Short height optical drive?

Figure this is the best place to ask since the SFF enthusiasts are the ones most likely to run into problems like this...

I have a Caselabs S5 and I have an Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer 240 mounted onto the front flex bays. My problem is that the radiator is just long enough where it's making contact with and pushing down on the optical drive I have mounted in the bay below it. I've turned the radiator so that the more extended portion is up top (only way to mount it with the hose length) but I could still use another 1-2 mm.

Are there any blu-ray burners that are slightly shorter than standard? Full size drive cover is fine and preferred, but I need something where the drive case isn't quite as tall. I have it all shoehorned in there right now but I'd rather not have the optical drive being pushed down like it is now.

I've looked at the slim line drives, but they're twice the price of a standard drive and the speeds are terrible. I admittedly only use the drive a couple of times a year, but if a solution exists I'd love to get something that fits.

I also rarely use an optical drive. Since I have ultrabook style laptops sans internal optical drive, I bought a slim USB optical drive. After that, I stopped putting internal optical drives into my own systems. Maybe 2-3 times a year I plug in the external. Otherwise, don't miss it.

You may be able to run the optical drive without the top cover. That may give you enough clearance.

Go external? Sounds like you've already got the burner, just find an appropriately sized 5.25" USB 3.0 bay and install the burner in there.
I must be one of those weirdos that uses his drive semi-frequently (anime from Netflix mostly)

FnordMan said:

Go external? Sounds like you've already got the burner, just find an appropriately sized 5.25" USB 3.0 bay and install the burner in there.
I must be one of those weirdos that uses his drive semi-frequently (anime from Netflix mostly)

Click to expand...

Trying to avoid going with an external, just cause I've got enough crap lying around my workspace.

Zap said:

I also rarely use an optical drive. Since I have ultrabook style laptops sans internal optical drive, I bought a slim USB optical drive. After that, I stopped putting internal optical drives into my own systems. Maybe 2-3 times a year I plug in the external. Otherwise, don't miss it.

You may be able to run the optical drive without the top cover. That may give you enough clearance.

Click to expand...

That's a good idea. I looked at some pictures of drives that have been opened up and it looks like there's nothing right under the top cover. I only need 1-2mm of clearance, so I may try that.

Thank you both for the suggestions. I also noticed that different drives have different indentations on their top covers. I may try buying a drive that has a big shallow area on top and if that doesn't work I'll pull the top cover off.

Um, this sounds like you could get a slim ODD and use a 5.25" bracket to install it:



That way you reduce the height by a few millimetres. Would something like that work?