when did this change?

sybaris

sybaris

sybaris

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21 Jun 2010
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infornt of my PC
its been a while since I build a PC but since when did manufacturers stop putting in spaces for optical drives? Don't people still watch DVDs or use software that came on those old round plastic things?
Finding a case with space for one of this is near on impossible.

The question is:
Do I stay old school or move with the times?

And while I am on the rant, my PC lives under my desk. I am not interested in RGB stuff. I get there may be some people who want to show off some pretty colours but really I just don't get it... rant over.
 
There has been a general shift over the last few years. Probably as much as 5 years ago or more that cases have been about with no optical bays. Some kids have never touched DVDs/Blurays/CDs, except for games console use. There really is no need. You can almost always a USB drive for booting images etc and the argument for backing things up to optical is less of a thing now with cloud storage and such. Mostly everything is on a disk somewhere, just not optical discs anymore.
 
Yes it's the current times. I have 2 bays that i like to use in mine which can house all kinds of stuff in a micro atx form. I don't know why cases still have mic and headphone inputs tbh.

Anyway, Fractal are a solid choice. Look at the Focus line for more specialised/options, or the Core line for smaller or cheaper versions.
 
They may come back in style if use of USB-C becomes more widespread. Bays with a good amount of those ports could be handy.

Optical bays affect case dimensions, ideal airflow pattern, and space for liquid-cooling, in a big way.
 
Good rant I had the same mindset until a few weeks ago, now I've got a small case with glass windows on my desk and dare I say I'm even considering a RGB strip..!
 
Shock horror !!! I am starting to lean towards a case with no optical bay. There are some nice cases .... to look at under my desk and in a corner. Still, I will be able to appreciate it.
 
[HB]Rugrat said:
I resisted it at first until I realised that literal years had gone by since I last actually used an optical drive.
Click to expand...

Not quite the same here - I still occasionally use an optical drive; but infrequently enough that I decided using an external USB drive was an acceptable trade off for fitting a 420 rad in the front of my case.

For installation, I've been using an IODD virtual DVD. It's a USB external 2.5" drive enclosure (in which I've put an SSD) onto which you can copy an ISO and then have that presented as a DVD drive to the PC. Much more convenient than creating bootable USB sticks.
 
In much the same way as they stopped putting parallel ports on motherboards and floppy bays on cases, the optical bay has become mostly obsolete. I think with high speed internet you could probably download a game quicker than you could install it from a disc.
 
I kept an external USB OD for discs, but the main reason for 5.25" bays was for various mods that I used to use.
Even now, I have a bay converter with a 3.5" HDD and twin 2.5" SSDs in the one slot.

Times change, though if you look in the right places you'll often find kit that meets your needs and does away with the requirement for OD bays... But it'd be nice if they at least kept it optional.
 
I need to buy an external OD drive now as I have quite a few old photos on DVD which I would like to access. I also have an older copy of Photoshop on a disc which I would like to re-install. Other than that though have not needed one for a long time.
 
When you notice than most cars don't even offer a CD player anymore, which would be much more beneficial than for PC users, easy to justify.
If I ever need to use a CD, there's an old one in the garage.
If the use is more often, an USB would do.
Another benefit, is the possibility of fans top to bottom in front of the case.
 
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