:. CD/DVD loading mechanism

[dmitrio]

Does anyone have any expirience of using CD/DVD drive other than with tray?

Would be nice to hear pros and cons of those types.

img]http://content.answers.com/main/content ... /CADDY.GIF[/img]
The image is taken from http://content.answers.com/main/content ... /CADDY.GIF

[BillMorrow]

yes, tray..!
what use is a caddy these days..?
and feed drive is nice but AFAIK can't take a 3.5 inch CD or a business card CD..

so i vote for a tray as most universal and feed drive as second choice..

[skitty4gzus]

very true Bill, i dont know how mac users get around smaller format cd/dvd's? But i vote for tray load as well.

[KaneElson]

I think the "Slot-Load" are right at home on notebooks.
I must admit I have only owned one notebook with a optical drive, a Vaio. But I have used many notebooks with both types of drives and I have slot load drives in my desktop.
They are so quick and simple to use. The tray drives are so cumbersome and slow. Not to mention the tray on notebooks is so flimsy.


Edit: Ohh I almost forgot to mention that you can get plastic adaptors the size of a normal cd where you clip the mini-cd in. I have some but have yet to use them, I have only ever had one mini-cd containing the drivers and manual for a gps device.

[frankiepankie]

I read on a forum, that a Mac user (with a macbook) was asking for a download location for some things that were burnt on a miniCD. He was asking, because his Mac didn't support miniCD's.

I chose the 'feed' drive, because most things you get on that miniCD are drivers, and in most parts you can download that driver very easy, sometimes the driver version on the download site of the company, is newer than the driver on the CD.

Plus, the 'feed' drive doesn't breaks so fast. You can have an accident and break of the tray (Yes i know it almost can't happen, but in very rare conditions it can )

And, 'feed' drives use less space, if you are in a tight seat in an airplane or something, you must slid the tray out, pop in your disc etc. etc.

with a 'feed' drive, you don't have to do that.

[GomJabbar]

I used to like caddies for the protection they offered to the CD's. However caddies are expensive and take up a lot of space (relatively speaking). I don't use caddies anymore (anybody want to buy some?).

Feed drives are fine until you get a CD stuck in one. Also, AFAIK feed drives are not easily replaced by the end user. Drives fail and additional features are supported in newer drives, so an easily replaceable drive such as featured in the Ultrabay series is a big plus.

[tomh009]

I used to like caddies for the protection they offered to the CD's. However caddies are expensive and take up a lot of space (relatively speaking).

Same here. I have particularly fond memories for the Plextor 6-PleX SCSI CD-ROM -- the performance was (well, seemed to be) stunningly fast at the time.

[teetee]

How about the top-open mechanism? Panasonic Let's note(toughbook) W series has those:
http://tinyurl.com/33d7bh

[mattbiernat]

How about the top-open mechanism? Panasonic Let's note(toughbook) W series has those:
http://tinyurl.com/33d7bh

this seems so much easier

[ptantra]

How about the top-open mechanism? Panasonic Let's note(toughbook) W series has those:
http://tinyurl.com/33d7bh

I don't miss the caddy. I had one with a Plextor 4Plex. Worked fine, but it was more effort and time to find, open, then load into the computer. Tray is much faster. I lost a CD in a slotless drive one time...now I use them with trepidation.

Every clockradio/boombox I've ever seen with a top open CD mechanism seemed to have flex when you push down on the lid. Therefore, if you're worried about flex and creaking under the palmrests...