Antec 2480 Case: Need A DVD Burner w/ Matching Silver Bezel - Where?

I once read that someone took a Dremel to the back of the case's blank silver faceplate that you remove to install the drive. By filing off the tabs which hold it in place, and filing off some raised ribs which go across the back, you're left with a flat piece of plastic.

Now, recess your drive a bit more in the optical cage, and use double-sided (foam?) tape to adhere the front of your drive's tray to the back of this blank. When the drive ejects, the blank will come out toward you.

If you need to see the activity light from your drive, measure for its location, and drill a small hole.

To be able to use the drive's eject button, this fellow adhered a spacer to the back of the blank at the location where the drive's eject button would be. He could press on the front of the blank at this location, and the spacer would depress the drive's eject button.

EDIT: I found the text I remembered seeing on another forum:


This approach may enable you to use a black optical drive, and have a cover for it that exactly matches the rest of your case's front.

ND

This one works well in my NSK2480 case.

Pics from that other guy ("aerodynamics") at the forum-not-to-be-mentioned:





Hmmm... pics won't show... but you can go see them at:

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthr...0461&p=8700267 (scroll to post 102 in that thread to see more pics)

Since all of the accents on the case are black, I think that a Black DVD drive would look just fine. (But naturally, everyone's visual tastes are different... and that workaround to re-use the covers is clever!)

With apologies to Don (whose original post in this thread is to request suggestions for silver-colored DVD burners), I thought I'd take the idea of stealthing the drive, give it a shot, and post the results in this thread.

Again, props to "aerodynamics" at the forum-not-to-be-mentioned for the idea.

Here's a pictorial description of the process:

1. I used a sharp utility knife to trim away the tabs and ribs from the back of the coverplate.


2. Here's a close-up of the trimmed coverplate:


3. I recently bought a pack of those plastic hooks that use the 3M "command adhesive" strips - double-sided tape which is removable by pulling on the tab. They always include a bunch of extra tape strips. They're not as thick as the foam double-sided tape you can buy on a roll or in squares.


(not shown: I measured the location of the drive's LED activity light, marked it on the back of the coverplate, and drilled a small hole at that location.

4. Next, I installed the strips on the drive tray front:


5. Then, I peeled the red paper from those strips to expose the front adhesive, and carefully pressed the coverplate against the tape while ensuring it was centered over the drive opening:


6. Here's a shot with the activity light shining through (blurry because I couldn't use the flash):


7. The good news: with my Samsung SH-203B and its prominent eject button, I can simply press the coverplate near the bottom-right-side and cause the eject button to depress. The bad news: my drive causes the coverplate to protrude slightly more forward than I would like:


I had hoped I could slide the drive back in its cage a bit to align the coverplate at the proper depth. But my drive's mounting holes align with the case's optical cage mounting holes, not its "slots." I can't think of any ways to recess it further.

If you decide to do this, I made two mistakes you can learn from.

First, after drilling the hole for the activity LED, I decided to take some 100 grit sandpaper to the back of the coverplate to smooth down some of the bumps left from the trimming. I stupidly placed the coverplate on some plywood, painted side down, and pressed and rubbed the sandpaper on the back. I scratched up the front of my coverplate on the plywood!

Second, after mounting my coverplate on the drive tray the first time, I realized the coverplate stuck out more than I would like, and I wanted to attempt to slide the drive a bit back in its cage. Of course, there's no easy way to get the cage out of the case with this coverplate mounted to the drive! So, I pulled the coverplate off of my drive, then pulled the drive cage, realized I couldn't adjust the depth of the drive, reinstalled the drive cage, and decided not to re-use that tape; I assumed it would have lost much of its tack. I removed the tape, and replaced it with two new command strips, and re-installed the coverplate to the drive tray.

With the way it sticks out, I'm not sure I'm going to keep it this way. I didn't think a black drive looked that bad to begin with. And I'm considering mounting a black-colored card reader below it someday.

Hope this helps anyone who is considering stealthing the drive.

ND

For anyone wishing to paint their black drive, this is the paint you want:

Quick Color 2858 Silver
UPC- 0 20066 28589 0

I got it at Pep Boys

I second this, I use the same drive. It just happens to be the same optiarc drive that i use at work in my robotic duplicators. I have run ~20,000 cds through these with no failures so far. Rip times on DVDs 5.5-6.5gb run around 12-15 minutes on my system (AMD X2 6000+, WD SATA HD, 2 gigs of ram on XP).

UPC code says it's Rust-Oleum. Is it a paint or a vinyl dye?

Must be a Rustoleum brand. Has ROC Sales, INC on the label, with the same address as on Rustoleum cans.

It's labeled 'Fast drying all purpose spray enamel'. It was with all the car paint cans.

Might not be the best paint for a bezel.

Hardcore modders might want to correct me here, but my understanding is that basic paint doesn't reliably play nice with computer plastic - it eventually chips and flakes off, particularly when it's a frequently-touched part like a drive bezel. It's analogous to painting oil over acrylic. As with the paint analogy, there are primers to improve the outcome. (Google "flexible primer" "case mod".)

Vinyl dye is more like stain; it seeps into the plastic. I've only used it a couple of times, but what I like best is that it doesn't chip and minor errors seem to self-correct. Too much paint? Seeps in and spreads out over time. I have a case that I dyed in 2003 that looks better (more uniform) today than it did four years ago.

I found This one at Directron.com. It is silver and looks like it will match. The regular Pioneer 112D also gets good reviews at Newegg.com. Directron actually has a couple other silver ones also. I get mine in a couple days, so I'll update you guys here when I get it as far as how well it matches.

It looks like Newegg is not selling the silver Sony NEC anymore.

I have been thinking about using adhesive foil, it is available in numerous colors as well as metalic, like gold, silver og even brushed steel-look. It would be fairly cheap and how hard can it be to attach it, without funking it too much up.

Just a thought, or else spray paint is probably the best option.

try replacing it w/ a replacement cover for a P160, which has the stealth dvd cover...i believe it fits w/ a lil modification as well.
here's a thread w/ some pictures: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1140436

Hate to bring this up after you've performed the mod, but if you re-read the OP by aerodynamics you would read how he states to: "Remove the entire bezel, including the door, from your CD drive". You simply taped the cover right onto the door and CD/DVD bezel. If you remove the black bezel, the thickness of the cover should roughly be equal to the thickness of the bezel and then you wouldn't have the protruding cover....

will this one work?


ebay item number 280190402054 ... not sure how to post links

has none thought about removing the faceplate of the case and painting it black.
This may seem backwards thinking, but the faceplate appears to be cheaply painted itself and made of a more paint friendly type of plastic than the dvd drives.

I've certainly thought about it. Putting any effort into investigating the possibility is another matter though.

If it helps anyone, I saw a post (I think on Hardforums) about how someone used the stealthed drive cover that came with an Antec P160wf on the 2480. So I looked online at antec's site, and you can order the drive cover for $10 each. I figure the ability to make it truly stealthed and look nice was worth the $20 (got 2).

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=81602

And the specific Model/Part is P160DBCD525

Hope it helps someone!

Believe it or not I actually think that a silver drive would look out of place here.
The whole case is black except the front panel. Even the bottom part of the front is black.
You will never get a colour match on the silver, under different light it will show differently, the texture will be different etc.
Black will offer the desired contrast and is easier to match.
In addition any painting/sticking/modding will not have the oem look, quality, use or feel.
But looking at the replies here I'm probably the only one who thinks that

I am going to look into painting the whole facia either a much darker silver or black. Then clearcoat for a highend finish. this will take me some time. I would appreciate any input.

Memorex makes drives that have silver drive doors. Mine is almost a perfect match. I just got lucky as this was just a left-over drive from a previous build. They still make them like this though.

I have that drive already in another pc. thats my backup plan I guess if I get cold feet about painting.

Helped me...just ordered one. Thx!

Pioneer has new 215-series burners out, some of which come with silver bezels. They've been available in Europe for a couple of months, I think, but have yet to show up in the U.S. Here's Pioneer Europe's product page for the DVR-215DSV. There's also the DVR-215SV, which adds DVD-RAM support.

I finally got around to installing the stealthed drive covers from the P160 that I ordered. Attached is a picture.

It worked pretty well, took a little while to get it set in place and had to trim the clips on the sides of the covers. They jut out from the case maybe 1cm but from a distance it looks great I think. Pics are attached.

performance-pcs.com has some silver drives.

That looks good! Can you post a couple more pics from different angles? Maybe a couple pics of what you had to do to make it work too? I'm interested in doing the same thing. Where did you get them BTW?