Superdrives in future thinkpads?

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Torque · #1 Post by **Torque** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 12:46 pm

Hello Thinkpad forums

Yesterday, I was helping one of my mates setting up his newly purchased Airport (apple'ish for WLAN Router/accespoint). For this, I was fiddling around with his 12" iBook (or powerbook, dunno really). A very nice machine. Screen was too small for me, but it seemed like a high quality build.

Anyways, I was very impressed with the CD-ROM drive. It works like the CD-slot in your common car stereo. I think Apple calls this Superdrives.

Will these ever be found in Thinkpads?
I mean, the fact that you loose the dangling CD-ROM tray would be great. Also, I find the solution better alot better due to space. The Superdrive is easier to load when your Thinkpad is on a messy desk. Why hasn't Big Blue thought of this?

BTW: Pardon my cra**y gramma

gazingwa · #2 Post by **gazingwa** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 12:48 pm

Panasonic builds those drives, they are 12.5mm which will not fit in a t40, but you can buy an oem drive like that for a t30, a30, a20.... you get the idea

asiafish · #3 Post by **asiafish** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 1:24 pm

Yeah, the tray is so 1990s.

Torque · #4 Post by **Torque** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 4:14 pm

gazingwa wrote:Panasonic builds those drives, they are 12.5mm which will not fit in a t40, but you can buy an oem drive like that for a t30, a30, a20.... you get the idea

Been searching the web for 9,5mm superdrives without luck. Too bad

Batuta · #5 Post by **Batuta** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 5:20 pm

asiafish · #6 Post by **asiafish** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 12:43 am

Apple isn't faster or slower than PC, they are different. The OS is different, the processors are totally different, so somethings will be faster on an Apple and other things slower.

#7 Post by **K. Eng** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 10:12 am

Slot loading drives may look nice, but I've never seen one that was a removable module like the UltraBay drives.

I'd rather have the modularity than the looks. If a slot drive breaks in a PowerBook, it's a PITA to replace. If a UltraBay drive breaks in a ThinkPad, it's a snap to take out and put in a new one.

As for speed, I think it is safe to say that Pentium M heavily outguns the PPC G4 in both integer and floating point capability. However, for most people, this doesn't matter, as HDD speed is often the limiting factor in notebooks.

asiafish · #8 Post by **asiafish** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 11:23 am

A slot loading drive is no different than any other drive. I had a slot-loader in my T22 and it was every bit as removeable as the tray loader that it replaced. The problem isn't that slot loading drives aren't removeable, its that nobody makes one in 9.5mm format, which is an oddball size. If IBM stuck with the 12mm format that everyone else uses, we could all go buy slot loading drives for our ThinkPads.

mattfromomaha · #9 Post by **mattfromomaha** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 4:50 pm

asiafish wrote: If IBM stuck with the 12mm format that everyone else uses, we could all go buy slot loading drives for our ThinkPads.

But then the ThinkPad wouldn't be as slim!

asiafish · #10 Post by **asiafish** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 11:41 pm

There are always compromises. I honestly think IBM could have made as slim a T-series with the 12mm drive format, but who knows.

gazingwa · #11 Post by **gazingwa** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:08 am

The first E-Machines notebooks had slot loads Butata, but who wants an E-machine

#12 Post by **carbon_unit** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 9:22 am

Another thing to keep in mind about the slot loaders. They don't work too well with the 3 inch mini-cd's. If you get them off center when loading them you may have trouble ejecting them.
Not everyone likes the mini cd's but some use them and wouldn't want a surprise when it gets eaten.

#13 Post by **daeojkim** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 12:09 pm

ACER Ferrari series has a slot loading.

Almost bought one instead of T.

James314 · #14 Post by **James314** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 2:48 pm

those things look silly!

Torque · #15 Post by **Torque** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:03 pm

James314 wrote: those things look silly!

No, they look alot better

EDIT: Thought you meant superdrives in general. I wasn't adressing the Acer Ferrari.

gazingwa · #16 Post by **gazingwa** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:56 pm

Right, cause i want to worry about a paint job on an item that gets thrown in a bag, knocked off desks, and.... the red attracts theifs...

#17 Post by **K. Eng** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:04 pm

Whether the Acer Ferrari looks better than an IBM ThinkPad is largely a matter of personal taste, but I think that the IBM certainly looks more professional. I'd rather have the IBM. It makes me feel more productive (and it's a joy to type on)!

Superdrives in future thinkpads?

Superdrives in future thinkpads?

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