Poll: Optical drive slot in Mini-ITX chassis - Critical Feature?

[NFC]

Hey guys and gals.

I am in talks with my MNF for reducing costs of the S3 Mini-ITX Chassis without sacrificing quality. One of my options is to drop the optical slot on the front bezel (I would convert the space for extra SSDs). Dropping this slot would dramatically reduce milling time and significantly reduce the cost of the S3 Chassis.

How important is an optical slot in 2012? Personally, I use Steam for all my games and stream all my media content. Any BDROMs I have I play on my PS3 because I don't really like available BDROM software. I don't want my personal preferences to rule out potential customers...so I am asking you guys and gals to get some insight.

Thank you very much for voting, and all opinions are welcome.

Thanks!

Josh Sniffen
NFC

[lowfat]

Honestly optical drives are a thing of the past. If i need to use an optical drive I have no problem using my external.

[El Mano]

I'm modding my ATX case and the optical drive was out of the equation from the very beginning. I'll use an USB drive if I really, really need it.

Anyway, I think it comes to what the customer is looking for. An ITX built as HTPC will certainly need a BD drive but a gaming/internet machine should be ok without it. If you're targeting the HTPC customers you will definitely need an optical drive to play movies. The gamer audience should be fine without one.

[Bobsama]

IDK. Maybe you could put a slimline 5.25" bay with a door hiding some USB ports. Basically make it optional: that the aesthetic isn't interrupted yet the user has access to either front-panel USB & audio or to a slimline 5.25" bay. Honestly, I don't like slot-loaded ODDs--despite having better aesthetics than slimline tray ODDs, the tray ODDs are far easier to eject when stuck. It'd be hell, to me, if the ODD went bad and I had to disassemble half of the system to eject it--and still not know if the drive is good.

Honestly, though--despite having collected a hundred or more (like anyone else), I use a flash drive or memory card reader far more often. I'd value both front-panel USB and a memory card reader far above an optical drive.

From a manufacturing standpoint, is the front face permanently joined to the chassis or is it possible to interchange them?

(Oh, and I still want to see the guts of that rig!)

[HuffPCair]

I have an external optical drive that rarely gets used and my HTPC hasnt had one in years even with my current Lian Li case it does not have a spot for it.

That is a sexy case though either way you go.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Where to begin....

Optical disc drives really benefit people who actually rent movies or use netflix, like my mom.

I think for the majority of people on here, they've moved to installing with a USB stick. At least this is what I do. I can't see using an optical disc drive for anything but legacy software & old games. In that case, it's rare and I'd rather have a USB DVD/BD drive. That said, laptops are moving in that direction. My x200 Thinkpad doesn't have a dvd drive and I don't miss it. Having a single USB dvd drive for when you rarely need it will be the way of the future IMO.

I don't agree about putting USB ports on the front. The clean look is amazing. Hell, if the power button wasn't so slick, I'd love it to be blank. USB ports on one side or the other would work. Just 2 USB 3.0 ports would rock.

Removing the optical in place of a second 2.5" drive is nice, considering we already have 1TB drives and that's more than enough storage for most people, along w/ an SSD for an OS drive, you're set.

A very close female friend of mine thinks an external optical is a perfection option. She burns a lot of CDs and some DVDs (for now), but uses her optical bay in her laptop as home to a second HDD for additional storage. She's much more of an "average" user than I am, though her abilities are beyond the average user's, lol. Maybe she's not a fair comparison, but I think her needs for an ODD reflect most users these days.



I would also like to mention both option 2 and 3 fit me, but I voted for option 2. I think most ppl in XS fall somewhere as a 2.5 option, if you know what i mean.

[CrazyNutz]

Honestly if your milling cost are killing you then you need to be looking at other possibility here. For example I know a guy who owns a sign shop. They have a large CNC router table that could cut quite a few of your cases out of a single sheet. This router table they have gets used just a few times a month. Shops like this would love to do your runs for you at an affordable price.

As far as optical drive goes its a toss up at this point, however for HTPC which is where your case falls in place quite nicely I would say it may still be desired. I have 3 HTPC's and for the most part they are streaming Netfilx, but occasionally someone brings over a dvd or blueray, or we toss in a workout vid. So for me I still use optical for HTPC.

[kuroikenshi]

same here, I know of a mob just down the road that have a whole workshop setup to build balance and produce Trubo's. But they already told me they will welcome more work..... mind you I am talking about Australia here

[alpha0ne]

Maybe have an optional extra slim slot load BD with the case

I think slim optical is a must for HTPC duties even though I dl 95% of all my content (then buy the BD for the good uns )

[naokaji]

How many people only have one computer anyway? point being besides the possibility of using a external drive there is also the option to use a optical drive located in a different pc and transferring data between pcs isn't a issue.
Plus in the age of Netflix, Steam, Itunes and so on optical drives are hardly used anyway, personally I can do without, my current HTPC got none, in my Laptop I opted for a extra Harddisk instead of a optical drive, the gaming pc still got a optical drive, but all that is doing is collecting dust.

[\/icious]

Think an external optical drive is no big deal at all. I hate CDs personally and rarely use my drive as well.

[NFC]

Guys, I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate your comments and suggestions. I am talking all of them to heart. I want to address all of your points individually and post some pictures of my case and system when get home from business, in a couple weeks.

Please keep the comments, suggesitions and opinions coming!