more space available for interfaces and a bigger canvas/timeline to work with).

 Performance

How fast is this CPU?

We are in the 14th generation for Intel Core CPUs, this CPU is from the 8th generation! 

However, if you compare its performance to the most common CPUs in 2024 on budget laptops (11th, 12th and 13th Intel Core CPUs), it’s not that slow.

Below a snapshot of Cinebenchmarks (they measure relative performance), note that the Core i7 CPU shown here is only 1-3% slower than the common Core i3 and Core i5 10th gen CPUs found on budget laptops.

Thus this CPU (any 8th gen Core i5 or Core i7 CPU for that matter) should still be relevant for today’s software and everyday tasks. Now..in order for this to be true though it must be paired with at least 8GB RAM (this laptop has more than that – 12GB).

SSD (Solid State Drive): 128GB SSD

Another REQUIREMENT for this CPU to keep up with modern CPUs is to have a solid state drive installed. A solid state drive MASSIVELY improves overall computer performance. Basically, SSDs can feed/read/write data at a much faster rate to the CPU. If you want to know the technical details, you can read my post here: Laptop Storage types.

Now this laptop has an SSD but it’s only limited to 128GB SSD. Though that’s plenty to make this computer turbo charged, you will have to use the extra 1TB HDD (which is much slower) if you plan on storing a lot of movies and large files on your computer  which will make moving those files and transfering data (to an USB) significantly slower. However, overall performance with software and tasks should be super fast as long as they’re installed in the SSD.

 Design 

Upgradeable: This laptop supports however is upgradeable and if you’re willing to do the storage upgrade you can replace the 1TB HDD for 1TB SSD.

RAM Set up: You can increase performance (for video editing / photo editing purposes) or gaming if you upgrade RAM to 16GB RAM.

Upgrading RAM or Storage should be quiet easy because this is a 17 inch laptop and taking it apart is pretty much straighforward. You may not even need to remove the bottom panel completely as shown below, you will only have to remove small compartments with a screwdriver as shown below:

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2. HP ‎17-by2053cl

Best HP Laptop with CD DVD Drive 

  Core i5-1035G1

  12GB DDR4

  ‎Intel UHD Graphics

  1TB HDD

  17.3″ FHD

  5.44 lbs

  5 hours

    WiFi 5 802.11AC

  DVD Writer (writes to DVD/CD)

The previous HP 17.3 model with a DVD Drive I posted in early 2024 is shown in the table (~845 dollars). I have updated its place with this slightly different HP model which is about 100 dollars cheaper.

Just like the Dell Inspiron we went over, it has a FHD display, PLENTY of RAM and the CD/DVD Drive works the same way same.  If we compare it to the Dell Inspiron which is 300 dollars more expensive, two things are different: the CPU (Core i5) and the Storage (no SSD).

Core i5 10th gen CPU

Though this is not the Core i7 of the Dell model, it’s a two generations more recent. As shown in many benchmarks, performance wise is almost the same as shown below. In fact, on cinebench benchmarks, it’s 3% faster than the Dell’s Core i7.

 

Either way for everyday purposes and tasks (movies, MS Office, Web Browsing, simple games, etc) this CPU speed different shouln’t be something to be happy about. 13th generation CPUs will get you the same performance in those tasks. All of these CPUs can handle Photo editing & gaming (with AAA games) at low settings. These differences only matter with heavy photo editing (lightroom, editing photos in mass) or video editing.

Storage: 1TBB

Unfortunately, this laptop does not have an SSD and this is the main reason why it’s about 300 dollars cheaper than the Dell Inspiron.

The HDD will MASSIVELY slow down performance across MOST tasks in this system especially games, photo editing & any heavy software.

However, Web Browsing & Watching or Streaming Movies should work just as fast as any other laptop with an SSD. 

Upgradeable

Ideally, you want to do the upgrade and either replace the HDD with an SSD (35 dollars for a 512GB SSD) or add an additional storage (SSD) and leave the HDD in place. You want to move all files and software you’re going to use to the SSD after doing the upgrade though and use the HDD as a repository of files you don’t normally use. This will make sure your computer gets the benefits of having an SSD and runs super fast overall.

CD DVD Drive:

Though the description just says DVD Writer. It works just like the DVD Drive on the Dell Inspiron. It can read both CD & DVD Drives and also write CDs & DVDs.

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3. HP 17-by3065st

Best HP Laptop with CD DVD Drive 

  Intel Core i5-10210U 

  8GB DDR4

  ‎Intel UHD Graphics

  1TB HDD + 128GB SSD

  17.3″ HD+ 1600×900

  5.41 lbs

  6 hours

    WiFi 5 802.11AC

  DVD RW

This is the CHEAPEST BRAND NEW laptop on this list. As of late 2024, price has gone up to 699 dollars which still makes it the cheapest on this list. However beware that you will be missing probably the most sought after feature on laptops with CD-DVD Drives:

• FHD Display: Instead it has an HD+ display (1600×900).  This should not be a big deal if you’re just using this laptop for work since it’s already a 17 inch screen. Screen size should not be a limiting factor when gaming & multitasking. The downside is that you won’t be able to see movies at FHD resolution. 

Hardware: Core i5 + 8GB RAM

That’s really the only thing you have to give up for the price.

The CPU? Yes, it’s old too. It’s an 8th gen Core i5. However, it has plenty of RAM and a Solid State drive. It should be just as fast as the first laptop on the list for pretty much every tasks including  photo editing and gaming. The difference in performance should be minimal. 

Performance differences will only be obvious when:

Gaming at higher settings: the integrated GPU found on the 8th gen Core i5 runs at slightly slower speed than the integrated GPU on the Dell Inspiron (Core i7) . This should not matter much if you play games at the lowest settings, however, if you up the graphics. Yeah, the Core i7 will outperform it.

Video editing: you can edit videos but rendering will take a bit more with the 8GB RAM + Core i5 combo as opposed to the Core i7 + 8GB RAM.

If you want to increase the performance of the integrated graphics thus the performance with with heavy apps & gaming, you can upgrade RAM to 16GB. As noted in my post: integrated graphics boost, having 16GB RAM can make a HUGE difference. 

CD DVD Drive

Likewise the CD-DVD Drive here can write and read CD and DVDs.

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4. HP 17-by3053cl

Cheap Laptop with DVD Drive

  Intel Core i5-8265U

  8GB DDR4 

  ‎Intel UHD Graphics 620

  256GB SSD

  17.3″ HD+ (1600×900)

  5.43 lbs

  8 hours

    WiFi 5 802.11AC

  DVD±RW

This laptop lacks a FHD display but it has 8GB RAM and an SSD which means it’s going to run on turbo mode. The problem is the price, if you buy it new, it’s not going to be cheap . In fact, it’s only slighty cheaper than the best laptop on this list: Dell Inspiron.

However, if you can find it used or refurbished, it becomes QUIET QUIET cheap. You should only opt for this laptop if the above run out of stock. This applies for the next laptop as well. Now let’s go over the hardware again.

  Hardware 

The 8th gen Core i5 is the bare minimum CPU if you want fast performance with everyday tasks and software like Web browsing, MS Office, Spreadsheets, Photo-Editing, etc.

If you find another laptop with CD-DVD Drive, you should NOT buy a laptop with an Intel CPU that’s older than the 8th generation CPUs. The performance loss with those old CPUs is MASSIVE.

 8GB RAM DDR4 + Solid State Drive

Cool thing about this laptop is that you don’t need to do ANY upgrades.

 SSD + 8GB RAM is all you need to have FAST performance with all apps & software including gaming and photo editing. The only reason to upgrade it would be size of the SSD : 256GB. If you’re planning to use this laptop to store hundreds of movies, then yeah you will run out of storage pretty fast and you will need to use an external storage device or upgrade the storage. 

For gaming & photo editing, there’s no need for upgrades. A RAM upgrade to 16GB will improve performance with games but they’re not unplayable with 8GB RAM. I forgot to mention this, besides getting a performance boost with the 16GB RAM upgrade for the integrated graphics, you can get an additional performance boost if you do the upgrade in Dual-Channel Mode.

CD/DVD Drive:

Though the description just says DVD±RW. It can also read and write CDs.

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5. HP 17-BY3613DX

Laptop with DVD Drive 

  Intel Core i5-1035G1

  8GB DDR4 

  ‎Intel UHD Graphics 620

  256GB PCIe NVMe SSD 

  15.6″ FHD (1600 x 900)

  5.4 lbs 

  8 hours

    WiFi 5 802.11 ac

  DVD-RW

This laptop should be your LAST resort  Why?

Just like the previous laptop the cost of this laptop is around 1000 dollars and it has doesn’t have the FHD resolution the Dell Inspiron has. However, it’s brand new.

  Hardware

Hardware it’s pretty much the same. It has a Core i5 which as we talked about before has almost the same performance as the 8th gen Core i7 for most tasks with the exception of video editing/gaming at higher settings.

It has 8GB RAM DDR4 and a 256GB Storage of the same type. It’s also upgradeable, you can upgrade RAM to 32GB RAM and replace the storage AND/OR add an additional storage.

Just like the previous laptop, it lacks the FHD.

CD DVD Drive

The descriptions says DVD-RW and this makes a big difference. While the above laptops can write and read DVD-CD drives. This one apparently (based on the description) can WRITE on top of REWRITABLE DVDs . In other words, you can write on these DVDs even after it’s been burned. Either way since most people are buying laptops with CD-DVD drives to just play CD/DVD Drives, it works just as good as any of the drives found on previous laptops.

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Other Options

A. QHD Laptop with External DVD Drive

Now I want to talk about one more laptop we did not include in the list: Lenovo Ideapad Pro 5i.

If that laptop had a DVD Drive, it would’ve been the PERFECT laptop to watch movies because the resolution is QHD ( 2560 x 1440) and the display type is IPS, this combination MASSIVELY improves the accuracy of colors (color gamut).  This combination (QHD resolution + IPS display) and the fact that it’s a 16” display would give you a visual experience only found on premium ultrabooks and MacBooks.

Unfortuantely, it doesn’t have a DVD and never will. There’s also laptops with OLED displays which are vastly better than IPS displays in terms of color accuracy. You can check out the difference in my post here: Display Types.

This is why you should consider dropping the DVD Drive altogether and spend your money on better specs. Laptops with DVD Drives are so overpriced now in 2024 and will likely continue to be so in 2025 despite having outdated hardware.

The sound quality of the Lenovo laptop above is also top notch. Almost 1.5x louder than most laptops and the quality of sound is probably even better than any of the laptops we went over.

B. MacBooks

Macbooks released after 2007  do not have a built-in CD DVD Drive. However, every single model supports the external Optical Drive which can read DVDs and CDs called “USB SuperDrive”. 

For example, below you can see my MacBook 16′ (2019) and the external optical drive on top of my MacBook Air (2014 model), I’m using the same 2012 Optical Drive to install 2023 software. Thus I assure you there is nothing wrong with Optical Drives, they weigh next to nothing.

I would totally understand the issue if you had to carry 17 inch 6lb laptop and adding more weight to that would just defeat the whole purpose.

But if you’re willing to use the optical drive, you can buy pretty much any laptop of your choice and if you choose a thin lightweight model say ~3lb and add the optical drive, it’s just going to add up to 3.3lb at the most.

By the way, older macbooks are faster, even if you get a 2008 MacBook, it’s still going to be plenty fast and faster than most windows laptops made in 2023 under 250 bucks. That’s because OSX (Mac’s operating system) is nowhere near as hardware demanding as Windows 10. refurbished. So you can also get a built-in CD DVD Drive  out of a macbook without having to compromise speed or anything.

C. Mini Laptop with DVD Drive

As of 2024, no mini laptops with built-in DVD drives have been released yet. 

Currently it just isn’t feasible to make small CPUs, RAM sticks, Storages, and all the circuitry that goes inside a laptop and STILL be able to fit in a CD DVD Drive which would basically occupy HALF the space of a 10 inch laptop. 

You can find 10 inch DVD devices with built-in screens however.

And if you must use a laptop and want something extremely portable.

You can try an  11 inch laptop from this list here  and use an external optical drive. I myself own an 11 inch MacBook Air (190 bucks) with an external CD Drive (called external USB SuperDrive on MacBooks):

Both an11 inch laptop and an external DVD Drive should be able to fit in a small backpack.

Comments?

If you feel like I’ve missed something or you are not happy with my suggestions (perhaps you want a laptop with a DVD Drive and another feature) please leave a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as possible (one day tops) and reply to you within hours and also include your suggestion in the next update.

Author Profile

Miguel Salas

I am physicist and electrical engineer. My knowledge in computer software and hardware stems for my years spent doing research in optics and photonics devices and running simulations through various programming languages. My goal was to work for the quantum computing research team at IBM but Im now working with Astrophysical Simulations through Python. Most of the science related posts are written by me, the rest have different authors but I edited the final versions to fit the site's format.

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