Cd Ripping - is it better to use inbuilt CD drive of laptop or use an external Cd drive

To mapman's point about dbpoweramp using a database to compare, EAC also has this feature. The caveat in both cases is that the data is known. Meaning if you are ripping CDs of some bootleg recordings not widely available, or if users opt-out of sending the data, this option will be of no value because the database wouldn't contain someone else's previously ripped information.

Something else (not already mentioned herein) to look for. My assumption is you are ripping directly to a wav file. As you state the Dell CD has less bass energy, check the windows properties on both (Dell and internal PC) wav files. The Audio Bit Rate should be identical and the disk file size should ideally be identical but may differ ever-so-slightly. If theses properties are way off, something is very wrong and in that case you should double-check whatever output ripping options your Jriver, EAC, dbpoweramp (or whatever) is set to. 

Thanks guys for all your suggestions. I use the Jriver MC 22 for ripping. Do i still need the EAC program?

" So its really up to the software to assure accurate rips or not. Not sure how exactly one can achieve that based on drive type alone so I think that is a witch hunt.   Better ones will rip faster because they operate faster with fewer errors along the way."

That's one reason why it would rip faster, but if you're comparing full size internal/external optical drives to the small drives like they use in notebooks and usb powered internals, the full size drives work much faster regardless of errors.

Its also worth noting that ripping is hard on the drive, so I wouldn't use anything expensive. 

" I’ve seen EAC and it is good as well I believe but some may find it harder or less intuitive to use,"

There's several setup guides available online that walk you through the config process. It only needs to be done 1 time. After that, its just as easy to use as dbPoweramp.

I can't comment about EAC and I'm sure it is good. I have ripped over 2000 CDs into my NAS with DB Poweramp with excellent results. The only problem is occasional failure to find Metadata, but I think every system has that