# Optical Disc Drive owners club



## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 26, 2022)

For all those who (still) own an optical disc drive, be it an old CDRW or combo CDRW/DVD (read) drive or a typical CD/DVD+-RW multi drive or bluray (multi) drive, or perhaps even a drive for a new, much less common format such as the Archival Disc by Sony and Panasonic, for whatever purpose (burning, playback and other reading, ripping (note that ripping typical commercial DVDs and blurays is illegal in the United States per the glorious DMCA and perhaps some other countries as well because it involves cracking the (A)CSS copy protection mechanism)). This is one of the least exclusive clubs on TPU, you can join for just $20 or even less if you are willing to go used (if you have a 5.25" bay, otherwise it will be slightly more expensive).

With the demise of the club.myce.com forums this year (although part of its content can still be accessed thanks to the Internet Archive) a lot of knowledge about optical disc technology for the average consumer has become inaccessible. Luckily I was reading these forums a lot in the last half of 2021, absorbing a lot of knowledge about optical media.

What I use my optical drives for:

ripping pressed audio CDs (used CDs can be an excellent deal sometimes and with deceased or already extremely wealthy artists I do not personally feel to need to purchase the music new to support the artist; furthermore, some music can only be purchased on CD, used or new) as I do not like the idea of eternally relying on Spotify for access to my favorite music
burning CD-Rs for use in my car player (much more convenient and reliable, in my opinion, than having to deal with some gadget to connect my iPhone Xr via Bluetooth and then having to fumble with Spotify when I have to go somewhere)
burning CD-Rs and DVD+Rs for archival/backup purposes; I do not want to rely solely on SSDs and HDDs with potential for bit rot (not to mention general failure) for storing my most important data. Truly irreplacable data gets backed up on very high quality CD-Rs (and stored properly, of course!), while other stuff gets backed up on DVD+Rs (or not at all).
Drives I own:

TSST (Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology, a joint venture between, as the name suggests, Japanese Toshiba and Korean Samsung; it was purchased by its South Korean (optical pickup unit or OPU) supplier Optis, however, before going bankrupt in 2016) SH-224DB CD/DVD burner (connected with a Startech USB 2.0 IDE/SATA adapter to my desktop), purchased open box from eBay in 2021; it is an excellent CD and DVD reader with its Mediatek chipset and said to be a great DVD burner as well; not sure how well it burns CDs. Sold as a "Samsung Super Writemaster".
HL-DT-ST (Hitachi-LG Data Storage, a joint venture between, as the name, suggests Japanese Hitachi and Korean LG, still in business, although unfortunately quality has gone down the drain in an effort to keep costs low in the shrinking market for optical disc drives) *WH16NS40* (it actually seems to be an NS50 based on its exterior design but for inexplicable reasons LG has been selling newer drives under the NS40 model code, which has led to great confusion) with firmware 1.03 (DO NOT upgrade this drive to the new firmware version *1.05* *as you will brick it and LG will tell you to get lost if it is out of warranty*) bluray burner in an OWC Mercury USB 3.0 enclosure (purchased prebuilt from Adorama years ago)
Blank media I own:

PlexDisc (a Vinpower Digital brand) 16X DVD+R logo top 100-pack (Optodisc MID; made by an unknown (probably the huge CMC Magnetics) Taiwanese manufacturer (in Taiwan) as Optodisc allegedly no longer as its own plants anymore), purchased from eBay (runtechmedia store)
Falcon Media/FTI 52X inkjet/hub printable, water repellent 80 min/700 MB 50-pack Premium line CD-R cakebox, purchased from Polyline Corp of Burbank, California
Japanese TDK ATIP (manufacturing equipment was purchased by FTI from TDK when they got out of the CD-R manufacturing business)
Made in Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates
https://falconrak.com/product/premium-line-cd-r/
relatively expensive so I only use it for archival/backup purposes
made by what seems to be the only blank/recordable optical media manufacturer left that is not based in either the PRC (China) or ROC (Taiwan) so probably a good idea to support them if you love optical media and are worried about a possible China-Taiwan conflict in the future

Piodata (a Vinpower Digital brand) 52X CD-R white top 50 pack (CMC Magnetics ATIP so almost certainly also manufactured by them, Made in Taiwan)
cheap so I use them for audio CDs that will be used in my car and therefore inevitably scratched up and exposed to unpleasant temperatures) and also for OS (Linux/*BSD) discs that will be used only once or maybe twice

Verbatim DVD+R 16X 10-pack (CMC Magnetics M01 MID), purchased from some random person on eBay because I needed some DVD+Rs quickly and for a reasonable price. Not sure if it was my particular pack that I did not purchase directly from a reputable store or just this Verbatim product in general but they came with debris inside and visual imperfections and I got a terrible burn with one of them. Overall unhappy with these. Just get some PlexDiscs from runtechmedia instead!
Drives I want to buy:

new old stock Sony Optiarc AD-7200S (or one of its "clone"s, i.e. rebadges); the legendary burner from 2008

Optical drive information:
TSST ('Samsung') optical drives table courtesy of Myce and CDRinfo.pl communities
PLDS ('Lite-On') optical drives table courtesy of Myce and CDRinfo.pl communities
HL-DT-ST (Hitachi-LG or 'LG') optical drives table courtesy of Myce and CDRinfo.pl communities
Sony Optiarc NEC optical drives table courtesy of Myce and CDRinfo.pl communities

Places to buy affordable and quality blank media (it will be a bit US/North America centric for now but suggestions for other parts of the world are more than welcome!):
Runtechmedia Store on eBay (I would not buy BD-Rs from any Vinpower Digital brand (e.g. PlexDisc, Optical Quantum, Piodata) from them though as I only trust Verbatim DataLifePlus BD-Rs (VERBATIMe MID))
mediawholesaleonline store on eBay (they sell HP and Philips branded discs, which are said to be a relatively good grade of CMC Magnetics made (Made in Taiwan) discs; they sell other stuff such as Sony and Verbatim as well but keep in mind that those are just brands and not (anymore!) the actual manufacturers of the discs; personally I would not use these for archival or serious backups but they are cheap and fine for general purpose use; they also sell Verbatim DataLifePlus and M-Disc bluray discs)
Polyline Corp CDs (they sell FTI/Falcon Media discs as well as Verbatim (DataLifePlus, i.e. their own ATIP rather than (rebranded) CMC) and CMC Pro with the legendary Japanese Taiyo Yuden ATIP discs)
Polyline Corp DVDs (they sell FTI/Falcon Media discs with TDK MIDs (you may want to avoid these as degradation has been reported for these with both the original TDK made as well as FTI made ones!), Verbatim (DataLifePlus, i.e. Verbatim/MCC/Mitsubishi Chemicals MID) discs and CMC Pro discs with the Japanese Taiyo Yuden MIDs)
Rima (they sell Ritek Pro (Japanese Maxell MID for DVDs, Ritek ATIP for CDs) and CMC Pro (Japanese Taiyo Yuden MID/ATIP) discs and also Verbatim DataLifePlus BD-Rs; I have personally purchased CD quad cases from them to store my archival CD-Rs)

<< I will continue updating this original post with more information over time >>

keywords of stuff to be added in the future: cdrecord, cdrskin, dvdisaster, opti drive control, PREMM2


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## AusWolf (Sep 26, 2022)

Good post, let's bring optical drives back! 

I have a Pioneer external BD-burner (chassis don't have slots for internal ones anymore). I use it for CD ripping, too. You can get awesome deals on albums at carboot / flea market sales. The other use is data backup. I also thought I'd use it for watching films, but there's no free software for BD, and I've got a BD player hooked to the TV in the living room, so there isn't much need. 

I honestly miss the time when games came on optical media and didn't require Internet connection to install.


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## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 26, 2022)

AusWolf said:


> Good post, let's bring optical drives back!
> 
> I have a Pioneer external BD-burner (chassis don't have slots for internal ones anymore). I use it for CD ripping, too. You can get awesome deals on albums at carboot / flea market sales. The other use is data backup. I also thought I'd use it for watching films, but there's no free software for BD, and I've got a BD player hooked to the TV in the living room, so there isn't much need.
> 
> I honestly miss the time when games came on optical media and didn't require Internet connection to install.


I have read that Pioneer BD drives are one of the few currently produced drives that are still well-made and that burn pretty well. Personally, I would not use such as expensive drive for CD ripping though. Also, Mediatek chipset drives are generally considered to better readers (i.e. reading discs in relatively poor condition well and with good speed), while your Pioneer would be Renesas based. I would get a cheap Mediatek based DVD drive for that instead (avoid modern LG DVD drives and their ASUS rebadges though as they have terrible build quality). I can recommend some drives but I don't know what is easily and inexpensively available in the UK.

I rarely game anymore and for the last couple of years have almost exclusively used Steam but I certainly remember getting my first "real" (before that I was playing free crappy online Flash games) games: NFS Underground 2 (2*CD-ROM) and Colin McRae Rally 2005 (1*DVD-ROM). By then they were already years old but they were affordable with pocket money and they would run on the extremely crappy integrated (Intel GMA, pre-HD series) graphics of the laptop I had at the time. Then I got NFS Most Wanted (2005) too. Later I got a PS3 (around the Slim era) and got some games for that.

EDIT:
If you have the space then these should last you for quite a while: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223449200168 and they are great drives.


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## AusWolf (Sep 26, 2022)

mplayerMuPDF said:


> I have read that Pioneer BD drives are one of the few currently produced drives that are still well-made and that burn pretty well. Personally, I would not use such as expensive drive for CD ripping though. Also, Mediatek chipset drives are generally considered to better readers (i.e. reading discs in relatively poor condition well and with good speed), while your Pioneer would be Renesas based. I would get a cheap Mediatek based DVD drive for that instead (avoid modern LG DVD drives and their ASUS rebadges though as they have terrible build quality). I can recommend some drives but I don't know what is easily and inexpensively available in the UK.
> 
> I rarely game anymore and for the last couple of years have almost exclusively used Steam but I certainly remember getting my first "real" (before that I was playing free crappy online Flash games) games: NFS Underground 2 (2*CD-ROM) and Colin McRae Rally 2005 (1*DVD-ROM). By then they were already years old but they were affordable with pocket money and they would run on the extremely crappy integrated (Intel GMA, pre-HD series) graphics of the laptop I had at the time. Then I got NFS Most Wanted (2005) too. Later I got a PS3 (around the Slim era) and got some games for that.
> 
> ...


To be honest, I only use this drive maybe once every half year or so and I'm absolutely happy with it. So buying another one just to read media would be a waste of money.

I have some writable BD M-discs waiting to be used for backup. I only have to arrange my photos and videos and see if I have 25 GB worth of them.


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## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 26, 2022)

AusWolf said:


> To be honest, I only use this drive maybe once every half year or so and I'm absolutely happy with it. So buying another one just to read media would be a waste of money.
> 
> I have some writable BD M-discs waiting to be used for backup. I only have to arrange my photos and videos and see if I have 25 GB worth of them.


In that case it absolutely makes sense to stick to one drive. If you are ripping a ton of discs then it makes sense to get a special drive for that. I actually got my WH16NS40 for BD backups but I grew disillusioned with bluray for backup/archival after a lot of reading on Myce. Basically it turns out that a lot of the promises with regard to stability/longevity of HTL bluray were only promises... On top of that the best bluray discs (Sony and Panasonic) are no longer manufactured and are very expensive. Pretty rapid degradation has been reported with the widely available and affordable CMC Magnetics BA5 discs. I think Verbatim discs (DataLifePlus, the ones they actually make themselves, not the cheaper ones that are just Verbatim branded BA5). Ritek BD-Rs should also be avoided due to severe degradation. M-Disc is a good option but expensive. In the end I decided to just go with CD-R and DVD+R instead as it is proven, there are more choices and drives are cheaper and more common as well.


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## sam_86314 (Sep 26, 2022)

Hell yeah, let's give optical media some love.

My main drive is an LG WH16SN40 that has been downgraded from firmware version 1.03 to 1.02. I downgraded it because a useful feature (unrestricted ripping speed) in my ripping software of choice relies on an exploit that was patched in 1.03, but not in 1.02.

I primarily use the drive for ripping Blu-rays, DVDs, and CDs to my Plex server. It also comes in handy if I need to burn an OS install disk for an old PC that doesn't support USB boot.

I also back up all sorts of stuff to optical media, like games and family photos/videos. I forced myself to learn Inno Setup so I can effectively repack my games for personal use. I can spread the installers across multiple DVDs or BDs if necessary.

I use blank media almost exclusively from Verbatim. They have objectively superior BD-R discs to everyone else. I do have some DVD-R and CD-R discs from Memorex, Sony, and Philips that I use sometimes.

I also have an HD DVD/Blu-ray combo drive that I scored at a computer repair shop years ago, but the last time I used it I couldn't read DVDs with it.


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## delshay (Sep 26, 2022)

My drive gets very little use. Inside sit's Windows 7 Disc ready for fresh install & to protect the disc. Win 7 disk never gets removed. it's been inside the drive for the best part of over 3-4 years. You can see that my drive is one of the most expensive drives ever built.   Pioneer released later models not sure how expensive the newer models are.

I also have a soundbar with built-in Bluray drive which also gets very little use. This unit was made to hang on the wall. I think this is another rare drive this time by Panasonic. AFAIK this is the only hangable soundbar with built-in Bluray drive that mounts on the wall that was ever built. So this unit is also special & unique.


Anyway you can see my Pioneer drive in device manger below.


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## AlwaysHope (Sep 26, 2022)

Interesting thread & nice to see interest in optical disk storage solutions. I still have about 10 CD/DVD players around my place, some old, some not so old. All designed to fit into computer cases of course but still have a media player in my lounge room that uses optical disk playback for blue ray & standard discs that I still use regularly. 
One thing for sure though, with longevity of data storage, optical disk is still it. I have a TDK CD data disc from about 20 yrs ago that still holds all its data accurately like the day it was recorded. 
Here's a quick screenshot of one of the Asus units I still have in a system here that I'm typing this from ...


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## delshay (Sep 26, 2022)

Err I should have posted that I have a collection of external optical drives, all SCSI from my Amiga days.  I have three slot loading DVD drives, two from Pioneer one from Toshiba. I also have two Yamaha CD drives.

I have a further three portable CD drives, two from Panasonic & one from Sony. But I have another very rare CD drive this is by AWIA ACD 300 another special & unique drive. It's made for computers but it can be used stand alone. You can see it here. Just a absolute beautiful drive just to own.  AIWA ACD-300 External SCSI CD Drive (ami64.com)


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## Tatty_One (Sep 26, 2022)

I have a LG BluRay/HD Dvd rewriteable drive, it's still installed in my case but I suppose only for nostalgic reasons as I havent used it in about 3 years but I still move it over to any new builds


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Sep 26, 2022)

Just a plug in Samsung BDwriter for backup's and random rip's.

No need to have it out on show since it's seldom used.


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## P4-630 (Sep 26, 2022)

I have removed the dvd-cd-rom-r-rw player from my PC quite a while ago.

I own a separate Sony Blu-Ray player connected to my 4K TV.

Got a new toy, which came with cd-player and can play all recent audio formats.


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## paulwarden (Sep 26, 2022)

i have a Pioneer BD-RW BDR-S09


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## bonehead123 (Sep 26, 2022)

I have an old external Sanyo DVD burner but haven't used it in quite a while, the last time was when I made a bootable W10 Pro disk for relative who doesn't like flash drives for some reason....

Now if only I could sell all the blank discs that I have laying around, even for .50 each, I could probably retire tomorrow...


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## Gumby (Sep 26, 2022)

I have backup of these drives also in case one breaks. I rip my 4K movies and still make cd's and dvd's.


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## INSTG8R (Sep 26, 2022)

I have an ASUS External USB DVD/RW drive I keep for "emergencies"(Read old games)


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## defaultluser (Sep 26, 2022)

i rip Blu-rays on pioneer external, and DVDs plus CD on my internal,  only bother with CD if i cant buy it digitally through amazon

I stopped burning CDs once I swapped-out my car for a modern system that reads USB key drives *(but I cheat, and use the exact same per-disc layout -just this time under numbered sub-folders)*


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## ShrimpBrime (Sep 26, 2022)

Am I the only one that stock piles optical drives?? Lol got more in a box somewhere round here...


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 26, 2022)

Tatty_One said:


> I have a LG BluRay/HD Dvd rewriteable drive, it's still installed in my case but I suppose only for nostalgic reasons as I havent used it in about 3 years but I still move it over to any new builds


I use mine frequently, but many of you know I am an avid backups type of guy! I will never be without an optical drive unless something ground-breaking and less expensive hits the market.



ShrimpBrime said:


> Am I the only one that stock piles optical drives?? Lol got more in a box somewhere round here...
> 
> View attachment 263077


Nope, I have a bunch of spares too.



P4-630 said:


> I have removed the dvd-cd-rom-r-rw player from my PC quite a while ago.
> 
> I own a separate Sony Blu-Ray player connected to my 4K TV.
> 
> ...


Oh, that's it, rub your new-hotness in some more brah...


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## mudfish (Sep 26, 2022)

Yea Optical!  I put a LG WH16SN40 in the SFF mesh case, and the laptop has a Hitachi CD/DVD. Both have been reliable reader/writers. For new and old movie watching and old music CDs.

And just two spare LG DVD R/RW from 2004. Doubt i'll use them again but ya' never know.


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## P4-630 (Sep 26, 2022)

Wait, I almost forgot, I still have my CD-i player!!  

And a defect 3CD changer stereo set...


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## chrcoluk (Sep 26, 2022)

Own one, but currently disconnected (still in case).

What it was last used for was playing some old knightmare tv show episodes sent to me on dvd discs.


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## bobbybluz (Sep 26, 2022)

I have no idea of how many optical drives I actually own. I know it's less than 40 starting with Plextor IDE drives at the oldest and Asus/Lite-On at the newest. The most recent new drive I purchased was an Asus from Newegg a few months ago. My best score though was a Lite-On iHBS-212 Blu-ray off Ebay last year for $5. It was being sold for parts/not working. The seller told me he'd bought it new several years ago and had burning issues with it and stashed it away. Since I already have two more of the same model in use I took a chance and snapped it up. A firmware update cured it (still had the original first release version it it) and it's working great.

I have several hundred blank CD's and DVD's in my inventory. For a while people on the local Craigslist were giving them away and I took all I could find (and still do). While I mainly use USB flash drives now I still burn optical disks once in a while.


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## Canned Noodles (Sep 26, 2022)

I use an LG BP50NB40 external USB drive for most of my optical needs, due to the lack of 5.25" drives. It works great and it’s extremely helpful for my computers that don’t want to boot from a USB.

I was at Micro Center a couple years ago looking at their optical media, and stumbled upon this DVD-RAM drive for 5 bucks. I had heard of this type of disk and wanted to check it out but only later realized it was the early type that is in a housing. Unfortunately I do not have any drive that takes in these DVD-RAM cartridges but it’s still a very neat thing to have.


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## P4-630 (Sep 26, 2022)

Tatty_One said:


> I have a LG BluRay/HD Dvd rewriteable drive, it's still installed in my case but I suppose only for nostalgic reasons as I havent used it in about 3 years but I still move it over to any new builds



Mine had to make space for a 140mm fan..


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## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 26, 2022)

AlwaysHope said:


> Interesting thread & nice to see interest in optical disk storage solutions. I still have about 10 CD/DVD players around my place, some old, some not so old. All designed to fit into computer cases of course but still have a media player in my lounge room that uses optical disk playback for blue ray & standard discs that I still use regularly.
> One thing for sure though, with longevity of data storage, optical disk is still it. I have a TDK CD data disc from about 20 yrs ago that still holds all its data accurately like the day it was recorded.
> Here's a quick screenshot of one of the Asus units I still have in a system here that I'm typing this from ...
> 
> View attachment 263009


That would be a rebadged LG GH24NSC0 or GH24NSD0 or GH24NSD1, according to the Hitachi-LG optical drives table.



ShrimpBrime said:


> Am I the only one that stock piles optical drives?? Lol got more in a box somewhere round here...
> 
> View attachment 263077


I must confess I am an aspiring stockpiler... The first thing I want to change about my PC is the case. I want to get a big old ATX case with 2 5.25" bays, so I can have more usable optical drives (and not having to reliable on USB adapters is not a bad thing either with the continuing USB issues of my X470 chipset).


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## mechtech (Sep 26, 2022)

I still have an old stack of Taiyo Yuden's lying around...................poor things sitting there collecting dust.


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## QuietBob (Sep 26, 2022)

Sign me up! 
Pretty much every PC in my possession has an internal ODD, including my main rig with a 5800X3D 






I mostly rip audio CDs and watch the occasional DVD/BR flick. On retro systems I use the optical drive to install old games and rip music from them. It also comes in handy when an older machine refuses to install the OS from a USB stick.


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## Canned Noodles (Sep 26, 2022)

I got this pc for $20 off of Craigslist listed as non-working. I can’t figure out which specific part(s) are not working but it’s a windows 98/xp-era machine. Sometimes I wonder why the previous owner had 4 CD drives put in. They are all high speed according to front plates, and each one is connected to the same IDE cable.


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## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 26, 2022)

Canned Noodles said:


> I got this pc for $20 off of Craigslist listed as non-working. I can’t figure out which specific part(s) are not working but it’s a windows 98/xp-era machine. Sometimes I wonder why the previous owner had 4 CD drives put in. They are all high speed according to front plates, and each one is connected to the same IDE cable.


I don't know much about ATA/IDE but I think IDE devices are supposed to be chained. You may have bought some former bootlegger's old rig (you know the guy who was always burning copies of pirated stuff for family, friends and acquaintances). Of course, it could have been a legit operation as well technically but I don't know who would be burning so much homemade, licensed or legally purchased content but not have a duplicator.


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## QuietBob (Sep 26, 2022)

Canned Noodles said:


> I got this pc for $20 off of Craigslist listed as non-working. I can’t figure out which specific part(s) are not working but it’s a windows 98/xp-era machine. Sometimes I wonder why the previous owner had 4 CD drives put in. They are all high speed according to front plates, and each one is connected to the same IDE cable.


It definitely needs another 3.5" floppy drive


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## 80-watt Hamster (Sep 27, 2022)

ShrimpBrime said:


> Am I the only one that stock piles optical drives?? Lol got more in a box somewhere round here...
> 
> View attachment 263077



Nope.


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## erocker (Sep 27, 2022)

I got a newer slim USB 3.0 for a few older games and whatever I find on disk when I need it.  I tend to maily use it for playing Freelancer and its mods. There's quite a few games from the early to mid 2000's that you can't get digitally other than through torrents and a lot of those are just no good/don't work etc.


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## ShrimpBrime (Sep 27, 2022)

80-watt Hamster said:


> Nope.
> 
> View attachment 263140


I love that memorex drive. One of the fastest out there! Looks like the same one I gots!


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## 80-watt Hamster (Sep 27, 2022)

ShrimpBrime said:


> I love that memorex drive. One of the fastest out there! Looks like the same one I gots!



I don't know that I've ever used it, and will have to share the model number to see if you're right.  Most of the drives in that box are salvaged from, well, salvaged machines.  Mix of IDA and SATA, mostly SATA at this point.  Mortality has taken a toll on the collection, and the usefulness of IDE-connected drives is... low these days.

Most boxen have a HLDS GH-70N.  A ways back I needed a replacement drive, and was looking for one with a plain black bezel.  Found a lot of about ten on eBay for less than $8/ea.  Are they good?  I dunno; use is limited to bootable diagnostics, ripping the occasional audio disc and infrequent long-term backups.  At least two have gone south; two or three remain in reserve.


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## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 27, 2022)

80-watt Hamster said:


> I don't know that I've ever used it, and will have to share the model number to see if you're right.  Most of the drives in that box are salvaged from, well, salvaged machines.  Mix of IDA and SATA, mostly SATA at this point.  Mortality has taken a toll on the collection, and the usefulness of IDE-connected drives is... low these days.
> 
> Most boxen have a HLDS GH-70N.  A ways back I needed a replacement drive, and was looking for one with a plain black bezel.  Found a lot of about ten on eBay for less than $8/ea.  Are they good?  I dunno; use is limited to bootable diagnostics, ripping the occasional audio disc and infrequent long-term backups.  At least two have gone south; two or three remain in reserve.


That sounds like an older LG drive, from back when they were still built pretty well. Old LG drives can also have a Renesas chipset. I remember people saying on Myce forums that those were better burners than the later Mediatek-based drives. On the other hand Mediatek chipsets are better for ripping. I cannot find it in the HL optical drive table but I do see the GH-60N and GH-80N, which indeed are both Renesas chipset based drives. Overall they should be pretty decent drives, significantly better than the majority of what is sold today certainly.


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## Sombreuil (Sep 27, 2022)

Just finished buying all the components for a new build, and the PC case is a Pure Base 600 because I still want to use my optical drive (LG CH12NS30). I bought it second-hand many years ago and it's still working like a charm.
What puzzles me the most nowadays is that, motherboard manufacturers still provide a DVD for the drivers, but pretty much any PC case has no 3.5 slot. Go figure.


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## Dr. Dro (Sep 27, 2022)

mplayerMuPDF said:


> If you have the space then these should last you for quite a while: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223449200168 and they are great drives.



I've got a whole bag of those Samsung drives in my shed, none of them work, same problem, the motor just went poof 

Regarding the Optiarc's, I found a listing for the AD-7240S drive (July 2009 manufacture) for 30 bucks (so like, $6) here, and they seem to be in quite good condition, and apparently they've got two of them. You've got me tempted... I don't think I ever owned a reliable optical drive before. I'll make an offer and see if they take 50 for both of them I suppose.


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## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 27, 2022)

Dr. Dro said:


> I've got a whole bag of those Samsung drives in my shed, none of them work, same problem, the motor just went poof
> 
> Regarding the Optiarc's, I found a listing for the AD-7240S drive (July 2009 manufacture) for 30 bucks (so like, $6) here, and they seem to be in quite good condition, and apparently they've got two of them. You've got me tempted... I don't think I ever owned a reliable optical drive before. I'll make an offer and see if they take 50 for both of them I suppose.


Those are great drives. If they are in good condition, I would definitely get them. Excellent burners and well built. $10 USD is absolutely peanuts for 2 of those. You can find them sold rebadged as Lite-On iHAS x24 Y series as well.


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## delshay (Sep 27, 2022)

Canned Noodles said:


> I got this pc for $20 off of Craigslist listed as non-working. I can’t figure out which specific part(s) are not working but it’s a windows 98/xp-era machine. Sometimes I wonder why the previous owner had 4 CD drives put in. They are all high speed according to front plates, and each one is connected to the same IDE cable.



I think some very old games came on multiple CD. To save time just install each CD in a drive.


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## BSim500 (Sep 27, 2022)

I use my BD-RE all the time for DVD's & Blu-Ray. For all the gushing hype about how _"streaming will take over the world"_, in reality Netflix & Amazon Prime combined have barely 5-10% of the total catalogue size available on DVD. If your taste in movies is somewhat wider than the thin-slice of content they get (and rapidly "cycle out" for 'rights issues' just as quickly, often whilst you're in the middle of a series...), there simply is no replacement for optical.

Also classic PC games - I have Diablo 2, Freelancer, No One Lives Forever 1-2, Outrun 2006, Prey (2006), The Neverhood, etc, and dozens more on disc that aren't available to buy digitally anywhere. 'Digital' Steam-like stores haven't (and quite possibly never will) 100% replace everything 1:1 that was released prior to the mid-2000's transition, and even GOG has large "holes" in their catalogue of some seriously good titles.


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## Dr. Dro (Sep 27, 2022)

BSim500 said:


> I use my BD-RE all the time for DVD's & Blu-Ray. For all the gushing hype about how _"streaming will take over the world"_, in reality Netflix & Amazon Prime combined have barely 5-10% of the total catalogue size available on DVD. If your taste in movies is somewhat wider than the thin-slice of content they get (and rapidly "cycle out" for 'rights issues' just as quickly, often whilst you're in the middle of a series...), there simply is no replacement for optical.
> 
> Also classic PC games - I have Diablo 2, Freelancer, No One Lives Forever 1-2, Outrun 2006, Prey (2006), The Neverhood, etc, and dozens more on disc that aren't available to buy digitally anywhere. 'Digital' Steam-like stores haven't (and quite possibly never will) 100% replace everything 1:1 that was released prior to the mid-2000's transition, and even GOG has large "holes" in their catalogue of some seriously good titles.



I personally like audio CDs. I've all but embraced digital media at this point when it comes to games and for the most part, movies, but I have a very soft spot for high-resolution audio, and nothing beats optical media mastered from source at it. I order some audio CDs and SACDs from Japan every now and then, it's a very big thing there to this day, and I'm glad it is.



mplayerMuPDF said:


> Those are great drives. If they are in good condition, I would definitely get them. Excellent burners and well built. $10 USD is absolutely peanuts for 2 of those. You can find them sold rebadged as Lite-On iHAS x24 Y series as well.



I made the offer for the Optiarc drives, just waiting on the seller's answer now. I'll let you know if there's a deal, and if they're alright when they arrive. It's a risk worth taking 

So, a little update: the seller accepted and I've purchased the drives. Will bring some results on ripping and burning once I have them in hand.


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## P4-630 (Sep 27, 2022)

I might buy an external dvd-cd-rom rw drive in the near future, doesn't have to be expensive.


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## Bones (Sep 27, 2022)

Have two BR units in this one I'm posting with, one is a CD/DVD/BR burner (LG M-disc), the other a more standard CD/DVD burner unit (Also LG)  but it too can read BR.

Have several out at the shack including an Asus CD/DVD "Lightscribe" IDE and a few others for good measure I've accumilated over the years.


mplayerMuPDF said:


> I don't know much about ATA/IDE but* I think IDE devices are supposed to be chained.* You may have bought some former bootlegger's old rig (you know the guy who was always burning copies of pirated stuff for family, friends and acquaintances). Of course, it could have been a legit operation as well technically but I don't know who would be burning so much homemade, licensed or legally purchased content but not have a duplicator.


You're referring to "Master" and Slave" drives on the same IDE ribbon cable.

You can have two IDE devices on the same cable and you have a jumper on these drives to set them as such according to how you have them plugged into the cable, this goes for both, disc drives and HDD's.
Yes, you can have one of each on the same cable as long as you have the jumpers set correctly. There is a little diagram on the end of the drive that tells you how to set these jumpers. 
For an HDD, alot of the time it's on the drive's label but for disc drives it's always stamped into the metal at the end where the jumper is.

*For those that don't know, *It goes like this:
Each IDE cable have three plugs total, what I call the "Long" and "Short" ends of the cable _is based on how close to the middle plug_ each end is.

The board end plug is the "Long" end of the cable and is on one end of it, that always goes to the board itself and is further away from the middle plug.

The drive plugs are always towards the "Short" end of the cable.

The master drive plug on it is _always_ at the very end of the ribbon cable too like the board end is and the master end is *always closer* to the middle (Slave) plug than the board end is.
Once you look at an IDE cable, you can lay it out and easily see this layout for yourself.

Usually there are labels saying what each plug is for is but that's how you can tell if there are no labels for these plugs on the cable.


----------



## Canned Noodles (Sep 27, 2022)

Dr. Dro said:


> I personally like audio CDs. I've all but embraced digital media at this point when it comes to games and for the most part, movies, but I have a very soft spot for high-resolution audio, and nothing beats optical media mastered from source at it. I order some audio CDs and SACDs from Japan every now and then, it's a very big thing there to this day, and I'm glad it is.


My father bought a Playstation 3 with modded firmware used to rip SA-CDs. It's the latest fat model, and I assume that's because you need the media card interface on the front to transfer the music to store the ripped CDs. I haven't tried ripping any SA-CDs, but I do have a Johnny Cash SA-CD I can try it with.


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## A Computer Guy (Sep 27, 2022)

AusWolf said:


> Good post, let's bring optical drives back!


MODGA = Make Optical Disks Great Again


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## P4-630 (Sep 27, 2022)

A Computer Guy said:


> MODGA = Make Optical Disks Great Again


Make Optical Drives Great Again.


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## A Computer Guy (Sep 27, 2022)

ShrimpBrime said:


> Am I the only one that stock piles optical drives?? Lol got more in a box somewhere round here...
> 
> View attachment 263077


I recently got a stockpile of 6 DVD drives as my company was sending off old machines for recycling.  Stuck all of them in my Antec 1200 to prepare for Plex winter weekends.


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## ShrimpBrime (Sep 27, 2022)

A Computer Guy said:


> I recently got a stockpile of 6 DVD drives as my company was sending off old machines for recycling.  Stuck all of them in my Antec 1200 to prepare for Plex winter weekends.


That's a big case. My brother had that one, mine the 900. I also have and use the larger psus that fit your case, the Antec CP series. Good stuff!


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## A Computer Guy (Sep 27, 2022)

ShrimpBrime said:


> That's a big case. My brother had that one, mine the 900. I also have and use the larger psus that fit your case, the Antec CP series. Good stuff!


On top of the 6 DVD's I managed to snatch up I had 2 already.  It makes a beautiful sound when all 8 are ripping at once and my wife is like "Do you have to do that right now?"


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## ShrimpBrime (Sep 27, 2022)

A Computer Guy said:


> On top of the 6 DVD's I managed to snatch up I had 2 already.  It makes a beautiful sound when all 8 are ripping at once and my wife is like "Do you have to do that right now?"


Lol, I bet. Gotta sound cool. Mine doesn't like the Intake fans 1.6a 120mm Deltas.


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## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 27, 2022)

Dr. Dro said:


> I personally like audio CDs. I've all but embraced digital media at this point when it comes to games and for the most part, movies, but I have a very soft spot for high-resolution audio, and nothing beats optical media mastered from source at it. I order some audio CDs and SACDs from Japan every now and then, it's a very big thing there to this day, and I'm glad it is.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


To build some hype:
https://myce.wiki/reviews/optiarc-ad-7240s-dvd-burner-review-15981/
https://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/sony-optiarc-ad-7240s-24x-dvdrwram/all-pages.html
Review of the almost identical successor AD-7260S with professional disc scanning equipment

I like audio CDs too and even have one SACD (I will post a photo of it in this new thread today). Unfortunately, I don't have the space to buy everything that I want to own on physical CD and sometimes downloads are also significantly cheaper (including international shipping) or even the only option for some of the music I listen to, so I only buy what is not available as a (FLAC) download or what is significantly cheaper used on CD.



Bones said:


> Have two BR units in this one I'm posting with, one is a CD/DVD/BR burner (LG M-disc), the other a more standard CD/DVD burner unit (Also LG)  but it too can read BR.
> 
> Have several out at the shack including an Asus CD/DVD "Lightscribe" IDE and a few others for good measure I've accumilated over the years.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the explanation! I wasn't yet doing any DIY computer stuff during the IDE era. I am of the SATA generation  Those old ASUS drives may very well be old rebadged Pioneer DVD drives, which are very well respected burners.


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## 68Olds (Sep 27, 2022)

I got to looking around the house & I have about 20 ODDs.  The oldest is a Creative Quad Speed drive in my 486 box.  It dates to the mid-90s or so & has its own controller/sound card.  
For interesting units, I have an LG M-Disc Multi drive, an LG Bluray/HD DVD drive, and an LG Bluray drive.  Most of the other drives I have were dumpster rescue pulls.


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## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 27, 2022)

68Olds said:


> I got to looking around the house & I have about 20 ODDs.  The oldest is a Creative Quad Speed drive in my 486 box.  It dates to the mid-90s or so & has its own controller/sound card.
> For interesting units, I have an LG M-Disc Multi drive, an LG Bluray/HD DVD drive, and an LG Bluray drive.  Most of the other drives I have were dumpster rescue pulls.


I like how you call the LG M-Disc DVD drive and Bluray drive the "interesting" ones, when I would say those are the most "boring" and common ones  (My WH16NS40 or rather NS50 has the "M DISC" badge too) The HD DVD combo drive is interesting though, not to speak of the Creative drive! I am sure that there are some great drives among those dumpster rescue pulls and would love to know more about them.


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## mechtech (Sep 28, 2022)

80-watt Hamster said:


> Nope.
> 
> View attachment 263140


From far away I thought it was a box of VHS tapes


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## Dr. Dro (Sep 28, 2022)

Canned Noodles said:


> My father bought a Playstation 3 with modded firmware used to rip SA-CDs. It's the latest fat model, and I assume that's because you need the media card interface on the front to transfer the music to store the ripped CDs. I haven't tried ripping any SA-CDs, but I do have a Johnny Cash SA-CD I can try it with.



Only the earliest PS3s (models CECHA through CECHE) have the super audio CD processing chip in them. Those are the same that can play PS2 games, later models have had the functionality removed, and thus cannot rip SACDs. 

You'll know easily enough if yours is compatible if it has the super audio CD symbol on the side, though another giveaway it's not compatible is only having 2 USB ports on the front.


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## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 28, 2022)

Dr. Dro said:


> Only the earliest PS3s (models CECHA through CECHE) have the super audio CD processing chip in them. Those are the same that can play PS2 games, later models have had the functionality removed, and thus cannot rip SACDs.
> 
> You'll know easily enough if yours is compatible if it has the super audio CD symbol on the side, though another giveaway it's not compatible is only having 2 USB ports on the front.


That is also roughly what I have read. Please continue this discussion in this new thread though  This thread is more focused on computer drives and recordable (and rewritable) media. (discussion of ripping audio CDs with 5.25", built-in laptop or USB external ODDs connected to a computer is fine here though)


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 28, 2022)

Canned Noodles said:


> Unfortunately I do not have any drive that takes in these DVD-RAM cartridges but it’s still a very neat thing to have.


You should frame it and turn it into a conversation piece.


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## Bones (Sep 28, 2022)

mplayerMuPDF said:


> Thanks for the explanation! I wasn't yet doing any DIY computer stuff during the IDE era. I am of the SATA generation  Those old ASUS drives may very well be old rebadged Pioneer DVD drives, which are very well respected burners.


No problem. 
I can add you can run a single drive per cable if you want, _as long as the jumpers on your drives are set correctly_ to how you connect the cables to the drives it's fine.


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## Selaya (Sep 28, 2022)

bd/dvd (fuck streaming) enjoyer reporting in.

protip: you can watch (most) of your bds w/ vlc. info here: http://fvonline-db.bplaced.net/


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## sam_86314 (Sep 28, 2022)

Selaya said:


> bd/dvd (fuck streaming) enjoyer reporting in.
> 
> protip: you can watch (most) of your bds w/ vlc. info here: http://fvonline-db.bplaced.net/


My ripping software of choice (MakeMKV) also has integration with media players.

If you have a drive that supports its "direct disc access" feature (like my downgraded WH16NS40), then in theory it can play any Blu-ray release. No menu support though; it just plays the largest file on the disc.


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## 80-watt Hamster (Sep 28, 2022)

ShrimpBrime said:


> I love that memorex drive. One of the fastest out there! Looks like the same one I gots!



Here's a shot of the label. I guess it's a DVD-RAM! Never even checked. It's ATAPI, as are the two Optiarcs and one Pioneer in there. Then one Toshiba/Samsung, two Lite-On and the rest are HLDS.  The "odd" model numbers must be OEM parts. In addition to the three GH70N, there's one GH50N out of a Dell or HP system.


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## arni-gx (Sep 28, 2022)

i am using dvd rw ODD, external.... and only optional..... just for instal dvd win 10 64bit home oem......


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## Canned Noodles (Sep 28, 2022)

These are my 2 spare IDE optical drives. I don't know much about them; except they were both taken from dead PCs. The Lite-On one on the left weighs like 2 pounds. I would definitely use one if one of my computers needed an IDE CD drive. Tomorrow I'll find my two SATA drives and send pictures.


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## Calenhad (Sep 28, 2022)

Canned Noodles said:


> I got this pc for $20 off of Craigslist listed as non-working. I can’t figure out which specific part(s) are not working but it’s a windows 98/xp-era machine. Sometimes I wonder why the previous owner had 4 CD drives put in. They are all high speed according to front plates, and each one is connected to the same IDE cable.



Those are scsi drives, not pata. You can only connect two drives per pata ribbon cable. Old school scsi can have 7 per cable iirc. A scsi ribbon cable has more wires than a pata cable. And that cable in your computer is wider than a pata cable. I started out with some Plextor scsi cd-rom/rw drives back in the days. The I believe the first one was a cd-rom with 4x speed. The main reason to use scsi back then, was to do direct copy from one drive to another, pata did not have the capacity to handle it. I paired that Plextor cd-rom with a cd-rw soon enough to do just that. I believe scsi could even handle copying one drive to multiple drives, like that rig could do in theory. But I may have reached the end of my memory when it comes to scsi technicalities. I haven't messed around with that for at least 20 years.



Bones said:


> *For those that don't know, *It goes like this:
> Each IDE cable have three plugs total, what I call the "Long" and "Short" ends of the cable _is based on how close to the middle plug_ each end is.
> 
> The board end plug is the "Long" end of the cable and is on one end of it, that always goes to the board itself and is further away from the middle plug.
> ...



Pata cabling can be painful. It is correct that if you want to run two devices on a cable it is recommended to have the master device at the end. This is also how the cable select jumper setting is supposed to work, but more often than not it didn't. Depending on the devices/pata controller they would also work with the master device in the middle and the slave at the end. But for that you had to use the master/slave jumper setting. The main cause for trouble was that controller/device firmware seemed to not follow one standard. Some pata controllers would have trouble with random devices, that would work perfectly fine with another controller. The second main issue was messed up jumper settings.

If you use just one device, you can use either plug. And if you don't need more cable than to the first plug you can cut off the second half. Just use the master setting on the device. Some devices even have separate single and master settings. Which can complicate things if you don't pay attention to the label, see messed up jumper settings above. 

I checked a couple drawers and found a few oldies but goldies. I am sure I got more in storage as well. Probably some of those old scsi drives I mention above, and lots more. Never realised those old pata Plextor drives had a digital audio out, as well as the old analogue one. Now I wonder if it is possible to hook that up to a coaxial s/pdif input. Not sure I will ever bother finding out though 
It is probably at least 12-15 years since the last time they were powered up.


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## dorsetknob (Sep 28, 2022)

Does a LS120 fit the qualification ? after all its a MO drive


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## qubit (Sep 28, 2022)

Optical discs: those were the good old days!

I have Plextor drives that can do advanced burning and monitoring. I used to be quite the enthusiast, aiming for burns with the lowest error rates: there are marked differences and both will play fine if the errors don't cross thresholds, but the worse disc will show problems sooner and on more drives, especially cheaper or marginal ones.

Alas, despite how expensive Plextors were and their unique featuresets, they weren't reliable. All but one of them failed after a relatively short time. I think the 712A still works. Would have to check.


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 28, 2022)

dorsetknob said:


> Does a LS120 fit the qualification ? after all its a MO drive


The LS120 was a purely magnetic technology, similar to the IOMega Zip and SyQuest EZDrive. The MO(Magneto-Optical) technology was used in Sony's Minidisc and even though it was similar in capacity(140MB), the technology employed was very different.


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## Bones (Sep 28, 2022)

Calenhad said:


> Pata cabling can be painful. It is correct that if you want to run two devices on a cable it is recommended to have the master device at the end. This is also how the cable select jumper setting is supposed to work, but more often than not it didn't. Depending on the devices/pata controller they would also work with the master device in the middle and the slave at the end. But for that you had to use the master/slave jumper setting. The main cause for trouble was that controller/device firmware seemed to not follow one standard. Some pata controllers would have trouble with random devices, that would work perfectly fine with another controller. The second main issue was messed up jumper settings.
> 
> If you use just one device, you can use either plug. And if you don't need more cable than to the first plug you can cut off the second half. Just use the master setting on the device. Some devices even have separate single and master settings. Which can complicate things if you don't pay attention to the label, see messed up jumper settings above.


That's why I didn't mention "Cable Select", it never worked for me either.
I just said what I know works so anyone setting it up can get things working without all the headscratching over it.

Nope - Even if you could snip off the part of the cable you don't need that's something I personally won't do.
A good cable is a good cable and could be one day you'd want to add another drive and then you'd need another cable to do it with - Won't hurt a thing to just leave the extra plug unused.

I've never seen the master/slave order reversed but then again I've never tried it either, I always used these settings according to how the labels go and it always worked which is really all I can ask for.


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## BSim500 (Sep 28, 2022)

Here's a blast from the past - how many others here owned one of the earliest drives on the market, a 1x speed Mitsumi CRMC-LU005S CD-ROM "clamshell" top-loading design where the whole drive slid out and the interface was a proprietary one that plugged into an ISA controller / sound card. Happy memories playing The 7th Guest back in '93 on that.


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## onemanhitsquad (Sep 28, 2022)

Kenwood 72X TrueX CD-ROM late 1999  "worlds fastest cd-rom drive" , super fast reading and loading game discs and software discs. It did have issues reading a lot of burned media but faired better with firmware update and you used 4 screws and some rubber dampening. Burning straight to a burning drive was the shizzle , error correcting was handled by the 7 beams so scratches didn't matter much. I still have a couple of them in retro machines.


























*** some other drives in the "tub"

BlueRay/HD  we still have 4 of these , from when the battle for hi-def movies was raging (had to be able to play both right?)





Pioneer tray less , have a couple of these left


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## dorsetknob (Sep 28, 2022)

lexluthermiester said:


> The LS120 was a purely magnetic technology,


Um they were equipped with a Laser to position the Read/write heads.
Both the drive's i own have Laser radiation warning stickers Very Promment on case.
Being a nit picking SOB i think that Qualifies As Magnetical Optical Drive.

"Of Course i will allow you to disagree "


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## caroline! (Sep 28, 2022)

Finally a club I can be part of.

I have 3 regular LG OEM combo drives and two older HP units, a reader and a burner. No blu-ray, it was never a thing in my country and the few drives I've seen for sale were more expensive than a 1TB hard drive back in the day, choosing between them was a nobrainer. 

Each disc was also expensive af and not every unit could burn them, that and the ridiculous DRM made me avoid it as a technology, so... HDD ftw.


Bones said:


> That's why I didn't mention "Cable Select", it never worked for me either.
> I just said what I know works so anyone setting it up can get things working without all the headscratching over it.


CS never worked for me, 

_PRI MASTER DRIVE - ATAPI INCOMPATIBLE 
PRESS DEL TO RUN SETUP_


----------



## mplayerMuPDF (Sep 28, 2022)

caroline! said:


> Finally a club I can be part of.
> 
> I have 3 regular LG OEM combo drives and two older HP units, a reader and a burner. No blu-ray, it was never a thing in my country and the few drives I've seen for sale were more expensive than a 1TB hard drive back in the day, choosing between them was a nobrainer.
> 
> ...


There is no DRM (ACSS) on BD-Rs though and you cannot buy movies on HDDs, so not really a fair comparison, I would say. Still, I agree with you that DVD (and CD) are more attractive overall and I do have a 2 TB internal HDD for multimedia



Canned Noodles said:


> These are my 2 spare IDE optical drives. I don't know much about them; except they were both taken from dead PCs. The Lite-On one on the left weighs like 2 pounds. I would definitely use one if one of my computers needed an IDE CD drive. Tomorrow I'll find my two SATA drives and send pictures.
> View attachment 263393View attachment 263394
> View attachment 263396


The HP drive is a very old (Hitachi-)LG judging by the model code (GCA-4166B). Those old LGs were beloved burners on the Myce (formerly cdrfreaks) forums. The Lite-On drive is a DVD reader/CD burner combo drive, so more of a budget minded OEM drive. Still, it should do the job for playback at least, so good to keep it around.


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 29, 2022)

dorsetknob said:


> Being a nit picking SOB i think that Qualifies As Magnetical Optical Drive.


I can see your logic. Fair enough.


----------



## Courier 6 (Sep 29, 2022)

I have 3 DVD RWs, 2 LGs, one IDE other sata and an ASUS sata


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## Canned Noodles (Sep 30, 2022)

Canned Noodles said:


> Tomorrow I'll find my two SATA drives and send pictures.


I forgot to do that ^
The drive on the left is from an HP desktop. The drive on the right is from my mother's old work computer, a Dell Studio XPS 9000. The Dell one is very nice, and I do plan on installing it in a workstation of mine soon.


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## Watermelon5 (Sep 30, 2022)

In a 5.25 to 3.5 + slimline ODD adapter, I have a slot loading DVDRW drive stolen from my Precision laptop. It sees use ripping older software to ISOs.


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## Dr. Dro (Oct 1, 2022)

@mplayerMuPDF, I've received the Optiarc drives, they seem to be alright! One of them is actually the newer AD-7260S.









Hooked them up on my X99 machine and both of them were recognized by Windows 11 right away.





Going to be trying some pre-recorded media (audio CDs and a few video DVDs) on them, and then hopefully burning something on these blank media I had around for a few years. Got 9 HP 16x DVD-R's, 4 52x CD-R's from a Brazilian company called Multilaser (probably some imports, will be hard to determine the actual source), plus 7 HP 52x CD-R's currently available to play with. Both CD-R types are regular 700 MB discs, not sure you can even find the slightly smaller 650 MB ones anymore.


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## mplayerMuPDF (Oct 1, 2022)

Dr. Dro said:


> @mplayerMuPDF, I've received the Optiarc drives, they seem to be alright! One of them is actually the newer AD-7260S.
> 
> View attachment 263814
> 
> ...


They should be really similar. There were even some people on the Myce forums crossflashing their firmwares, although, of course, I cannot guarantee that you will not brick them if you try that. They have the same NEC chipset but different models of Sanyo OPU. Which one would be better? Hard to say. It is possible that the 7260S has a newer, cheaper and perhaps as a result inferior Sanyo OPU as a result of pressure from computer OEMs to reduce the BoM (these were used in prebuilts after all). Or it is actually an improved version, or simply a side grade. I suspect we will never know.

HP 16X DVD-Rs should be a good grade of CMC Magnetics AM3 discs, which had a pretty decent reputation on the Myce forums AFAIK, better than the DVD+R equivalent (M01). The HP 52x CD-Rs are probably also made by CMC Magnetics and should be a good grade too (CMC Magnetics produces a wide variety of media in terms of quality). You can certainly easily find out the ATIP of the Multilaser discs with the right software (I still need to update the OP when I have time with information about software), although they could always have a fake ATIP. I just hope they aren't made by Princo or Plasmon because those are truly awful. Reading the Myce forums, it did seem like low quality media like that was more common in developing countries so you may have to be careful in Brazil. I imagine that FTI/Falcon Media may be hard to get in Brazil but maybe CMC Pro, Ritek Pro or one of the Vinpower Digital brands such as PlexDisc is easier to acquire.


----------



## Dr. Dro (Oct 1, 2022)

I've been playing around with Winamp and Exact Audio Copy for the past couple of hours since I set this up. It ranks the 7260S above the 7240S in its hierarchy of "best drives", but I've ripped a music disc with each drive and both have achieved perfect results according to AccurateRip. Mechanically, both units seem to be perfect, they aren't rattling, the tray opens nicely, activity LEDs don't seem to be stuck, so I guess I've scored with these units.

Going to pop in a video DVD next (AIDA64 reports that both units are set to region-free and all counts of vendor and user changes are still available - this is great!), and try some PS2 emulation (have a Final Fantasy X disc handy) before I get to burning, but I'm sure it'll be fine.

I'll definitely be installing these when I rebuild this system, I just gotta get a case with drive bays for them 

As for the media, there is a company that manufactures optical discs in the country, I suppose it uses technology leased from another big company abroad. I've never really been that deep in optical media, so I can't say I ever paid much mind to where they come from beyond the usual quality concerns, some cheap CDs really fall apart after a while. I'll be sticking around, so when you get around the software side, we could check the ATIP numbers on some of these discs.


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 1, 2022)

Dr. Dro said:


> @mplayerMuPDF, I've received the Optiarc drives, they seem to be alright! One of them is actually the newer AD-7260S.
> 
> View attachment 263814
> 
> ...


Advice for the young at heart, just because they say "16X" doesn't mean you should actually burn them at 16X. If you're going to make backups, burn at 2x or 4x, no faster. If it's something that you don't care about long term, ok then 16x away.


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## andx87 (Oct 2, 2022)

Canned Noodles said:


> I use an LG BP50NB40 external USB drive for most of my optical needs, due to the lack of 5.25" drives. It works great and it’s extremely helpful for my computers that don’t want to boot from a USB.
> 
> I was at Micro Center a couple years ago looking at their optical media, and stumbled upon this DVD-RAM drive for 5 bucks. I had heard of this type of disk and wanted to check it out but only later realized it was the early type that is in a housing. Unfortunately I do not have any drive that takes in these DVD-RAM cartridges but it’s still a very neat thing to have.



These are the types of drives you would want to look for  - both Panasonic (older LF-D111, newer SW-9576).


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## 3x0 (Oct 6, 2022)

Thanks for starting this thread @mplayerMuPDF, the AD-7200s was one of the drives I was reading about back in the day but never got it until your thread reminded me.
Recntly got it used for ~5$ + shipping, slight wear on the label but otherwise seems to work fine.


----------



## nomdeplume (Oct 6, 2022)

lexluthermiester said:


> Advice for the young at heart, just because they say "16X" doesn't mean you should actually burn them at 16X. If you're going to make backups, burn at 2x or 4x, no faster. If it's something that you don't care about long term, ok then 16x away.



Beyond that is recognition of degradation from heat after ripping a few discs in a row.  Heat and vibration are the largest contributing factors to lifespan and performance.    


I use optical drives quite a bit currently.  I'd amend his quoted statement to say 8x or 10x is a safe bet in many cases with stuff made today.  Speeds approaching 1:1, burning or ripping, is often harder on modern drives and produces no better results than 10x.  We're talking a very small data stream to process and verify.    

OEM 5.25" c. 1990 on a 12 core W11 system are a mismatch of some proportion.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 6, 2022)

nomdeplume said:


> Beyond that is recognition of degradation from heat after ripping a few discs in a row. Heat and vibration are the largest contributing factors to lifespan and performance.


Are you talking about the drive or the discs? I've never had a problem with either where heat and vibrations are concern. Even if they are a problem, it's a very, very minor problem.


----------



## neatfeatguy (Oct 6, 2022)

I can't find my old DVD burner so need to get a new one. Last one was pretty old....probably got tossed with other junk when I moved a year back.

I've always had at least 1 optical drive in my computer builds, currently have a bluray drive for using to rip movies. I need a burner though, got lots of blank DVDs I'd like to actually make use of for all the pictures and phone videos over the past 5-6 years. Time to shop around!


----------



## nomdeplume (Oct 6, 2022)

lexluthermiester said:


> Are you talking about the drive or the discs? I've never had a problem with either where heat and vibrations are concern. Even if they are a problem, it's a very, very minor problem.



In use they are both effected.  The widespread modern solution for this is intelligent programming that attempts to place as little strain upon the optical drive as possible before heat or any other variable intrudes.


mplayerMuPDF said:


> I have read that Pioneer BD drives are one of the few currently produced drives that are still well-made and that burn pretty well.



Post #3 and we hit the jackpot here.  One of the few companies still making quality products that also have firmware and supporting programs designed for use with modern hardware.  For high quality using high stress techniques (exacting error correction requiring numerous extra steps, etc.) these are the ticket.  The best legacy hardware was built well for longevity.  Digital media continues improving to amounts they lose more ground every year.  In terms of accuracy the average brand name external drive is more capable, more efficient, and much easier to use.

The larger truth is the type of optical drive that appeals to TPU users is still going to work better than ever with the type of programs already mentioned in here.  By no means was any slant intended towards those preserving DVD-RAM drives or anything else interesting.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 6, 2022)

nomdeplume said:


> In use they are both effected. The widespread modern solution for this is intelligent programming that attempts to place as little strain upon the optical drive as possible before heat or any other variable intrudes.


Never had this problem. Bought my first CD burner in 1997 and have never heard these problems let alone experienced them. My guess would be that they are very circumstantial and as a result, rare.


----------



## nomdeplume (Oct 6, 2022)

lexluthermiester said:


> Never had this problem. Bought my first CD burner in 1997 and have never heard these problems let alone experienced them. My guess would be that they are very circumstantial and as a result, rare.



Well, there is overheating and refusing to work and there is fine recognition of an overall drop occurring as you noted.  

My only intent was to improve upon your initial statement by noting where it had evolved.


----------



## mplayerMuPDF (Oct 6, 2022)

neatfeatguy said:


> I can't find my old DVD burner so need to get a new one. Last one was pretty old....probably got tossed with other junk when I moved a year back.
> 
> I've always had at least 1 optical drive in my computer builds, currently have a bluray drive for using to rip movies. I need a burner though, got lots of blank DVDs I'd like to actually make use of for all the pictures and phone videos over the past 5-6 years. Time to shop around!


I would get a new old stock drive from e.g. eBay, or a Pioneer blurary drive or a Lite-On Premium (PREMM2) based drive (Optiarc AD-5290S Plus/Plextor PX-891SAF Plus and some other models from Vinpower Digital/runtechmedia; Lite-On Premium/Ridata Super and probably Plextor PXL-910S, all from smartbuy-depot). I would absolutely avoid an LG GH24NSD or their ASUS rebadges and preferably avoid regular Lite-On iHAS 124 F drives as well (the Premium is an improved, higher quality/more durable version of it). If you absolutely must get an LG, Hitachi-LG appears to now offer its own "duplication grade/premium" drive, sold by smartbuy-depot:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/265680293705. Interestingly, it also has an HL-DT-ST badge instead of the usual LG logo. Clearly this drive is aimed at a different market. Nothing is known about it though. It could just be fancy version of the NSD with slightly tweaked firmware. If you have money to burn (who does these days though?), then you can buy it and review it for us 



nomdeplume said:


> Beyond that is recognition of degradation from heat after ripping a few discs in a row.  Heat and vibration are the largest contributing factors to lifespan and performance.
> 
> 
> I use optical drives quite a bit currently.  I'd amend his quoted statement to say 8x or 10x is a safe bet in many cases with stuff made today.  Speeds approaching 1:1, burning or ripping, is often harder on modern drives and produces no better results than 10x.  We're talking a very small data stream to process and verify.
> ...


I agree. 2x is said to be too slow for high speed 16x media. I personally burn DVD+Rs at 6x and CD-Rs at 16x. What was excellent for older, lower speed media is not necessarily good for newer high speed optimized media.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 6, 2022)

nomdeplume said:


> Well, there is overheating and refusing to work and there is fine recognition of an overall drop occurring as you noted.
> 
> My only intent was to improve upon your initial statement by noting where it had evolved.


I get you, I didn't think you were being unpleasant or anything. Only point was that I've just never seen it. Granted, I take careful care of my systems and discs and teach everyone how to do the same. So perhaps I've never crossed paths with those problems because I'm very careful. Not saying it doesn't happen, just I've never seen it. That's all no worries.



mplayerMuPDF said:


> 2x is said to be too slow for high speed 16x media.


That's not true. There's no such thing as too slow. That is not how the chemistry and physics of recordable media works. No offense intended, just letting you know. The reality is, the slower the better and the more stable the recording is. This has to do with the way the recording laser creates the data in the dye layer of the disc. The reasons it's called "burning a disc" is because the laser literally burns the data structure into the dye layer of the disc. So if disc spins slower, the laser has more time to do it's job for each data bit written into that recording layer. If it runs faster, the laser has much less time to record the data and the chemical dye process can't complete it's phase change and the dye can break down over time and in as little as a year. Slower speeds allow that change to finish and set permanently which allows that data to last decades or longer.

So that is why many people will tell you to burn your discs at a slower speed, doing so makes for a much better and long lasting recording.


----------



## mplayerMuPDF (Oct 6, 2022)

lexluthermiester said:


> There's no such thing as too slow. That is not how the chemistry and physics of recordable media works. No offense intended, just letting you know. The reality is, the slower the better and the more stable the recording is. This has to do with the way the recording laser creates the data in the dye layer of the disc. The reasons it's called "burning a disc" is because the laser literally burns the data structure into the dye layer of the disc. So if disc spins slower, the laser has more time to do it's job for each data bit written into that recording layer. If it runs faster, the laser has much less time to record the data and the chemical dye process can't complete it's phase change and the dye can break down over time and in as little as a year. Slower speeds allow that change to finish and set permanently which allows that data to last decades or longer.


You are assuming that there is no such thing as too long of a laser exposure time. Longer is not necessarily better when the dye is not optimized for such long exposures. The newer media was designed to work at significantly faster speeds. Does that mean that you should burn at max speed? Based on empirical evidence, no, but it makes sense that there is also a lower boundary of the range of speeds that result in good quality and longevity. The accepted wisdom on the Myce forums was that there *is *such a thing as burning too slow with high speed media. https://web.archive.org/web/2021061...m/t/what-speed-should-you-burn-bd-r-at/282942


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 7, 2022)

mplayerMuPDF said:


> You are assuming that there is no such thing as too long of a laser exposure time.


I assume nothing. The chemistry doesn't that way and the lasers are not powerful enough to "overcook" the dyes even at 1X speeds.


mplayerMuPDF said:


> Longer is not necessarily better when the dye is not optimized for such long exposures.


Again, the chemistry does not work that way. We're talking about exposures measured in 100,000ths of a second.


mplayerMuPDF said:


> The accepted wisdom on the Myce forums was that there *is *such a thing as burning too slow with high speed media.


Just because it's accepted by a specific forum group does not mean it has merit. Due to the physics and formulations involved, overexposure would only be a real problem if the laser in recording mode was focused on any particular one point for longer than a 10,000th of a second, which can't happen, even for CD's.


----------



## ExcuseMeWtf (Oct 9, 2022)

Reporting in with my 2 drives:

Pioneer DVR-216D
and
Samsung SH-222AB

First goes way back to 2008 and still going strong nearly 15 years later. Sammy thrown in for free to PSU I bought this year after seller dismantled his Haswell setup. Not in use very often, but I still have a few disks with some old archived stuff here and there just in case.


----------



## neatfeatguy (Oct 10, 2022)

I received my bluray optical drive yesterday afternoon and installed it earlier today; LG WH16NS40. Now I can make use of my DVDs and start having another place to store all the digital photos and video clips.

Also, a big bonus for me: This drive is able to read a few of my DVDs that my other drive was having failures on with MakeMKV. I was able to read a couple of episodes off a season 3 disc of Futurama and so far I've been able to read all the discs off my House DVDs. I've been busy getting them on my Plex server. That reminds me, I need to find my DVD of The Wizard, see if that can be read by MakeMKV without errors.

LG WH16NS40 is on the top
Lite-On iHOS104-06 is the drive on the bottom.


Not sure if I need to keep the Lite-On, but you never know, I just might find use for it here and there.


----------



## mplayerMuPDF (Oct 10, 2022)

neatfeatguy said:


> I received my bluray optical drive yesterday afternoon and installed it earlier today; LG WH16NS40. Now I can make use of my DVDs and start having another place to store all the digital photos and video clips.
> 
> Also, a big bonus for me: This drive is able to read a few of my DVDs that my other drive was having failures on with MakeMKV. I was able to read a couple of episodes off a season 3 disc of Futurama and so far I've been able to read all the discs off my House DVDs. I've been busy getting them on my Plex server. That reminds me, I need to find my DVD of The Wizard, see if that can be read by MakeMKV without errors.
> 
> ...


That NS40 is probably actually an NS58. The SVC code should be listed on the label. Just make sure you never try to upgrade it to firmware 1.05! Personally, I would have gone with Pioneer instead, knowing what I know now. The only reason I got my NS40 at the time was that it was what came in the OWC Mercury Pro enclosure.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 10, 2022)

neatfeatguy said:


> I received my bluray optical drive yesterday afternoon and installed it earlier today; LG WH16NS40. Now I can make use of my DVDs and start having another place to store all the digital photos and video clips.
> 
> Also, a big bonus for me: This drive is able to read a few of my DVDs that my other drive was having failures on with MakeMKV. I was able to read a couple of episodes off a season 3 disc of Futurama and so far I've been able to read all the discs off my House DVDs. I've been busy getting them on my Plex server. That reminds me, I need to find my DVD of The Wizard, see if that can be read by MakeMKV without errors.
> 
> ...


Nice case! I have one too. CoolerMaster HAF-XB-EVO. I love it!


----------



## neatfeatguy (Oct 10, 2022)

lexluthermiester said:


> Nice case! I have one too. CoolerMaster HAF-XB-EVO. I love it!


I've got 3 of them. I like having the MB mount parallel with the ground so you don't have to worry about GPU sag or needing to get some kind of support bracket. Also, I've found that after multiple other cases that I used before this one, they had worse air flow even with a lot of fans or being full tower cases. I find the single 200mm fan on top and the single 120mm fan on the rear are plenty to keep things cool...less fans is less noise. I'm also not a fan of flashy cases and RGB, so this case fits my needs perfectly.

Also, I have to have a case with 5.25" bays for my optical drives.


----------



## 80-watt Hamster (Oct 10, 2022)

neatfeatguy said:


> I've got 3 of them. I like having the MB mount parallel with the ground so you don't have to worry about GPU sag or needing to get some kind of support bracket. Also, I've found that after multiple other cases that I used before this one, they had worse air flow even with a lot of fans or being full tower cases. I find the single 200mm fan on top and the single 120mm fan on the rear are plenty to keep things cool...less fans is less noise. I'm also not a fan of flashy cases and RGB, so this case fits my needs perfectly.
> 
> Also, I have to have a case with 5.25" bays for my optical drives.



I've looked at it before for the same reasons, but keep getting hung up on the footprint. Also not terribly fond of the aestetics.

Would it make a good test bench?


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 10, 2022)

neatfeatguy said:


> I like having the MB mount parallel with the ground so you don't have to worry about GPU sag or needing to get some kind of support bracket.


THIS! That's one of the main reasons why I like cases like this too!



80-watt Hamster said:


> Would it make a good test bench?


It would if you take the top and side panels off. Lots of open space. Compared to other workbench type "cases" it's also less expensive at about $99.


----------



## neatfeatguy (Oct 10, 2022)

80-watt Hamster said:


> I've looked at it before for the same reasons, but keep getting hung up on the footprint. Also not terribly fond of the aestetics.
> 
> Would it make a good test bench?



Since this topic isn't really about cases, but about optical drives, I'll put my answer in the spoiler below about the case. However, since the case does support 5.25" drives, I would have to say that it is a nice case to have if you don't need to swap out or replace any 5.25" optical drives often. Get them installed and you're all set!



Spoiler



If you don't have a need to swap out drives mounted in the HDD cage (under the MB tray) and didn't need to swap out PSUs at all, it could make for a good bench case. Sides and top come off very easy and the front panel is pretty simple to remove. The only issue is if you have to add drives to the HDD cage or add something to the 5.25" bays....you have to remove the MB tray to get to those things so you can run power cables and data cables. If you don't need to swap out anything under the MB tray, then you're golden.

Looks of it used to bother me, but I'm not staring at it when I'm using my computer. Plus, I don't like RGB (thought it was cool years ago, had a clear side panel case and the LED on all the fans hurt my eyes and all the glowing and flashing lights drove me crazy) so having a case that hides the little things inside that do RGB (like the H100i AIO, yeah, I can turn it off, but I'm too lazy to navigate the software) is just a bonus.

The one thing that the case lacks is filters on all the openings. After adding mesh filter covers I get very little dirt/dust inside of the case. I got magnetic mesh filters here for my cases: https://www.demcifilter.com/demciflex-magnetic-dust-filter-for-haf-xb-dust-filter-kit

Sadly, the only downside is finding a 200mm fan that properly fits the top of the case. You need a Cooler Master Megaflow 200. This fan has proper mounting on it to screw into the top panel of the case. No standard 200mm fan will fit, at best you might be able to line up 2 screw holes on one side, but that's it. Finding this fan has become troublesome over the years. I found they are listed on Newegg, but they all seem to come out of China. I picked up a spare one for $17 a few weeks back and it took just over 2 weeks to get it in. Always nice to have a spare, just in case.

Another draw back is limited space for mounting any kind of AIO. You're limited to a maximum size 240mm rad and it'll have to be mounted to the front of the case. You can do a push/pull setup on a rad when it's mounted to the front of the case, but it does reduce the amount of space you will get for installing a GPU. Max GPU length for the case is 13", but an AIO and your fan setup for it will reduce the amount of space available to install a GPU.


----------



## mplayerMuPDF (Oct 11, 2022)

Since we are talking about cases anyway, I have this one on my wishlist: Phanteks Enthoo Pro Full Tower. I would definitely do some more research (particularly on the exact dimensions) before actually buying it but it interests me a lot for sure. Going from 0 to 4 5.25" bays would be amazing.


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 11, 2022)

mplayerMuPDF said:


> Since we are talking about cases anyway, I have this one on my wishlist: Phanteks Enthoo Pro Full Tower. I would definitely do some more research (particularly on the exact dimensions) before actually buying it but it interests me a lot for sure. Going from 0 to 4 5.25" bays would be amazing.


That's a nice case! Lots of room for optical drives and more!


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## neatfeatguy (Oct 11, 2022)

mplayerMuPDF said:


> Since we are talking about cases anyway, I have this one on my wishlist: Phanteks Enthoo Pro Full Tower. I would definitely do some more research (particularly on the exact dimensions) before actually buying it but it interests me a lot for sure. Going from 0 to 4 5.25" bays would be amazing.


I've got my Fractal Design Arc XL tower, still. One big sucker. Has 4 5.25" bays on it, too. It has a built in fan controller for adjusting fan speed (I just let the 140mm fans run on high, they were quiet fans). Lots of room. 

One thing I did with mine was I removed both HDD cages so they weren't in the way to restrict air flow. Then, in the 5.25" bays, the top two had optical drives and the bottom two bays I picked up a couple of 5.25" HDD mounting brackets and I installed the HDDs in the two bottom bays. On the back of the MB tray there is 1 (maybe 2, I forget now) spots to mount a SSD.

She's a nice full sized tower, but after using it for 4 years and having my 980Ti AMP! Omega installed, the GPU sag was on the verge of breaking the PCIE port. That's when I opted to move to the Cooler Master HAF XB Evo, no more worries about GPU sag. I also found that moving to this XB Evo I saw slightly better temps with the use of fewer fans. I was sold after that, so now I have 3 of the XB Evo cases.

I'd recommend getting one, but I think you'd be very hard pressed in find one since the model is no longer available. At least the Phanteks you linked reminds me a lot of the Arc XL I have, certainly would be a case I'd like to get if I was in the need of a full tower with ample 5.25" bays.


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## Jacky_BEL (Oct 11, 2022)

Canned Noodles said:


> I use an LG BP50NB40 external USB drive for most of my optical needs, due to the lack of 5.25" drives. It works great and it’s extremely helpful for my computers that don’t want to boot from a USB.
> 
> I was at Micro Center a couple years ago looking at their optical media, and stumbled upon this DVD-RAM drive for 5 bucks. I had heard of this type of disk and wanted to check it out but only later realized it was the early type that is in a housing. Unfortunately I do not have any drive that takes in these DVD-RAM cartridges but it’s still a very neat thing to have.


I have used these DVD-RAM cartridges on a Panasonic HDD-DVD video recorder.
At that time (XP-days if my memory serves me right) i had a DVD-RAM capable optical drive in my PC , so i downloaded the drivers for it , and use DVD-RAM discs on that PC.
I had also been looking for a 5.25" optical drive with a tray that could accept the cartridge-type discs , but never found one.


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## Canned Noodles (Nov 23, 2022)

Found a couple of CD drives in my box of Sun hardware

what do you think the "FG" hole is for on the back of the IDE drive?






the top of the drives





this is the bottom of the SCSI drive (the bottom of the IDE drive was bare, hence the lack of a photo)


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## Veseleil (Nov 23, 2022)

FG hole...  Is there a button or a screw in it?


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## Canned Noodles (Nov 23, 2022)

Veseleil said:


> FG hole...  Is there a button or a screw in it?


Looking with a flashlight, there definitely isn't a screw. I tried poking in a paperclip and didn't click or anything. It looks like a flat plastic surface... perhaps it's just a feature that wasn't implemented.


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## GreiverBlade (Nov 23, 2022)

i have that one

can be useful sometime 

also collections of various ODD (some IDE some SATA ) right side under the beer caps 

(and one FDD in the red square ok fine ... rectangle...  )


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## Veseleil (Nov 23, 2022)

GreiverBlade said:


> View attachment 271442


What kind of instrument is that? Something between sarangi and sitar?


----------



## Steevo (Nov 23, 2022)

I have a Blu-ray drive to rip music and movies, to burn DVDs for work and MP3 CDs for older CD players. Plus I own a decent number of disc movies on BluRay and the upscale works well, haven’t tried 4K discs to see if they work, and we don’t have fast enough internet for 4K streaming unless I kick the kids off.

I have thousands of hours of music ripped in MP3 vbr or WMA vbr, unless I can sail the seas or buy a disc it’s usually streamed from somewhere. Not buying media unless I have a physical copy that I can make a clean copy of after losing close to 100 albums to DRM and at least a few movies and shows.


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Nov 23, 2022)

Heres mine.





Bought about 20 years ago. Used it a fair bit when i bought it but not so much now since windows and game installs are done via USB and steam etc etc. Not the fastest drive in the world but it gets the job done.


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## mplayerMuPDF (Nov 24, 2022)

Bought one of these: https://www.startech.com/en-us/cables/sata2esata6 to use with the PSU that came with my https://www.startech.com/en-us/hdd/usb2sataide.
 (which as you can tell from my sig I have been using with my SH-224DB) My Llano ProBook has an eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port, so now I have a way to connect drives natively (a big improvement over using a USB 2.0 adapter with the sketchy USB of my Ryzen desktop). Just tried it briefly and it seems to work. It just took me some time to realize that eSATA was disabled in the BIOS... Will do some further testing tomorrow.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Nov 24, 2022)

Canned Noodles said:


> Found a couple of CD drives in my box of Sun hardware
> 
> what do you think the "FG" hole is for on the back of the IDE drive?
> View attachment 271436View attachment 271437
> ...



FG is known as Frame Ground (Chassis Ground)

I found a Manual for that unit, seems they were common in Dell's






						Teac CD-532E CD/CDR Drive Manual  PDF View/Download, Page # 3
					

View online Manual  for Teac CD-532E CD/CDR Drive or simply click Download button to examine the Teac CD-532E guidelines offline on your desktop or laptop computer.




					all-guidesbox.com
				




I Remember TEAC

I Still like Optical drives, I have 2 BDXL Burners in mine (Pioneer) from 2014 and My Lady has 1 from 2021


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## GreiverBlade (Nov 24, 2022)

Veseleil said:


> What kind of instrument is that? Something between sarangi and sitar?


it's a scaled down plywood hurdy gurdy (basically a playable 3D puzzle and no... it doesn't play optical disc ... ) 


Spoiler: .












						Ugears Hurdy-Gurd: the world's first mechanical musical model for self-assembly and play
					

The Hurdy-Gurdy plays dancing melodies, from folk to modern, being the bridge between the medieval times and the present day.



					ugearsmodels.com


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 24, 2022)

GreiverBlade said:


> it's a scaled down plywood hurdy gurdy (basically a playable 3D puzzle and no... it doesn't play optical disc ... )
> 
> 
> Spoiler: .
> ...


ELO anyone lol


----------



## GreiverBlade (Nov 24, 2022)

eidairaman1 said:


> ELO anyone lol


ELO, hello... elo?
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor.
that Elo?

or that ELO?
ELO stands for *Expanded Learning Opportunities*. It is a 30 minute period of instructional time within the school day for students to receive individualized instructional support personalized to their needs.

well anyhow as i said, it does not play Optical Disc ... sorry for the off topic derivation


----------



## lexluthermiester (Nov 24, 2022)

GreiverBlade said:


> ELO, hello... elo?
> The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor.
> that Elo?
> 
> ...


I think the reference was Electric Light Orchestra.


----------



## GreiverBlade (Nov 24, 2022)

lexluthermiester said:


> I think the reference was Electric Light Orchestra.


i thought of that one too ... but it's not electric and i did not see someone playing a HG in ELO ... or i am masively blind and need optical overhaul (see, still Optical ... although not disk )


----------



## eidairaman1 (Nov 25, 2022)

lexluthermiester said:


> I think the reference was Electric Light Orchestra.


Thats right or Electric Light Organ


----------



## mplayerMuPDF (Nov 25, 2022)

Reripped some Santana CDs yesterday with the SH-224DB connected to my Llano ProBook with its eSATA port, using a new program (for Linux/*nix) for the first time: whipper. Before I was using cdparanoia (directly, whipper also utilizes it but has many additional features) and I had to manually name all the tracks etc and nothing was tagged (which is a problem with music players that do not respect directory structure-based organization and rely solely on tags, like the stock BB10 music player, for example). Whipper pulls the tag information automatically from the Musicbrainz database and encodes the tracks to tagged FLAC files. Additionally, it compares hashes of your files to other rips to determine whether your rip is 100% accurate or not. I guess you could say it is an EAC equivalent for Linux, although I am not familiar enough with that program to state that it is a perfect replacement.

Overall, I would say it is a big upgrade over just using cdparanoia. Unfortunately, it was a hassle to install on MX Linux (Debian Stable based) because the pycdio dependency was not installed because it was no longer available in the Debian package repositories for some reason (even though whipper itself is). Luckily with my extensive experience with Linux and installing software written in Python (from PyPI) and other software from outside the repositories, I was able to get it to work. I installed pycdio from PyPI using the "pip3 install pycdio" command but pycdio itself has multiple dependencies so I had to install those manually from the Debian repositories (using "apt install"). I do not recall exactly what I had to install to stop pip from complaining about missing dependencies but it included the "swig" package and various "cdio" (including "dev" development packages containing header files) packages.


----------



## 80-watt Hamster (Nov 26, 2022)

mplayerMuPDF said:


> Reripped some Santana CDs yesterday with the SH-224DB connected to my Llano ProBook with its eSATA port, using a new program (for Linux/*nix) for the first time: whipper. Before I was using cdparanoia (directly, whipper also utilizes it but has many additional features) and I had to manually name all the tracks etc and nothing was tagged (which is a problem with music players that do not respect directory structure-based organization and rely solely on tags, like the stock BB10 music player, for example). Whipper pulls the tag information automatically from the Musicbrainz database and encodes the tracks to tagged FLAC files. Additionally, it compares hashes of your files to other rips to determine whether your rip is 100% accurate or not. I guess you could say it is an EAC equivalent for Linux, although I am not familiar enough with that program to state that it is a perfect replacement.
> 
> Overall, I would say it is a big upgrade over just using cdparanoia. Unfortunately, it was a hassle to install on MX Linux (Debian Stable based) because the pycdio dependency was not installed because it was no longer available in the Debian package repositories for some reason (even though whipper itself is). Luckily with my extensive experience with Linux and installing software written in Python (from PyPI) and other software from outside the repositories, I was able to get it to work. I installed pycdio from PyPI using the "pip3 install pycdio" command but pycdio itself has multiple dependencies so I had to install those manually from the Debian repositories (using "apt install"). I do not recall exactly what I had to install to stop pip from complaining about missing dependencies but it included the "swig" package and various "cdio" (including "dev" development packages containing header files) packages.



Loved cdparanoia in my Linux days, but yeah, manual tagging was a pain. I set up some VERY basic Bash scripts to make life a little easier, but it still required typing everything out. Should've gone whole hog and figured out how to parse Freedb data and feed it to my rename script.


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## freeagent (Nov 26, 2022)

I have a black LG DVD burner in my 5600X system 

It's a nice one too, but I haven't used it yet. It's top of the line 2012 

I haven't had a CD drive since the Devils Own was quite popular 

Now I have a bunch of small usb keys that I can't see very well in the dark.


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## mplayerMuPDF (Nov 26, 2022)

freeagent said:


> I have a black LG DVD burner in my 5600X system
> 
> It's a nice one too, but I haven't used it yet. It's top of the line 2012
> 
> ...


That 2012 LG is a lot better than what HL-DT-ST is manufacturing today. It may even be a superior (for burning, not for scanning or reading) Renesas chipset based drive.

Today I moved over my OWC Mercury Pro USB 3.0 enclosure (containing an LG WH16NS"40" (in all likelihood an SVC NS50 rather than a real NS40) to the location where my ProBook 645 G1 usually sits (when I am not using it at the dinner table) and charges (it was sitting on top of my Ryzen desktop before) so I can use it with that computer and its reliable (Renesas) USB chipset. I only had to install cdparanoia and swig manually from the repositories to get whipper working on Devuan Chimaera (also based on Debian Stable). Just popped in a CD to let whipper find the drive offset (required before you can rip) of this LG BD-RE (multi) drive.


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## Equus_Ferus_Caballus (Nov 26, 2022)

all of my desktops have optical drives of various makes, and have others using both IDE and SATA interface in places around the office as spares.


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## tripleclicker (Nov 26, 2022)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Heres mine.
> 
> View attachment 271448
> 
> Bought about 20 years ago. Used it a fair bit when i bought it but not so much now since windows and game installs are done via USB and steam etc etc. Not the fastest drive in the world but it gets the job done.


I have this exact model, too. For externals, I prefer these over the slide tray models, because you don't need extra space for when you eject the disc. Like you, mine doesn't see much use anymore. Used to have an internal Samsung DVDRW, but I guess the laser diode died and it couldn't write anymore, only reads.


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## Hugis (Nov 26, 2022)

Hola, still using a LG GH22NS40 (NL02). 

Actually I used it the other day to install the drivers on my new build (yes asus still gives you a driver disc)

PS.
 I hate Armory Crate!


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 26, 2022)

I'm not a fan of todays cases, they are BORING


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## FreedomEclipse (Nov 26, 2022)

tripleclicker said:


> I have this exact model, too. For externals, I prefer these over the slide tray models, because you don't need extra space for when you eject the disc. Like you, mine doesn't see much use anymore. Used to have an internal Samsung DVDRW, but I guess the laser diode died and it couldn't write anymore, only reads.



well. Originally I wanted the fancy optical drive that didnt have a tray like this one...







I think all the major brands like Samsung, Pioneer, Lite-On etc etc used to make them back in the day but those drives were always significantly more pricey than the Lite-On. The Lite-On must have been near $20-25 where as the no-tray drives were more like closer to $40. It wasnt worth the price premium for something I'll probably use less than once in a blue moon and in a way I was right due to the internet taking off and being able to download whatever you needed digitally to a USB thumb drive to a point where I think thumb drives should have been a lot lot cheaper than they are now since there was so much demand for them back then.


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## lexluthermiester (Nov 26, 2022)

eidairaman1 said:


> I'm not a fan of todays cases, they are BORING


I'll second this!


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