Optical drives were once so common that virtually every computer came with one, or even two. Now this storage solution is quickly becoming obsolete — it's increasingly rare to find a mainstream ...

It's the early 2000s, and you're tired of listening to random songs on the radio while driving. The iPod was just invented, MP3 players are still in their infancy, and cars don't support auxiliary ...

These days, very few of us use optical media on the regular. If we do, it’s generally with a slot-loading console or car stereo, or an old-school tray-loader in a desktop or laptop. This has been the ...

A lot of people these days are streaming movies and watching content online via the internet. Even the process of installing popular apps has changed to involve downloads rather than box-based CDs.

One truism about computer hardware is that, once purchased, it immediately starts falling behind the leading edge of the technology curve. Consider the Dual-2.0GHz Power Mac G5 I purchased in ...

Das_POD's DIY CD player kit lets builders fit a used CD-ROM drive into a laser-cut aluminum case, turning salvaged hardware ...

One of the most interesting parts of the recent Apple Mac Mini and MacBook Air refresh is that Apple is moving away from optical drives. Apple isn't the only company to do so, raising the question "Is ...

Not entirely certain this is the appropriate forum, but I'm looking for a good/reasonable quality enclosure to repurpose one of the optical drives (CD/DVD RW) I saved from previous laptops. A quick ...

The FIC Condor is a great small-formfactor case, no doubt about it. Only problem is that I've killed several optical drives by installing and trying to operate them in the vertical slot that is the ...