The Great ODD debate

[jeshikat]

Optical Disk Drives! They are certainly a divisive topic within the broader enthusiast PC community, but especially so for SFF fans where every millimeter counts, with strong feelings both for, and against, the spinning plastic disks and the drives that read them. Not to mention, the whole discussion on including one inside the chassis versus external USB drives.

So, to keep the rest of the forum uncluttered, please keep all discussion about the pros and cons of having a ODD here and keep in mind the forum rules: https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/mission-statement-and-rules.14/

• In general, use common sense and show courtesy to your fellow members

• Post in English

• Personal attacks will NOT be tolerated

 

[Edward78]

Man, these tiny cases need a ODD bay, so people can fully replace their bluray player...

 

[confusis]

Man, these tiny cases need a ODD bay, so people can fully replace their bluray player...

 

[Edward78]

Well, it would be cool having a custom little media box that will also play blurays/dvds without a usb odd drive...

 

[Ceros_X]

If you don't think external power bricks count, external BDRom drives sure don't @confusis lol.

 

[iFreilicht]

If you don't think external power bricks count, external BDRom drives sure don't @confusis lol.

That's a good topic for discussion. I think a good argument is this: a PC consists of the components that it requires to run. So, external PSUs are part of the PC because without them you can't even boot it.

But an external drive is something else, like an external HDD. You can store it somewhere else and only use it when you need it, you can leave it at home when going to a LAN, and you can share it between multiple machines.

 

[Ceros_X]

That's a good topic for discussion. I think a good argument is this: a PC consists of the components that it requires to run. So, external PSUs are part of the PC because without them you can't even boot it.

But an external drive is something else, like an external HDD. You can store it somewhere else and only use it when you need it, you can leave it at home when going to a LAN, and you can share it between multiple machines.

Eh, I see where you are coming from, but I dont know if I buy it, personally. When @Edward78 is talking about a SFF case with an ODD slot, the PC obviously doesn't need one to run, but it does need one to fulfill it's function. Same thing with a Raspberry Pi 'NAS' that just hooks up an external HDD.

I am not an opponent of bricks on SFF builds by any means though :V

 

[iFreilicht]

Hm, what about an external GPU in a strong APU build? You obviously need it at home, but you can take the PC to LANs without the GPU and it will still do exactly what you want it to. Should the GPU count as a part of the PC then? Maybe we should open a "philosophical volume thread", this could get very OT in here

 

[Josh | NFC]

If you don't think external power bricks count, external BDRom drives sure don't @confusis lol.

On a serious note, I switched over to USB optical so I can port it between PCs and not have to buy an ugly ODD for everything. Plus slim optical drives are junk and expensive so it's nice to have something external.

 

[ricochet]

That's a good topic for discussion. I think a good argument is this: a PC consists of the components that it requires to run. So, external PSUs are part of the PC because without them you can't even boot it.

But an external drive is something else, like an external HDD. You can store it somewhere else and only use it when you need it, you can leave it at home when going to a LAN, and you can share it between multiple machines.

How about a monitor? That is required! LOL. Doesn't matter one bit if you can't see what you are powering up and booting!!!

Here forward all SFF builds must include monitor size when calculating total volume... need to get to work on correcting my total volume...now where did I put that old Droid DNA smart phone???

 

[cleveland]

+1 on that, sir. From my point of view, ODDs are the most superfluous and space inefficient thing we can introduce into a SFF projetc.

 

[ricochet]

+1 on that, sir. From my point of view, ODDs are the most superfluous and space inefficient thing we can introduce into a SFF projetc.

Unless it is a SFF HTPC build!

 

[cleveland]

Unless it is a SFF HTPC build!

IMHO, not even HTPCs need that anymore. Streaming services, PCTV Express Cards, thumb drives with hundreds of GBs of capacity and an infinity of alternatives to the optical digital media make ODDs completely not obligatory.

 

[ricochet]

IMHO, not even HTPCs need that anymore. Streaming services, PCTV Express Cards, thumb drives with hundreds of GBs of capacity and an infinity of alternatives to the optical digital media make ODDs completely not obligatory.

Concur; although Ultra HD Blu-ray is selling well... not everyone has reliable/dependable nor quick internet access.

 

[Ceros_X]

I think that external ODDs are the most space efficient and SFF of designs - they only count towards your volume when you are using them, then disappear when you aren't lol.

 

[Phuncz]

In my Ncase M1 the ODD stops dust from falling through ODD slot. That seems to be its main practical usage. I have used it once I believe for actually reading a disc but it was to convert a music CD to M4A.

But I get the need for BluRay or UHD BluRay if you don't have fast or reliable internet available, though that market seems to be shrinking every day. It's even shrinking faster for PC drives, I haven't found a UHD BluRay player or recorder drive for PC.

 

[danger]

I've basically completely moved away from optical drives, but I will point out that bus-powered and slim drives are worse than proper 5.25 drives in terms of speed and noise. If you regularly play optical media, I think it makes complete sense to have an internal drive. Fully contained is just much more elegant IF you are regularly using it.

I regret getting the optical drive slot on my NCASE because I never populated it and never will.

The problem with an STX NAS is that the boards don't have many sata ports, so even if you found a proper enclosure to fit the drives, you'd be limited by the board.

 

[Kmpkt]

I regret getting the optical drive slot on my NCASE because I never populated it and never will.

FYI you can buy a replacement top panel off of the NCases website for like 18 bucks without the ODD slot.

 

[EdZ]

But I get the need for BluRay or UHD BluRay if you don't have fast or reliable internet available, though that market seems to be shrinking every day.

Even with unmetered 200mb/s down, I'll stick with BD for movie playback. I can get a solid 50mbit/s video with no delay or inconsistency with a physical disc, while no streaming service offers anything close regardless of my last-mile bandwidth. Plus its easier to import a BD than try and jump through the hoops needed to set up high-bandwidth proxies and navigate foreign-language interfaces and billing in order to stream from places that actually carry the content you want (and unlike a BD, you can't inject a subtitle stream).

If all you want is streaming video, a full-up HTPC (even a thin-ITX or NUC based one) is already total overkill and you can go with a much more compact 'stick' form factor device running Android or similar, with the benefit or very low power consumption and generally much faster boot time.

 

[cleveland]

Even with unmetered 200mb/s down, I'll stick with BD for movie playback. I can get a solid 50mbit/s video with no delay or inconsistency with a physical disc, while no streaming service offers anything close regardless of my last-mile bandwidth. Plus its easier to import a BD than try and jump through the hoops needed to set up high-bandwidth proxies and navigate foreign-language interfaces and billing in order to stream from places that actually carry the content you want (and unlike a BD, you can't inject a subtitle stream).

If all you want is streaming video, a full-up HTPC (even a thin-ITX or NUC based one) is already total overkill and you can go with a much more compact 'stick' form factor device running Android or similar, with the benefit or very low power consumption and generally much faster boot time.

talking about space-efficiency, i stated before that ODDs bays fall into the category of invented-must-have-gadgets for an old device not everyone absolutely needs.

Most of the SFF PCs we see here around are not meant to be used as bluray players at all (i7's + 1070's, anyone?) and most of the users from this forum probly have ways to deal with the lack of ODD drives on their rigs: fast internet connections, external storage and, very elegantly, external ODD players.