[Kirby Baker]

Does anyone know if there are internal DVD drives out there shorter than 170mm? Thats the shortest I was able to find, being a LiteOn, but I could really use something shorter, even if its just 5mm or so shorter.


Alternatively, because my conflict is the IDE cable plug and my video card's (7800GT) power plug hitting, is there a 90 degree adapter for those 6-pin video card sockets, or should I risk trying to bend the pins straight, to be perpendicular to the video card, and somehow get the plastic plug receptacle to attach?

 

[Joe_M]

How about a SATA DVD-ROM drive. That would get rid of the giant IDE ribbon cable.

 

[Kirby Baker]

Thought about it, but my motherboard (asus a8n-sli premium) absolutely freaks with a SATA optical drive. The 4 SATA ports on the NVidia4 chipset wont work with the optical drive at all, and if I put one on the SI controller ports, then I cant install an OS with it, but it did work ok after installation (swap out PATA for SATA). Guess I could try that.

 

[kenyee]

you probably need something like this:


http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...oducts_id=1169

 

[Kirby Baker]

Ugh, only SATA DVD I can find is the Plextor model (716), and its connectors are right in the spot where the video card's 6pin plug would hit! Its the right length at 170mm. I had an older 712 optical plextor before, and its SATA connectors were more in the middle of the back (perfect spot for me) but its 180mm deep, which also makes it a no-go.


The connector is something I can look at, similar to that one, but not sure I will have much luck at finding the exact thing I need. Maybe I should just use an external drive and be done with it....

 

[kenyee]

the Plextor is the only SATA DVD writer drive AFAIK. The other problem is not all motherboards support SATA DVD drives (yeah, lame)-: so you're probably better off not installing it...

 

[Kirby Baker]

Agreed, I think my best bet is to take my external plextor burner and use it via usb2. That way I dont have any issues with internal spacing and such. And I already know that my MB has issues with optical SATA.