SATA Optical Drive Compatibility

[Skotty]

While SATA Hard Drives have pretty much taken over in replacment of PATA, optical drives are still mostly PATA. I know awhile back at least one SATA optical drive, the MSI XA52P, would only work on Intel chipsets, and these kinds of problems are probably part of the reason why optical drives are still mostly PATA.

What the current state of SATA optical drive compatibility? Still a concern, or will a new SATA optical drive work in pretty much any SATA capable motherboard?

 

[Auric]

Was the problem really with the drive or with the chipset? It was pretty common in the olden days for add-in or otherwise third-party on-board storage controllers not to support optical drives at all. I think given a current drive model and any primary storage controller over the last few years there should not be a problem.

 

[Skotty]

I don't know if it was the chipset or the drive itself that limited what it could be used on. I just know the limitation existed. Lately I haven't seen any information on this particular topic, so I assume they all just work now, but can't be certain. I'm therefore wary of buying new SATA optical drives, even though it is what I would prefer.