Are slim DVD/Blu-Ray drives quite or reliable?

[Blappo]

I am planning on building an HTPC with an AMD E-350 mobo in an Antec ISK300-65 case. Unfortunately it takes a slim optical drive. My only experiences with them are in some older laptops where they were very noisy. I'm also worried about reliability since I have 2 young boys who like playing with electronics.

So can they be quiet and reliable? Or should I consider a different case if I want an optical drive?

[Vicotnik]

You could also consider an external USB unit. How often do you use optical media?

[Blappo]

We mainly use our DVD player to watch children's movies, although we do occasionally watch movies from our own library and rent movies (yes we are stuck in the past). Our DVD player constantly locks up if a disc is badly scratched (i.e. a children's rental). Once I have a HTPC, I will rip our movies which will eliminate that need, then there is just the case of rentals and borrowing movies.

I read reviews about USB Blu-ray drives and based on the feed back it sounded as if there were bandwidth problems (although that could have just been the drive I saw reviews for). Also, I would probably put the external drive away when not in use so it doesn't become a toy, which would make it less convenient.

I am not planning on buying an optical drive immediately and keep flip-flopping if I will need one in the future.

[ntavlas]

I think that an internal drive is indeed worth having in a htpc, relying on movie rentals myself.

Slim optical drives are usually quiet since they run at slower speeds than desktop parts do. In spite of feeling flimsy when you hold them, they don`t appear to be any worse than regular drives in terms of reliability. I`ve used quite a few of them for my various mini itx projects and they`ve been exposed to a fair bit of dust but none of them have failed so far. In the mean time I`ve had quite a few regular drives fail. This is just my personal experience of course, it remains to see if it adds up to what others report.

[deruberhanyok]

I have a slot-loading optical drive in my ISK 300-65 system. It does take care of the problem of the drive feeling "flimsy" since there's no tray to eject. It's a Pioneer DVR-TS08... dunno if they're still available anywhere. Newegg doesn't seem to have them anymore, at least.

I really only use it for ripping CDs occasionally, or an operating system install. It does get pretty loud when it spins up to full speed. However, keep in mind that I say that with the system literally right in front of me - it's only about an inch behind the keyboard, so it's probably only 2' or so from me when sitting at the desk.

The noise level is probably going to vary from model to model, and also on the usage. I expect were I to just listen to a CD it would be significantly quieter than when running at full speed to rip the audio.

[Blappo]

@ntavlas
I'm not worried about dust; I'm worried about a 2 year old and 4 year old:) They have stepped on the tray of our DVD player (which managed to survive). Good to hear you have had success with slim optical drives though.

@deruberhanyok
I didn't realize that slot-loading slim optical drives existed; the Wii with a slot-loading ODD seems to be standing up well.
BTW - Did you modify the front ODD cover on the ISK 300?

I am somewhat put off by the lack of choices (and cost) of slim ODD. I started to consider the Apex MI-100 since it accepts a standard ODD (and full height expansion card). It's about $20CND cheaper than the Antec, although it would end up costing about $20 more if I switch to a PicoPSU.

[deruberhanyok]

No, I didn't have to make any changes to the case. However, when I mounted the drive to the cage I had to slide everything into position to see where everything would line up before I started screwing things into place. As I recall the mounting bracket for the optical drive was kind of counter-intuitive, when I lined it up where I thought it would go the drive was actually a little too far back.

I just looked around and found two slot-loading models on Amazon. There's the Sony Optiarc AD-7690H and the SilverStone SOD01. Slot loading drives are much more expensive than the tray types, but I personally feel it was worth the extra cost.

There's a Toshiba one as well, but it uses the older miniature parallel ATA interface; not only is that incompatible with the Ontario/Zacate ITX boards I've seen but the required adapter AND ribbon cable would be enormously difficult to route in the ISK 300. So definitely avoid any slim optical drive that isn't using a SATA connection.

[Blappo]

I actually saw that Sony on Newegg. I thought it was just overpriced and didn't realize it was a slot loader The price is horrible though. For the price of the Antec ISK 300-65 ($60) plus that drive ($55) I could get the Apex MI-100 ($40), a standard DVD drive ($22) and a PicoPSU ($42).

I guess I have some thinking to do while I wait for a cheap Zacate board to come back instock.

[ntavlas]

I forgot to mention that I`m using a couple of the slot loading Sony drives. Though I don`t hold Sony in high regard in terms of reliability not having a tray that can break is a plus.
After converting currency and subtracting taxes they cost me $40 when other slim drives were around $35. So $55 is certainly overpriced, worth checking if other retailers got them.