Move the iMac's optical drive?

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Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Since the G5 iMac came out I've thought they should move the optical drive to the iMac's foot. Doing so would do several things.



1. It would allow faster drives to be put in and could allow easier upgrades. Jobs said himself that vertical drive slows it down. Why do that?

2. It would reduce the heat and maybe allow faster G5s without needing more fans.

3. It could allow faster/hotter video cards and give more room to make them upgradeable.



If done well the foot could still look nice even with the optical drive there. It just seems that they made a bad tradeoff. Does anybody agree or disagree?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    guarthoguartho Posts: 1,208member
    On the foot would mean we'd lose the ability to VESA mount it.
  • Reply 2 of 9
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    would also make the disassembling process MUCH more complicated, and not nearly as streamlined as it currently is.



    literally three (captive) screws, and the whole computer is accessible...
  • Reply 3 of 9
    charlesscharless Posts: 301member
    That would require a pretty long ribbon from the motherboard to the optical drive...
  • Reply 4 of 9
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    I think the ribbon would be OK, depending on where inside the machine the IDE port is. The VESA mount thing seems irrelevant for a personal computer, but I could be wrong so I'll consider it a selling point. I do think a second optical drive could go there though. Perhaps someone is going to come out with a stand that houses an external firewire box with a drive bay or two, some ports and good styling.
  • Reply 5 of 9
    synpsynp Posts: 248member
    I can see some advantages and some disadvantages:



    Disadvantages:

    It makes the foot bulkier.

    It makes sense to put the keyboard right in front of the foot. If you put the optical in the foot you'd have to move the keyboard every time you want to insert a CD, unless you make the foot even more bulky.



    Advantage: taking the CD out of the pizzabox may allow better ventilation for the rest of the components, allowing for either quieter operation or more powerful CPU / brighter screen.
  • Reply 6 of 9
    rolandgrolandg Posts: 632member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by synp

    If you put the optical in the foot you'd have to move the keyboard every time you want to insert a CD, unless you make the foot even more bulky.



    Not necessarily: The CD/DVD could eject to the side (like it does on the iBooks).



    Losing the optical drive when mounted to a VESA-compatible stand does not necessarily have to be a bad thing: VESA mounts are common in large office environments where admins (have to) try to restrict most means of getting data on and off the computers (USB-sticks, optical etc.). Data is centrally stored.



    It would make the foot half an inch thicker, but the I/O-ports could be mounted on the opposite side which would increase accessability.



    Easy access to the innards could be maintained when using a special connector that sits right inside the arm so connecting and disconnecting is done by removing the crews and pulling the back off.
  • Reply 7 of 9
    mystmyst Posts: 112member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by RolandG

    Not necessarily: The CD/DVD could eject to the side (like it does on the iBooks).



    Losing the optical drive when mounted to a VESA-compatible stand does not necessarily have to be a bad thing: VESA mounts are common in large office environments where admins (have to) try to restrict most means of getting data on and off the computers (USB-sticks, optical etc.). Data is centrally stored.



    It would make the foot half an inch thicker, but the I/O-ports could be mounted on the opposite side which would increase accessability.



    Easy access to the innards could be maintained when using a special connector that sits right inside the arm so connecting and disconnecting is done by removing the crews and pulling the back off.



    This really is pointless, if it is going to load from the side, why not the side of the computer in a position where you don't have to bend out of shame to put in a CD? It's fine how it is there's no reason to mess around with "Where did the computer go." If they did what you guys want it would be a thinner version of a 3 year old ugly IBM I once saw.
  • Reply 8 of 9
    slugheadslughead Posts: 1,169member
    I think it'd be incredibly clever for them to integrate the superdrive into the keyboard on the right side. Just lift up the number pad and put more buttons to the right of that (like brightness/contrast/power button).



    Make it firewire-powered and have 2 cables coming off the keyboard, Apple could figure that part out.



    Maybe if they did that, they could put a better video card in there and put real speakers in it
  • Reply 9 of 9
    mystmyst Posts: 112member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by slughead

    I think it'd be incredibly clever for them to integrate the superdrive into the keyboard on the right side. Just lift up the number pad and put more buttons to the right of that (like brightness/contrast/power button).



    Make it firewire-powered and have 2 cables coming off the keyboard, Apple could figure that part out.



    Maybe if they did that, they could put a better video card in there and put real speakers in it



    The internal speakers are fine. As for the video card, it's a matter of depth not the length or width. The idea of the CD drive in the keyboard would be ridiculous if it was requiring you to lift up the number pad. If anything it would have to be a side slot loader. The main problem besides insanity, is the fact many people like to move around with the keyboard and I don't know well CD drives take lots of movement these days.



    Perhaps the product you're looking for is the PowerBook G5s...whenever they come out...
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