CD Drive Length

[dyingstar]

Hey Guys,

My post title pretty much sums up my question. Is there a standard cd drive length? Or even an average? Does it differ significantly between laptop and desktop cd drives? I haven't bought alot of disk drives before, and most websites don't include length.

Thanks guys for all your help.

[simon275]

Pretty much all optical drives that go in computer cases the 5.25" bay variety are around 19.5cm long and have to be 35cm wide and 8cm tall.

While laptop drives have to be all the same as they are within a certain form factor so they fit in all laptops.

[Zephik]

I've noticed that my optical drive is an inch or two shorter than the standard one that came with my Dell. So I don't know if thats just something specific to Memorex or if all brands differ. I guess you could go around asking for the length of peoples drives, then take the average from that. But that sounds pretty boring if you ask me. lol.

The best way to find out is to just whip out a ruler and measure it. If you don't own the drive but you plan on buying it, wait till you buy it then measure it. Especially if you need the measurements for a mod, you'll definitely want to wait to find out the measurements before you start chopping things up. But the width and height of optical drives are all the same, its just the length that differs.

I wish I had a ruler handy, but I don't, so I can't give you those measurements. Best to just do it yourself anyhow, you should never rely on others fully. "hey jump on this cliff, trust me, you won't die, its fun!" you get my point. ;)

As for the difference between desktop and laptop, the drives are much different. They _might_ be the same width, but I don't even know that for sure. Just about everything between a laptop drive and a desktop drive is different, they even have different connections. Going off topic, you can buy adapters for those connections if you wish to use a laptop drive in a desktop.

Hope that helps clear things up. Ask away if you have any other questions. ^_^

[dyingstar]

Thanks for the info, in spite of my dumb questions. :D

EDIT: Since I already have this handy-dandy thread, instead of creating a new one, I'll ask my questions here.

So I've kinda had an htpc concept in mind. But at the same time, I wanna be able to play some games on it. I was thinking about a really slick, slim look, maybe brushed aluminum. But with a gfx card in place, the minimum width I can get is around 5.5 inches I think.

So I have to get a riser card, but I have 2 questions about them. Firstly, do they even work with a gfx card? And secondly, do they have a performance hit?

I apologize for my noobness.