Good, ez, 5min starting mod

[Ohtarnehtar]

Ok...really simple, and end result of a tilted CD drive looks good and works good. Unfortunately, it takes up 3 bays to do it, so make sure your bottom 3 bays r empty.
1)take out the fronts to the lower 3 bays, and keep them
2)take out ure CD drive
3)using wire cutters, if nothing better, to cut off the aluminum tabs in between each bay, only the front 1s
4)reinsert the CD drive through the opening of the lower bay, but the back end in the next bay up. Make sure the farthest part of the drive does not extend past your case.
5) look at another tutorial to stealth it, if you wish, just remember that the case part will come out angled, so cut accordingly.

had this idea while thinking up ways to circumvent space limitations in one of my mods.

[Omega]

no offense, but why would you want to angle your drive? at that point, you severly reduce your airflow, and you create negative pressure because it is pushing out more air than it can take in.

[The Modfather]

See other thread entitled "Because I can". :)

Now, if you're gonna do that they you MUST do a plexi mod to the drive and include some LED's in there so it's worth looking at.

[xmastree]

no offense, but why would you want to angle your drive?
A friend asked me to look at his computer.The CD was damaged.
I fitted a new one, which was very unreliable so I went to see it.
The computer was mounted on an angled shelf alongside the monitor, so the CD wasn't horizontal. I moved it to a flat surface and it was fine. I can't say for sure, but I suspect that's what killed the first drive.

So, if your case isn't on a flat surface you might want to angle the drive to make it horizontal. If the case is flat and you angle the drive just for looks, that's fine so long as you don't actually use it. :rolleyes:

YMMV.

[phalen]

i dont think one can do it with a normal cd drive - u'd probably need a cd drive like the ones u get in a laptop - that can hold onto the cd and spin properly

a cd on its side inside the bay wont spin properly if its not held in place - at least thats what i see when i look at it logically

[The Modfather]

Not true, many optical drive manufacturers produce external drive subsystems that can be placed horizontally or vertically, regardless of whether they have a spindel or not. For example, I have a Sony DRX-810UL, which is basically a DRU-810A in an external enclosure. The drive is meant to be set on its side, the eject button is on the right side (in this case, top) rather than front of the drive and it comes with the stand to have it this way. All the writing on the drive is situated to be set this way as well. Here's a pic.

http://www.dvd-recordable.org/wwwimgs/hardware/DRX-810UL.png

The tray does not have a spindel (I wish it did though, as it's a little weird putting a disc in there.

[phalen]

>.> first time i'm seeing this - but not surprised seeing as i live in South Africa - we always get to see things last here :S

[Ohtarnehtar]

Here is what I mean, so i dont think it will interupt airflow or mess it up any.
Oh, and please no comments about my sucky case, im using it as a test bed for mods, and havent done much yet. :)

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i178/Ohtarnehtar/56c8db19.jpg
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i178/Ohtarnehtar/a18daad4.jpg

[Omega]

um, that still impedes airflow, but not as much as i thought you were talking about.

[The Modfather]

I'd still say, the most important reason why you might want to do that is to show off an acrylic optical drive mod. So get out your dremel, pop open that drive, chop the case, pop in some acrylic and a couple of nice LED's, maybe do some creative etching and show it off.

[xmastree]

Do optical drives still work with light coming in from all over the place?

[Omega]

Do optical drives still work with light coming in from all over the place?


i would imagine so, because they don't operate with a top-down light through the CD, they operate with a class 1 laserand a reflection.

=/

[The Modfather]

Yes, they do indeed work, there is a retaining disc inside that must be preserved but other than that, exterior light won't have an effect. Just be sure to cut your window so it preserves that retaining disc. So basically it should be two windows on either side of that disc with a bit of metal running down the middle to hold it in place.

[xmastree]

It certainly had an effect on a car CD player I was fixing once, although it wasn't the laser itself but the photocells which detected the presence of the CD. Light hitting the back of them confused the unit somewhat.
Now that I think about it, I have run CDs with the covers off, and they were fine.

[The Modfather]

I've never tried to do a clear case mod on a car CD player, can't see how that'd work. :)