Looking for advice on what CD Drive to use for emulating PS1 games

[Rarefoil]

Hello, I'm Rarefoil. I've been using ePSXe for for quite a while now, and am currently going through RE1:DC in Advanced Mode with it.

But, when using the original CDs, I come across a kinda big problem. The original PS1 spun the CDs constantly and games relied on it for smooth
opertation. I'm using the built in DVD-RW Drive that came with my laptop, and it... really can't spin the CD that long. Whenever the CD isn't
being read, it just stops spinning, and when it needs to be read, it has to start up. This is so it can cool down and avoid overheating, so
one of my tech-savvy friends says.

This results in ePSXe always hanging while something has to load. I can only avoid it by moving at a fast enough clip in the current game
of choice. But that can lead to more problems.

More than once while playing a long session of RE1:DC, my DVD-RW drive has just stopped working and automatically ejected the disc.
And it refused to read the disc again until a significant length of time has passed and a reboot. This is, again, according to my tech-savvy
friend, because it reached the max temperature and that's its way of avoiding damage.

In fact, these days, it doesn't exactly need to be a long session before the DVD-RW drive just tuckers out. It can just fail sometimes now.
There have even been points of the game crashing at a loading screen when everything looked fine. I guess that was just it giving out
at the worst time possible. And to put the cherry on top of it all, it's even refusing to eject sometimes! I'm pretty sure all this work
playing RE1:DC has done some real damage to the poor thing. It still works (I just created a BIN of my Crash 3 CD), and any major
hand ups so far have come back with time and a reboot, but a constantly spun disc is asking too much of it.

Basically, what I need is a CD, DVD drive, whatever, that can handle the effort needed, that has the pure strength, the pure grunt,
to spin a disc forever (not literally, just enough for a decent gaming session, you know?)and not suffer any huge repercussions.
I really don't want to inflict any more torture to my current drive and I'd like to not have to quit in the middle of a good streak of
progress in RE1:DC due to hardware issues.

I've dug out an old DVD-RW drive from my previous tower PC, which I've heard (once again, from my tech-savvy friend) generally
do have the power for such a task, but given that I remember it hanging when I first played my JP Crash 2 CD with it so long ago, I
have my doubts. Not to mention that since that tower PC's been sitting collecting dust in the corner for years and it was in use for
about 8 years, heavens know what state it's in now. Ordered an IDE/SATA to USB converter for the thing anyway, since I figure anything
is better than my current situation. Or at the very least, I can now salvage the data from the old hard disks.

The issue with hunting for a new drive is that neither my tech-savvy friend or I know which of the specs listed for a drive would say
"This baby can spin discs for a LONG time!" And it isn't an often touted feature.

So. Do any of you guys know of a CD drive (preferably a DVD-RW drive or higher) that can spin a disc long enough for a decent PS1
gaming session? Or rather any gaming session that needs a constant disc spin? Is there a way to tell by looking at it's specs?
Or is there a current solution in my grasp and I've been a fool? Or is this a universal thing and all drives need to do cool-downs,
otherwise serious damage would occur, so there's nothing I can do? If that's the case, I can get by with ISOs and BINs, the loading
hanging isn't a problem at all with using those.

...But using the original CDs is just so much cooler and satisfying.
...Yeah, that's weak. But it hasn't gotten unplayable bad yet with a CD, so I want to continue down this road.

Please help me out with this. I really would appreciate it. If anyone could recommend another forum that would be more knowledgeable
then themselves, that would also be highly appreciated.

[Rarefoil]

At the moment, trying to post my software and specs is triggering the auto deny. No idea why, but as soon as I know, I am posting them.

[Rarefoil]

ASUS Gaming Laptop:


Graphic cards:
Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M

Processors: 8 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4700HQ CPU (at symbol) 2.40GHz

DVD-RW drive: MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ8E1

OS: Windows 8.1

DVD-RW drive I got from the old PC: Sony NEC Optiarc Inc. DVD/CD ReWritable Drive Model # AD-7200A

Name of IDE-SATA to USB converter I ordered (has not arrived as of this writing):
USB 3.0 to SATA IDE HDD, DVD-ROM, CD-ROM, CD-RM, COMBO, DVD-RW Adapter, Costech 2.5-3.5 HDD
Hard Drive Converter With Power Supply Cable for Windows7/8/10, Linux, Mac OS

ePSXe:

Version 1.9.0 (this is a hardware issue, so I figure the outdated version of the emulator wasn't the crux of the problem.
Its was a pain to set up anyway, so I don't wish to re-experience that unless needed)

Video Plugin: Pete's DX6 D3D Driver 1.77

Sound Plugin: Eternal SPU Plugin 1.41

Cdrom Plugin: ePSXe CDR WNT-W2K 1.7.0.

(Okay, for some reason, the at symbol triggered the auto-deny, despite not being a URL or a forbidden word. Makes sense.)

[pix07]

optriac is junk for me i tested it long time ago hunt for dvd/cd burner best companies are LG and Benq im dont know nothing better than them(of course if you use sata/ide i was never have usb dvd drive)
lite on was junk but im dont know its better now or not
CD/DVD disc can be good of course in packs sometimes you can have few broken because of production
the same with burner mine have "error" cant read cd's
so far for me best DVD's for burn was Esperanza and Sony
i was never tested others so i dont know what else can be good
low speed on burning=better quality when you burn them fast 56x CD's ._. even one little scratch can make them less readable
i was always burn at speed 4x but less is better
if you really really want just copy use usb but i read it SD cards are better and if only copy on DVD's buy 8 GB discs
and about samsung not buy anything from them officialy company was sold samsung not have that quality
which they have in past

[ulaoulao]

psx CDS, are not true CDs' There pits are much longer. Reading them with anything more the 1 speed is not wise, although it will work. Lower the speed and use a sony CD reader, not DVD.

[Rarefoil]

Okay, I think I get that a CD drive stopping when it's not being read is a universal feature, and I have heard of ways to turn that off, so I think that's one thing I'll have to do.

psx CDS, are not true CDs' There pits are much longer. Reading them with anything more the 1 speed is not wise, although it will work. Lower the speed and use a sony CD reader, not DVD.

How about this: I get an old, still working Sony CD Drive for a desktop computer (or at the very least a better brand of DVD-RW drive like what pix07 recommended), connect it to my laptop via the incoming IDE to USB
connector coming in the mail, set the speed on it to 1x, and disable the cool-off period to have it spin constantly. Would doing that fix the loading hangs while simultaneously not doing any major damage
or wear-and-tear to any parts of the drive or heaven forbid the CD (or the laptop, since the drive is not right next to any other components)? So it doesn't just give up the ghost and spit out the CD in the middle of a run?

[ulaoulao]

Hard to answer any of that without experimentation. Though I think you may have a shot trying some of that. Also keep in mine, back in the day, it was considered unwise to use cd rw. I think cdr- was the best and verbatim had the best reputation.