What Does 5.25" x 1/2 H Mean In Optical Drives/Burners?

[rckowal]

Can some one please clarify? Are all optical drives 5.25" x 1/2 H? Or, are there two different types - full height & 1/2 H?

Best regards, Richard

[hech54]

.....

[redwudz]

A half height drive would be similar to what's used in a laptop. 5.25" is the standard width of a PC optical drive bay. Hard drive and floppy drive bays are usually 3.5" wide. There are also 2.5" and 1.8" wide hard drives that are fairly common.

[rckowal]

A half height drive would be similar to what's used in a laptop. 5.25" is the standard width of a PC optical drive bay. Hard drive and floppy drive bays are usually 3.5" wide. There are also 2.5" and 1.8" wide hard drives that are fairly common.

Thanks, that helps but I'm still not entirely clear on this. Are the full height 5.25" optical DVD/Blu Ray drives the standard style for all desktops? Is it possible that a desktop might require a 1/2 H?

Richard

[solarfox]

Remember the big, clunky 5.25" floppy drives used on the original IBM PC, or on earlier 8-bit machines like the Apple-II and the TRS-80? That's what's meant by a "full-height" drive. In today's terms, a "full-height" drive would occupy two bays on a modern PC case; back then, that amount of vertical space was considered one drive bay.

The optical drives being sold today are all "half-height" drives; i.e. they would only occupy half of a drive bay on an original IBM PC chassis.

A laptop-style drive would be more like a quarter-height, or 1/3rd-height, if it were able to be mounted in a desktop-chassis 5.25" bay.

[rckowal]

Remember the big, clunky 5.25" floppy drives used on the original IBM PC, or on earlier 8-bit machines like the Apple-II and the TRS-80? That's what's meant by a "full-height" drive. In today's terms, a "full-height" drive would occupy two bays on a modern PC case; back then, that amount of vertical space was considered one drive bay.

The optical drives being sold today are all "half-height" drives; i.e. they would only occupy half of a drive bay on an original IBM PC chassis.

A laptop-style drive would be more like a quarter-height, or 1/3rd-height, if it were able to be mounted in a desktop-chassis 5.25" bay.

Now I'm completely clear on this. Thanks, you've really helped me a great deal.

Best regards, Richard

[jagabo]

A 5 1/4 inch half height drive is about 5 3/4" wide and 1 5/8 inch high.

[olyteddy]

A laptop-style drive would be more like a quarter-height, or 1/3rd-height, if it were able to be mounted in a desktop-chassis 5.25" bay.

Laptop drives are usually called 'slimtype'

[redwudz]

OK, I was wrong. I guess 'full type' drives were before my time. I do have a Syquest tape drive that takes up two 5.25 slots. I had to trim the support tabs to fit it.

[lordsmurf]

OK, I was wrong. I guess 'full type' drives were before my time. .

If it makes you feel any better -- guilty here, too.
It wasn't before my time, but I surely forgot that modern 5.25 slots were half height.
I had a full bay drive some zillion years ago (in PC years -- about 1980s in human years).

[TJohns]

And why 5 1/4" width? Because you can fit 3 of them horizontally in a case that would of held 2 of the older 8" drives!

And guess what!! You can fit 3 of the newest 3 1/2" drives in a case that could hold 2 5 1/4" drives!

I also have a full-height 1.4 GB SCSI drive (in the days of 400 MB IDE's) that cost me $2200 AUD

Trev