Why no DVD bays on front, Mid Towers??

sasquatch182

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
142
Ok, looking to build a new machine. Starting with the case, why do most of the mid tower ATX cases no longer have front exposed drive bays? What do you do about CDs/DVDs?

Much of our software is still on CD or DVD. Is everyone creating a USB DVD drive to plug in when needed?

Thanks for any advice.
 
Well for me I never use the software on the disc. I usually just download the latest drivers/softwares.

I honestly can't recall the last time I used a disc or burned one.

I have used a USB flash-drive to boot Windows installations and such.

I do have an external slim USB dvd- burner just in case. However it's still sitting in its box brand new and never used for the past 4 years.
 
Same deal. Haven't used optical media in years. Load Windows via USB. Download the rest.
 
I thought about it... and I don't even own a piece of optical media anymore. There isn't a single disk in my entire apartment. I haven't put an optical drive in a PC since.. 2009?
 
I'm still using DVD. Basic internet speed in my country is 64kbps (close to the dial-up 56kbps speed).
 
Most games these days don't even include a disk when you buy a physical copy. I bought a copy of something the other day from amazon, and it just had a paper in the case with a code for steam.
 
My server has one but that's because A) I didn't want one in my main PC B) I do want one easily accessible in case I ever need to burn something (work is usually the case of this) or read an old disc. Otherwise, flash drives have replaced optical media in my life.
 
Can't say I use my optical bay for much, but I do like having the ability so have avoided driveless case designs.
 
Unless you're running a multimedia streaming server at home you'll need it for ripping media files & storing them for online archival. For most users it's unnecessary.
Who isn't running a plex server at this point? I hate the fact that I'm stuck with external ODD on most of my rigs.
 
Ha, found this post interesting because I will be assembling my new pc soon. I still have a lot of older media backed up on dvds and games that didn't come with online activation. The drives don't get much work since they are seized right now, but I might need them to read some disk for the initial install of the new pc. It's kinda crappy thou that optical media are built so cheap that they get stuck or fail from sitting.
I have been tempted to add a blueray drive to backup some photos.
 
I haven't installed anything on a PC using physical media in at least 3 years.

If I need it (and I don't) there's a USB Blu-ray drive in a drawer around here... Somewhere.
 
I was looking at the external blueray drives. They are still a bit more expensive than internal ones.
 
Half the games I get just have a steam code in them so I took out my BR drive which I rarely used anyway. I did just pick up several disc based games because they are much cheaper then on steam so I picked up a USB DVD writer for under $25.

It's funny that you can buy Doom for $20 and its a steam key or buy it directly from Steam for $60. So stupid. Pretty sure my Witcher 3 is on the discs and not just a steam key, large and heavy box.
 
I was looking at the external blueray drives. They are still a bit more expensive than internal ones.

For my next build, I was thinking of just buying an external and reusing my current internal BRD, that way I can attach it where needed.
 
I still have an external bluray drive for the rare occurrence when I want to use one.

Now that I am selling my Xbox One, I think I will have to rely on that again.

Discs still have some use, especially for movies.
 
Personally, I miss having an external bay in new cases because they were useful for all sorts of expansion devices. ODDs, Mult-Card readers, Koolance pump/reservoirs...
 
I haven't used mine in years but I still put them in just in case I need it. They are very cheap and since don't get used much they last for years.
 
When a USB thumb drive is cheaper than a pack of blank DVD's and hold's more storage than the entire package combined while taking up less physical space...

when every computer and motherboard made in the past 10 years supports booting from USB...

when even Microsoft says "Fuck it" and ships its latest OS on pre-loaded USB thumb drives...

when a blu-ray movie costs on average $30 to purchase on a store shelf but you can purchase the same movie for $5 on your Amazon Prime account and not have to store the disc...

...it's time to ditch optical disc drives. Get with the times and stop being a Luddite.






This post is intended as satire. The amount of fucks I give about any anger directed at me as a result of this post equals the amount of periods at the end of this sentence
 
Last edited:
I'm still using DVD. Basic internet speed in my country is 64kbps (close to the dial-up 56kbps speed).
Holy speed! I had to read that twice. Is that just the lowest you can get and can get much higher or?
 
Most games these days don't even include a disk when you buy a physical copy. I bought a copy of something the other day from amazon, and it just had a paper in the case with a code for steam.
I hate that. That and online game registration is killing the second-hand games market.
Once DRM servers go off-line, or the distributor just decides to no longer support it, the game does no longer even exist. Future vintage game enthusiasts will have to resort to collecting cracked "warez" ...

A couple of times I have bought ten-year old used game DVDs at flea markets only to discover that it had required on-line registration - which of course had already been used up. Not that I paid more than a Euro for any but still...

BTW, what I use my external optical reader for the most is to rip classic CD's that I bought really cheap at flea markets.
 
When a USB thumb drive is cheaper than a pack of blank DVD's and hold's more storage than the entire package combined while taking up less physical space...

when every computer and motherboard made in the past 10 years supports booting from USB...

when even Microsoft says "Fuck it" and ships its latest OS on pre-loaded USB thumb drives...

when a blu-ray movie costs on average $30 to purchase on a store shelf but you can purchase the same movie for $5 on your Amazon Prime account and not have to store the disc...

...it's time to ditch optical disc drives. Get with the times and stop being a Luddite.

This post is intended as satire. The amount of fucks I give about any anger directed at me as a result of this post equals the amount of periods at the end of this sentence

I still buy lots of movies, and rip and encode them myself. I'm not going to be stuck with nothing to watch when my internet is out. Or when Amazon's servers are down. Or when they change their "terms of service" and I'm no longer allowed to watch that particular content on that particular device.
 
Getting back to to the OP, it's simply there is limited demand so no real need for them anymore. A USB DVD drive suits my needs now and I don't have a 5.25 cluttering up my build.

Now diverging into streaming for movies, I want a physical copy with full DTS X or Master HD audio which many times you won't get on a stream.

Now I would be fine if UHD BR was instead a SSD cartridge that I pop into a reader/player. I don't actually need an optical disc I just want a physical copy with all of the video and audio quality. But I am guessing that would make it more expensive than the current UHD standard.
 
I still use optical drives. I love them and cherish them.

I still like to buy real CDs and own the albums.
 
I bought this Apple drive from a member here to use if I need to read a disc.
IMG_0868.JPG
 
Optical disks are still around, will be around for a long time. Plus you can use external bays for card readers, fan controllers, and such. You probably don't need more than 2 bays, but 0 is a bit extreme.
 
It's so few and far inbetween that a cheap, generic USB DVD drive will get the job done more than adequately enough for me.
 
I still buy lots of movies, and rip and encode them myself. I'm not going to be stuck with nothing to watch when my internet is out. Or when Amazon's servers are down. Or when they change their "terms of service" and I'm no longer allowed to watch that particular content on that particular device.
Ok. I get it as I rip the occasional movie too. I have a file server for all my movies and music so I can use them offline. All I did was present a list of reasons why we don't need DVD drives in our cases anymore (topic of the thread). Not all the reasons need apply. However, a list of reasons like that are precisely the justification a lot of consumers use to buy fewer cases with drive bays and for manufacturers to slowly stop making them.

USB to SATA/IDE adapters still exist. Plenty of USB optical drives are still available but they too may eventually cease to exist.
 
when i moved my current PC to a new case, i did not bother to install the optical drive at all, but the USB to Sata adapter looks like a useful thing to have around
 
Ok. I get it as I rip the occasional movie too. I have a file server for all my movies and music so I can use them offline. All I did was present a list of reasons why we don't need DVD drives in our cases anymore (topic of the thread). Not all the reasons need apply. However, a list of reasons like that are precisely the justification a lot of consumers use to buy fewer cases with drive bays and for manufacturers to slowly stop making them.

USB to SATA/IDE adapters still exist. Plenty of USB optical drives are still available but they too may eventually cease to exist.

I pulled out my SATA Blu-Ray drive when I did my last case upgrade and went with a nice USB Blu-Ray for all my ripping...It worked perfectly well, but a couple weeks ago I put the SATA drive back in. It's just less hassle to simply drop in a disc rather than go to the drawer, get the USB drive out, plug it in, then burn the disc, then put it all away again afterwards. I will say I've not used the drive for anything BUT ripping for years. All my software needs are taken care of by downloads or USB sticks.
 
it is not the time to ditch optical media. Sorry, it simply isn't. I run a HTPC with bluray rips. My rips are between 10gb-15gb, full audio pass through as well. This isn't streamable, and with bandwidth limits, etc....its annoying to stream movies nowdays.

So, I appreciate the case manufactures keeping the 5.25" bays.
 
it is not the time to ditch optical media. Sorry, it simply isn't. I run a HTPC with bluray rips. My rips are between 10gb-15gb, full audio pass through as well. This isn't streamable, and with bandwidth limits, etc....its annoying to stream movies nowdays.

So, I appreciate the case manufactures keeping the 5.25" bays.
that is absolutely network streamable at 1gbps, with tons of room to spare.

Hell high-end wifi will do it, too!
 
Back
Top