Are there any 5.25" Slot loading drives anymore?

westrock2000

[H]F Junkie
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Jun 3, 2005
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I'm doing an audio project and would like a slot loading drive. But all I can find are the USB "slim" drives and so far I have had horrible performance with ripping audio CD's on USB slim drives.

I thought I remember some DVD drives having slots...like Pioneer maybe, but I'm not finding any.....EDIT: Looks like those were almost 15 years ago!
 
I saw that, and aside from the price, there were too many give aways suggesting its a laptop drive. The thin rectangular cut out on the front is laptop form factor. The little 45* angle at the back of the unit is dead give away of a laptop unit.

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It used to be that the Panasonic UJ-265 was the only slot loader available but now supplies are scarce.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA7BJ35N2839

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Panasonic/UJ265/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=cj

I tried one and its kind of slow, slower than the last SonyOptiarc slot drive that I have. But I never had any quality problems.
It was replaced by the UJ-267 around 3-4 years ago, and now even the 267 is difficult to find. I know because I bought the UJ-267 a couple years ago for my Silverstone FT05 build. I'm contemplating removing it as I have used it only 3 times in the past 2 years.

Considering the Macbook line hasn't got an upgrade in several years, and many high end laptops are simply leaving out optical drives altogether, there hasn't been much demand for a slim slot load blu-ray drive.
 
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But I don't think they sold the UJ-267 with the faceplate that you need on some slim case installations. At least with the UJ-265 they gave you a faceplate.
 
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