Mounting dvd drives verticly

[n0body]

I planning my first mod (a scratch built case) and due to its rather unusual shape i want to try and reduce the footprint of the dvd drives. The best way of doing it would be to mount them verticly but as they are not slot loading (and the only ones i can find in england cost £100) i want to mount them like this \ /. Would that be ok or am i going to have problems with disks not being read properly and other things?

[dgrmkrp]

hmmm.... the boxes with which drives come with say "horizontal and vertical mounting"... maybe it would be good to stick with vertical mounting... this way, the footprint will be even smaller. i wouldn't recommend any other mounting pattern because of the carefull balancing of the read/write laser head... just a slight force in the wrong direction and the head would be unbalanced... plus..at max speed... it could break discs... maybe... i'm not sure...

[Dark-hobo]

It wouldn't break the discs. But you are right in saying it would not be helpful for the reader.

[n0body]

thanks for the info

[GregoryJ]

you can mount slot loading drives on their sides. Always consult with product's website tech support to see if the drive will work the way that you plan on using it.

[SurfingGeek]

i wouldnt do it as i had a ps2 on a verticle stand and after playing a game/disc for a while the middle of the disc willget all scratched up from the friction of gravity pulling it down just keep it horizontile if you can or or you can get those special slevves for the cd/dvd that you can keep on when your using it or you might not paly games 24/7 like me and wher it down so much lol :)

[Shroomie]

Well, if it helps any I had a CD-ROM drive at about a 165* angle for a few weeks, and it never did any damage I can see.

[onelegout]

unbalancing cds can be VERY dangerous, but I dont think that gravity will have much pull on a DVD with speeds like 20x (10,000rpm, correct me if im wrong.)
Thats a LOT of force pulling the cd straight, it's not going to spin off-axis just because it's slightly off-level is it? Im no physician, so dont trust me....
Try it with an old cd drive or something!
Peace
H

[crazybillybob]

I've worked with Office pc's that have a vertical mounted CD-Rom. They have never had any odd problem. In fact several of the new hp-Compaq server class machine come with the CD-Rom/DVD-Rom Vertical and I've not had any ill effects.

As for unbalanced CD being dangerous, Only if you get them above about 45,000-55,000 RPMs (the only way to do that is strap them to a 120V router running on 220V....The Mythbusters did this one a few months back....Last season maybe?)



CrazyBillybob

[Malatory]

only way you would have problems would be if it was set in a way that when the tray opened the CD would fall out (even a small amount) as it would make it hard to get the CD in and it would not line up with the reader.

[wingman358]

Crazybillybob and Malatory are right. For a simple answer: yes, regular CD or DVD drives will work fine.

[adreamtraveler]

As for unbalanced CD being dangerous, Only if you get them above about 45,000-55,000 RPMs (the only way to do that is strap them to a 120V router running on 220V....The Mythbusters did this one a few months back....Last season maybe?)

that was such a badass episode :D lol

you could also use a notbook drive if you want to be very sure that it's going to line up. just an idea :p