Meet the New 5.25" Optical Drive Standard: Slimmer, Slot-loading
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 1, 2011 12:52 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
- Antec
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Computex 2011
I was walking around the show floor today and caught a glimpse of Antec's Solo II chassis with a slightly different optical drive bay.
It turns out that there's a new optical drive standard being worked on in the industry. The standard is for slot loading drives with a half-height profile. The drives are still 5.25" wide, but they just aren't as tall as the older drives.
Cases that have a fold down optical faceplate won't work with these new drives, forcing case makers to adopt. This Solo II is an example of what a slot loading solution may look like.
Expect to see these new slot load drives to hit the market by the end of this year, along with cases to match.
48 Comments
View All Comments
Araemo - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - link
As others mentioned, is it really half the height of a standard CDROM?Second, isn't a standard CDROM already 'half height' (as opposed to full-height like this: http://www.ambry.com/hosted_images/242854-B21.jpg )
I can understand the desire to refresh that form factor, but it doesn't look nearly as low profile as it could be, and would need to be to drive adoption.
Zap - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - link
Finally. Slot load drives are so much easier for casual use. Love it!LordOfTheBoired - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
Let's see... if this is about 2/3 the size of a current standard optical drive, that'd make it a 1/3 height device? Since current CD/DVD drives are technically half-height devices.I've got some old 1/3-height 5.25 floppy drives somewhere. I know why THEY weren't adopted, because they were unreliable. But a decade or two of techology advancement later...
I always wondered why no one offered a CD-ROM in that size. And then ledges in the drive bay became common, and weird sizes became infeasable.
But at this point... why is this not a laptop-sized drive?
ypsylon - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
Have you ever tried to use 8cm CDs with slot-in CD/DVD drive? If not then probably because of that you are still alive. 8cm CD + slot-in optical drive = 8cmCD shotgun. No slot-in drive support 8cm discs which are still around.And frankly who need optical drives today anyway? Using them only to install OS [no other option] or some old games. Send CD/DVD/Blue-Ray into dustbin of history.
MamiyaOtaru - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
about time. My ancient ~2001 tower (not my main rig) has slot load CD and DVD drives. I tried to get them for my new machine(s) but can't find them anywhere. Bring 'em back!jjjacer - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
current drives are already half height, original drives for the pc's back in the days of the XT and AT were 3 1/4 tall, now most drives are 1 5/8 tall. so if the new ones are half height to that, they should be called 1/4 height drives.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_bay
req7777 - Saturday, September 10, 2011 - link
I was wondering if anyone knows where can I get one of those.I would fit perfectly in my moded media/gaming tower.
Cheers
lmcd - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
could we just make slim half-height slot-loading the standard and call it? My SG09 is crying for this, so it can finally get a bluray drive for a reasonable price.