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Poll: Would you buy a case without 5.25" (optical drive) bays?

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Would you buy a case without 5.25" bays?

  • Yes.

  • No.

Results are only viewable after voting.
I wouldn't buy a case without one, but I'm greatly perturbed that I can't remove unwanted 5.25" bays like I can a lot of 3.5". I only need 1! I'd prefer the room and it's a proper place for a 120mm intake... sigh.
 
I think we're still years away from widespread adoption of download-only software packages. In many cases, I think people would prefer to just go to the store and buy the DVD retail package, even if that ends up taking more time. At 1MB/s (a reasonably quick broadband connection), it takes almost three hours to download a major game release. Too long in my book for the average person. I do it, but while I'm waiting I curse the fact that I didn't buy the DVD. J/K...kind of. I just upgraded to 16Mbps cable because I got tired of 7Mbps DSL speeds.

Although that makes me curious - anyone seen statistics lately on the percentage of games that are purchased digitally versus on physical media?

By the way, I wouldn't buy a new case with more that two 5.25" bays, as my other gripe besides the convenience of downloading big games is overly-large computer cases. That's why this will be the next case I buy: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4533/silverstone-temjin-tj08-fat-case-in-a-little-coat
 
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My Antec Armor case is blanks from top to bottom. On the rare case I need a optical drive I plug in my USB one. The USB one has lasted years, prior to that my drives tended to die due to lack of use and filling up with dirt. Last CD I burned was Ubuntu for a laptop that wouldn't boot to USB for some reason.
 
Hell yes I would buy a case without 5.25" bays, too many cases are being limited by the obligation to have 5.25" drive bays incorporated into their design.

1. Windows (or any OS) installs so much faster from any decent USB thumb drive

2. most software these days can be downloaded and installed direct from the internet with ultimately far less hassle than having to manage what will eventually become physical clutter. Major game titles are also often preloadable allowing users to play immediately upon release without having to go to the store and wait in line.

3. even if you still need a ROM drive, USB drives are more than acceptable in my experience, there are even external enclosures to convert internal 5.25" ROM drives if you find the native USB versions to be too slow (as they're typically designed more to be slim and compact than for blistering speed). Heck, I'd even argue that external ROM drives are preferable as they allow you to tuck away your case and save desk/work space.


Really, the only things I even consider for the 5.25" bays are external panels such as fan controllers (which I feel are mostly fluff anyway and haven't used them in years) or mostly for 3.5" drive expansions for more HDDs

Without the obligation of adding 5.25" bays, cases could be more compact, have much better internal expansion options for things like water cooling, larger expansion cards, more room for HDDs, better airflow, etc...
 
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I voted yes, because I already own many notebooks/netbooks without optical drives and I even have a mini ITX M-350 case that doesn't have an optical drive. Oh yeah, also a nettop sans optical drive.

A counterpoint to this is that I would actually like something in-between. Give me a very compact case with only a single 5-1/4" external drive bay, a couple 2.5" internal bays and a couple 3.5" internal bays. That's five bays, two of them tiny. The typical higher end desktop motherboard chipset supports six SATA ports. For the sixth port, eSATA. Done!
 
I voted no, because on the last motherboard I bought I didn't check if it had PATA and I have no SATA opticals and it's frickin annoying.

But if it was for a system that wouldn't require any optical media ever then it would be fine
 
If I wasn't water cooling, 5.25" bays are irrelevant to me. I rarely use a DVD drive, and when I do I just hook it up with an external adapter.
 
I voted yes. It's what my external DVD burner is for.

I also want to see a case with the 5.25" bays replaced with 3.5" ones. That should make a nice super NAS enclosure.
 
sure, not all my builds need 5.25 and/or 3.5" drives. I'm looking for a new NAS box and I would LOVE one that had ZERO external bays.
 
While I don't enjoy the 5.25" bays I did find a use for the 3x5.25" bays on my server's Sonata 3;

cfp51-v2.jpg
 
Still use my CD/DVD drive at least once a week. My HAF922 has 5 bays, 3 of which are in use (optical drive, card reader, fan controller.) I don't really see any reason to have more than 3 in a mid-tower or smaller case, just doesn't make sense. I put duct tape over the other 2 in an attempt to close the case up (positive case pressure) and keep dust out... yea, I know... good luck with that.
 
I would definitely buy a miniITX case without 5.25" like the Lian Li PC-Q25b. Space for PCIe cards and 5+ HDDs is all I need for my workstation. It doesn't need to be a full size ATX (though, they do have their place) for day-to-day stuff.

Plus, I have a USB optical drive if I need to install anything.
 
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