[WylieKylie]

I've got my eye on the new Silverstone FT03-mini for a build I am working on, and it requires a slim, slot load optical drive. Anyone who has looked for such an animal knows that they are rather pricey, so while looking I cam upon Ultradrives.com, which advertise quite a few refurbished drives. Thier prices seem to be ~30-40% lower than a new unit. I have purchased a number of refurbished product in the past, but as finicky as optical drives can be I'm having some second thoughts.


Has anyone had any experience with rufurbished optical drives, or better yet has anyone had any experience with Ulradrives.com?


And for all of you folks in favor of optical drives going the way of the dinosuar, yes I really do want an optical drive in this computer, as it is where I will be ripping my blu-rays to MKVs.

 

[captain_video]

I bought a bunch of slimline DVD+/-R drives on ebay a while back for $10 apiece that were working pulls from laptops. They're not slotloads, but I seem to recall seeing some listed that were fairly cheap. I bought mini-SATA cables on ebay for a couple bucks apiece and a bracket that accommodates both the slimline drive and an SSD from Newegg for about $7.99. I also bought some external cases with faceplates and USB cables for the drives for about $7 each.


If you're talking Blu-Rays then that's an entirely different ballgame. A slimline slotload BD-ROM isn't going to be cheap. You might be better off getting a full-sized drive and putting it in an external enclosure so you can connect it when you need it. If your case and mobo support eSATA then that would give you the best transfer rates between the drive and the PC. USB is fine but will be painfully slow for ripping Blu-Rays.

 

[WylieKylie]

Unfortunately I am looking for Blu-Ray drives. I have thought about getting an external enclosure, but with the cost of an 5.25" e-sata enclosure being ~$40 and a refurbished Sony Blu-Ray drive being $80 I'm having a hard time deciding... Right now I'm leaning towards being the guinea pig and pulling the trigger on a refurbished drive.

 

[walford]

A drive that is refurbished by the drive manufacturer and which comes in a unopened pachage and full warrantee is often more reliable than a new drive since the manufacturer's testing of refurbished drives is normally more extensive then it is for new drives.