excuse me for being so ignorant and behind times..but what is MyBooks?
![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
Why don't PC cases have 5.25" external drive bays anymore?
- Thread starter bigbluefe
- Start date
excuse me for being so ignorant and behind times..but what is MyBooks?
pendragon1
Extremely [H]
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2000
- Messages
- 52,162
I have a DVD drive in my case and my wife's computer has one as well.... neither of us have probably used them in the last 1~2yrs but I can't find the damn Bezel Covers for the cases so The DVD drives serve a vital purpose of not having a huge hole in the front of the cases... Ok I just pushed the eject button on mine, Apparently it still works?? I should find a disc and check.. I also dont really know where any CDs or DVDs are in the house now however.
Starfalcon
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2020
- Messages
- 1,323
I still have a pair of DVD burners in my rig. I still use them to watch DVDs and burn discs for my old computers.
Pff I can download a 4k version and start watching the actual movie. While you wait through all the FBI warnings and crap you can't skip on DVDs.
Starfalcon
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2020
- Messages
- 1,323
True enough, but I also do not have super fast internet because comcast. With a 4k rip, I could be done with my DVD before that would be done downloading.
cjcox
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2004
- Messages
- 2,946
But, can you do that without pirating content you never paid for?
:Shrugs:
Actually there's an application that can skip past all of the DVD FBI warnings. And with DVD I have the advantage that I can resell it when I'm done watching it.
Your DVDs are not worth much. I also have no desire to watch DVD quality video unless it is the only way available.
"Not much" is relative. You might make more money than I do at my job. Try not to underestimate the importance of a movie's resale value to other people who might be less wealthy than yourself. If the sale of a movie I'm done with is able to fund the purchase of another, I'm more than satisfied with that.
Carlyle2020
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2020
- Messages
- 199
I like Individuals.
All of them with different priorities.
So kindly don't hate mine
15 buck desk-usb-dvd-burner ftw
All of them with different priorities.
So kindly don't hate mine
15 buck desk-usb-dvd-burner ftw
Toriessian
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2017
- Messages
- 196
Its impressive that this thread died in 2020, got necro'd in 2021 and 2022, and the OP actually showed up and posted in it again recently. Its also impressive there are as many posts
in 2022 as there were in 2020.
![Zarathustra[H]](https://cdn.hardforum.com/data/avatars/m/9/9298.jpg?1707758471){kind=avatar}
Zarathustra[H]
Extremely [H]
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2000
- Messages
- 38,858
You are in the minority.
Most people stopped using optical drives before 2010.
Unless you are an extremely high value niche, (in orther words, yu'll pay a lot of money for what you want) the companies are going to focus on what the majority wants. These days that is compact cases they can easily stand on top of their desks with big windows so they can show off all the RGB LED lights and components inside the cases. Drive bays - both internal and external - do nothing but get in the way if all you are ever going to do is install a Mini-ITX motherboard with a single m.2 drive.
I still have a USB optical drive, in case I need to plug it in to rip a mobie or something like that, but I use it less and less frequently as time goes on. Right now it is in a box in my closet in my office. I'm not even sure which one. I just haven't used it in a while.
My main workstation - although huge - doesn't have any external bays, and I drilled out th erivets to remove the internal bays as I wanted to fit more water cooling equipment. It relies entirely on m.2 for storage (though being a Threadripper it has lots of PCIe lanes, and thus the ability to use lots of m.2 drives)
I really only use external drive bays on my testbench machine anymore. Not for optical drives, but for Icy-Dock style 2.5" and 3.5" drive docks so I can easily image drives, test drives, etc.
Last edited:
All of us here are in a minority.
Most folks just use their smartphones or laptops for their computing. Not overkill desktop towers.
Last edited:
Zarathustra[H]
Extremely [H]
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2000
- Messages
- 38,858
That is true, but less so than it used to be.
The "gaming pc" market has absolutely exploded over the last 5-10 years.
The "build your own workstation/non-gaming desktop" market is mostly dead, which is a crying shame. Most people avoid using computers all together these days, and if they have to use as thin as possible laptops. Those who need capable workstations are usually professionals and typically buy ready-made OEM machines.
The build your own market is bigger now than it has been at any time since the mid 90's, but it is entirely focused on ADHD gamer kiddies and their bright shining lights.
In 2017 when I was doing news on the [H] main page, I posted a news article which still stands out to me. It was about MSI and how the CEO turned the company around by re-focusing on gaming. This is one of the few pages that The Internet Archive never archived from the [H], so I can't find the article now. I think it was from Business Insider, but I am not sure. Some people quoted it in the forum discussion thread, so you get the gist:
Essentially, the CEO said, "we are now a gaming company and if you don't like it, there's the door" and it has worked out fantastically for MSI.
This is where the industry is now. 99.9% of those who build their own PC's do so for gaming purposes only. Heck, most of th ekids these days I've spoken to use those computers only for games. They won't even log in to facebook in a web browser on their "gaming pc" preferring to take a picture of their screen and post it, rather than a real screenshot for that reason.
Essentially they have built (or in many cases, had someone build for them) a racy looking general purpose computing platform that they proceed to use as if it were just some sort of high end Xbox.
It's kind of sad, but those of us who know the value of general purpose computing and like to build our own machines are a dying breed and a tiny fraction of the market today.
I don't know about everyone else, but I got into building computers because I liked computers. I wanted the fastest most badass machine there was, that I could do everything on. Render, code, work, etc. Gaming was almost an afterthought. I played games because I had a badass PC, not the other way around.
The market now is so completely different, and honestly I don't like it.
Even those who build their own machines are barely customizing them anymore. They just buy motherboards with a combination of everything they need on board and just add a GPU. Where is the fun in that? I miss the days when you just had a basic motherboard with a bunch of expansion slots and you decided what you wanted in those slots. If you didn't want a hard drive controller, you didn't add a hard drive controller.
It's why we have shit like this:
This Apple ad made my blood boil when it ran.
And news articles like this:
File not found: A generation that grew up with Google is forcing professors to rethink their lesson plans
This is not the future I was promised. I hate everything about it. I feel like I am having everything I like and value taken away from me, because the dumb lowest common denominator masses can't be bothered with it, and products are only made for the dumb lowest common denominator masses.
Last edited:
~gets ready to argue...~
...
fuck.
I remember that article. It was one of the best damned things they ever did.
~gets ready to argue again, looks at the dedicated, glowy-as-shit gaming-only pc next to him~...
fuck.
Gaming for me was first - but then I got into the rest and wanted it to do them all. I switched to building a dedicated workstation + dedicated gaming machine because my workstation stuff sometimes... stomped on gaming stuff (first it was things like virtual pc / ISO tools pissing off DRM, then dual boot fuck ups, then... well, you get the picture). Now? Yeah, I could not do that, but it lets me play with more hardware this way
I appreciated at the time what they were trying to do for certain demographics - but I'll be damned if that demographic hasn't taken over everywhere.
This STILL baffles the shit out of me. Like, how?!? How do you find anything?!?
Zarathustra[H]
Extremely [H]
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2000
- Messages
- 38,858
Gaming for me was first - but then I got into the rest and wanted it to do them all. I switched to building a dedicated workstation + dedicated gaming machine because my workstation stuff sometimes... stomped on gaming stuff (first it was things like virtual pc / ISO tools pissing off DRM, then dual boot fuck ups, then... well, you get the picture). Now? Yeah, I could not do that, but it lets me play with more hardware this way
For decades now I've been hellbent on building a no compromises "one machine that is best at everything" but over time I am coming to the same conclusion as you. It kind of annoys me, but the way the market is segmented I often either have to choose between best per core performance or more PICe lanes and expansion and it annoys the hell out of me. AMD's choice to not update the Threadripper (non-Pro version) after Zen 2 was probably the nail in the coffin for this approach for me.
I might just pick up a Mini-ITX motherboard and install it in the secondary motherboard slot in my Corsair 1000D, and stick my big GPU in the mini-ITX board as a dedicated games machine. Since it's only for gaming I could probably get away with a cheap-ish mid-range Ryzen 5 or Core-i5 machine with 6C/12T, since I don't do stuff in the background and never stream.
THen I could just get a mid to low end Quadro or Radeon Pro and stick it in my Threadripper board and use it for work and day to day computer stuff.
I'd need to pick up some sort of KVM solution for this though.
Zarathustra[H]
Extremely [H]
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2000
- Messages
- 38,858
Are you trying to telle that it is not still March 2020?
Zarathustra[H]
Extremely [H]
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2000
- Messages
- 38,858
Last time I dusted off the good old USB DVD burner was wehn I gave my old car to my mom.
I burned her a collection of her favorite music on six CD's and stuck them in the CD changer.
Now I don't even own a car with a CD player. My old Volvo has a tape deck. My new Volvo has a touch screen streaming thingie which I most use for Radio or to stream Spotify on the go.
I'm reminded of this tweet that blew up Twitter 5 years ago:
Zarathustra[H]
Extremely [H]
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2000
- Messages
- 38,858
480p
in 2022 that shit is unwatchable. It was unwatchable over a decade ago.
I have a box full of DVD's from the 90's and early 2000's that I don't know what to do with.
They aren't worth enough money to make it worth my time to try to sell them, but at the same time it feels wrong to just throw them out. Would people even take them if I gave them away for free?
I guess I'll just have them in case in 2057 I feel like watching a copy of The Abyss (Directors Cut or Special Edition or some nonsense like that) in 480p if I can even find a DVD player.
Yep. I'm PRAYING for Zen4 TR not being insane, and Sapphire Rapids being the same. The rumblings I hear say that SR may have more of a traditional HEDT option too... so I'm hoping.
It's nice knowing that if the gaming box blows up, the workstation (TR) can game quite well. Or if the workstation blows up - the gaming box can fill in just fine for a bit (or longer). Or if a part breaks and I'm waiting on RMA, etc, etc... But that's also insanely expensive - I've got a 10th gen loaded out gaming system, and a TR 3960X sitting 5 feet away. Most can't afford that.
I seriously thought about this for a long time - even have the same case, it's what my Linux / secure workstation is in (X299). In hindsight... that might have been smarter. Cheaper for sure than the balls-to-the-wall ATX build I did, I suspect, as the gaming box - but would it have been as much fun? Hard to say.
The other half of this - given how rarely high-resolution gaming systems need to be rebuilt (CPUs last a long time these days)... it's not like a dedicated gaming box has to get swapped out often. Nor productivity boxes... hmm.
Monitors with multiple inputs? Still won't fix KB/M though... hmm.
480p
in 2022 that shit is unwatchable. It was unwatchable over a decade ago.
I have a box full of DVD's from the 90's and early 2000's that I don't know what to do with.
They aren't worth enough money to make it worth my time to try to sell them, but at the same time it feels wrong to just throw them out. Would people even take them if I gave them away for free?
I guess I'll just have them in case in 2057 I feel like watching a copy of The Abyss (Directors Cut or Special Edition or some nonsense like that) in 480p if I can even find a DVD player.
Nope. All standard video DVDs are interlaced, while 480p is progressive. Some may appear to be progressive, but this is only due to the magic of reverse telecining or de-interlacing that your DVD player and or software may be doing you for automatically.
Randy6309
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2022
- Messages
- 126
Still his statement is correct. 480p and 480i still look ass.
Some people love how ass looks. To each their own. Whatever floats your boat floats it.
Zarathustra[H]
Extremely [H]
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2000
- Messages
- 38,858
Thats kind of neat. Is that a custom screen, or some sort of drive bay kit? What did you use for the stats output on it?
Randy6309
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2022
- Messages
- 126
Matrix Orbital 7” display
AIDA64 app. You can setup pretty elaborate sensor panels with AIDA64
There are monitors that have usb hubs that will switch the onboard usb ports to the input you have selected. My Dell U2723QE does it, PC plugged into the Displayport with the USB input mapped to it and than the USB-C goes to the SteamDeck so I can use a keyboard and mouse with it on the screen when messing around with stuff.
Zarathustra[H]
Extremely [H]
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2000
- Messages
- 38,858
Do they pull a USB signal via DisplayPort or HDMI? I didn't realize that was a thing.
All of myonitors, even newer ones, have a basic USB A to USB B uplink cable to the built in USB hub, and I've never seen one with more than one input.
You use a usb uplink and map it to either the HDMI or DisplayPort input so it's active when the one it's mapped to is active. On the USB-C side, everything is done through the single USB-C cable since it can carry everything. Mainly for mobile devices like a laptop or SteamDeck in my case.
Page 66: https://dl.dell.com/content/manual12109242-dell-u2723qe-monitor-user-s-guide.pdf?language=en-us
Last edited:
Zarathustra[H]
Extremely [H]
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2000
- Messages
- 38,858
Ah, I've never tried using USB for a display.
Maybe it works well, but the concept of using something like USB for a high bandwidth device like a display just feels wrong to me.
What's even rendering the image? Is it transferring the framebuffer to the USB interface and from there to the screen, instead of going directly to a display port on the GPU? Sounds like a pretty bad idea to me.
USB-C also carries DisplayPort, as well as usb and power. It's perfect for hooking a mobile device up because it can charge it at the same time. If you don't/can't use USB-C for video, you can map it to the HDMI or DisplayPort input and just use it for a USB connection to your computer and have the video run over HDMI or DisplayPort instead.
https://www.displayport.org/displayport-over-usb-c/
Randy6309
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2022
- Messages
- 126
Zarathustra[H]
Extremely [H]
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2000
- Messages
- 38,858
That's pretty cool.
I presume you have to run Windows to get the display output though?
I'd do something like this if I could get it to be OS independent, but if it depends on OS for display output, then I'd just have to pass. I dual (and some cases even triple) boot and am constantly going back and forth.
My servers are all headless. I run them in Linux and don't even have the window managers or display servers installed, just console, in order for them to be less resource hungry (and to expose fewer potential vulnerabilities)
It's very frustrating to me that in 2022 it is practically possible to find a laptop and increasingly difficult to find a PC case that accommodates an internal DVD/Blu-Ray player. I couldn't live without the DVD/Blu-Ray drives on my computers and my multiple DVD/blue ray players in my home. Mainly for the DVD functionality. I honestly never cared much for Blu-Rays: too much DRM and I can't accept having to pay a bunch of money for a program like WinDVD just to be allowed to watch movies on my computer.
I would never trade my DVD collection for any kind of digital/subscription service. I tried that a few years ago with Dragon Ball. I subscribed on Funimation's website when I rediscovered the show for the first time since my childhood and got access to all of the DB anime series in HD. The problem is that when I look back on it and the lag problems I had, it just wasn't worth it, I ended up just buying all of the series' on DVD over the past year. For example, there was a time when I was streaming on my Linux dual-boot machine that the Funimation site just stopped working on the linux browser for a few weeks. I have no idea why, I ended up just going back to Windows 7 to watch it but that was a huge pain. A DVD would have worked a lot better. Also, some days, the videos were just laggy and I don't know why. I usually ended up just lowering the bitrate to SD anyway just to get a reliable video feed. The only time that DVD's have this kind of inconsistency is if you scratch them, but that is something that is generally in your control.
Subscription/digital services are not reliable in my view and what guarantee do you have that the content you paid for will still be accessible in 20 years? I have almost all of my DVD's from 20 years ago and they are still in pristine condition and play perfectly. That said, how much of my digital content from 20 years ago do I still have access to? Most of it got lost when I replaced my PC in 2005 or it is forgotten on some poorly labelled backup DVD or USB drive somewhere that I will never find. I have my movie boxes and the discs are sorted based on genre and I basically know where everyone of them is. From an archival standpoint, DVD's are basically king. 30 years from now, if there is a big war and after cyberattacks take down the internet and emp attacks take out most hard-drives, DVD's will still be around and working. They will be the books of our era that scholars will one day use to study our society and culture of our day.
I would never trade my DVD collection for any kind of digital/subscription service. I tried that a few years ago with Dragon Ball. I subscribed on Funimation's website when I rediscovered the show for the first time since my childhood and got access to all of the DB anime series in HD. The problem is that when I look back on it and the lag problems I had, it just wasn't worth it, I ended up just buying all of the series' on DVD over the past year. For example, there was a time when I was streaming on my Linux dual-boot machine that the Funimation site just stopped working on the linux browser for a few weeks. I have no idea why, I ended up just going back to Windows 7 to watch it but that was a huge pain. A DVD would have worked a lot better. Also, some days, the videos were just laggy and I don't know why. I usually ended up just lowering the bitrate to SD anyway just to get a reliable video feed. The only time that DVD's have this kind of inconsistency is if you scratch them, but that is something that is generally in your control.
Subscription/digital services are not reliable in my view and what guarantee do you have that the content you paid for will still be accessible in 20 years? I have almost all of my DVD's from 20 years ago and they are still in pristine condition and play perfectly. That said, how much of my digital content from 20 years ago do I still have access to? Most of it got lost when I replaced my PC in 2005 or it is forgotten on some poorly labelled backup DVD or USB drive somewhere that I will never find. I have my movie boxes and the discs are sorted based on genre and I basically know where everyone of them is. From an archival standpoint, DVD's are basically king. 30 years from now, if there is a big war and after cyberattacks take down the internet and emp attacks take out most hard-drives, DVD's will still be around and working. They will be the books of our era that scholars will one day use to study our society and culture of our day.
Last edited:
Randy6309
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2022
- Messages
- 126
It’s like running a second monitor use windows to setup and AIDA64
You can set it so the sensor pannel is locked to the 7” display
If you have a screensaver going it will also be on the 7” display
Zarathustra[H]
Extremely [H]
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2000
- Messages
- 38,858
Appreciate it, but that assumes you have windows running at all