DIY how to: creating a Slot-load Blu-ray and DVD burners for desktop

A cursory Google search for slot-load burners for desktops, be they Blu-ray burners or DVD burners, reveals that while a lot of people are looking for these kinds of drives for their desktops, very few of them exist in the wild — or even available in the market. We here at MacPCWiz figure that just won’t do. The desktop guy should have the same right as a portable guy (most slimline slot-load optical drives are found on laptop platforms) to have a slot-loading drive on their systems, and so MacPCWiz is here to help.

There are two-ways to do this: 1) get a complete optical drive – a fully-operational slot-loading drive that will fit into a standard 5.25″ optical drive bay, or 2) go DIY (do-it-yourself) and assemble one for yourself. Fortunately for you, we are here to help you out on both. Ain’t that cool?

A fully-functional 5.25″ slot-loading optical drive

We love DIGISTOR for their innovative data archiving and storage products. We’ve featured their external DVD burner here on the site, which incidentally is of the slot-loading type as well — check out that external DVD burner review here. If you are looking for a slot-load drive for your desktop system, very few manufacturers sell them to the market — one of those few is DIGISTOR.

Both of DIGISTOR's slot-load drives for desktops are of the same sleek design

DIGISTOR has the DIG-68100 – a slot-load Blu-ray burner, and the DIG-61040 – a slot-load DVD burner. Both drives are designed pretty much in the same way — sleek black bezel face , and should fit in any standard 5.25″ optical drive bay. They are both designed for SATA interface with your motherboard — we will talk more about non-SATA interfaces later. If you know your way around  your desktop, this should be a straightforward replacement for you, no frills, no hassle. Boom bang, you got yourself a spanky new slot-load burner.

Slot-loading mechanism for these DIGISTOR drives

The Blu-ray burner is compatible to the most popular Blu-ray media types around, and is backwards-compatible to all popular blank DVD and CD media — check this link for complete features on the Blu-ray burner. The DVD burner is compatible to all popular DVD and CD media, even DVD-RAM — check this link for complete features of the DVD burner.

Go DIY — assembling a slot-load burner by yourself

This part gets a little bit complicated, but we will show you the easiest way through it. Incidentally, the DIGISTOR website has everything you need for a DIY foray into slot-loading drives. Here’s what you need:

• A slim slot-load optical drive (Blu-ray or DVD) — maybe you have one of these lying around, maybe from an old laptop. We need to convert that slimline drive to fit a natural 5.25″ desktop optical drive bay

DIGISTOR sells these PANASONIC Slimline Blu-ray burners on their site

• A slimline-to-5.25″ conversion bezel that you can mount your slim slot-load drive on. It usually looks like this, and this one is available from DIGISTOR as well:

DIGISTOR slimline-to-5.25" conversion bezel

These are the initial parts needed. If you have a slot-load drive already, your initial outlay on this is $28.00USD — that’s how much the bezel costs via DIGISTOR. The bezel comes with mounting screws as well, so all you have to do is mount the drive and screw it into the conversion bezel. Now comes the tricky part.

For SATA motherboards

If you are using a pretty recent slimline slot-load drive, chances are it will be SATA — only it’s slimline SATA, for use on laptop and notebook platforms. (Check this link: What is Slimline SATA?) You have to convert this to standard SATA for your motherboard using adapters.

• For motherboards with available 1) SATA power and 2) SATA data cable, use this Slimline SATA adapter from DIGISTOR – $6.00USD. This converts the slimline SATA power port to a standard SATA power port. Data connection is through standard SATA data cabling (see picture below):

DIGISTOR adapter for slimline SATA power to standard SATA power

• For motherboards that have 1) standard SATA data cabling, but 2) only have 4-pin Molex connections for power, use this DIGISTOR SATA-to-Molex power adapter – $6.00USD:

DIGISTOR's Slimline SATA to Molex adapter

For IDE/PATA drives and/or motherboards

As it happens, you might have IDE/PATA issues, so we felt we should deal with those questions as well.

• If you have a 1) slimline slot-load drive that has a Slimline IDE/PATA interface but have a 2) SATA-ready motherboard, you can use this Slimline IDE-to-SATA  bridgeboard converter from DIGISTOR – $27.00USD. This can easily be mounted — it has screw holes and mounting screws — to the conversion bezel as well:

DIGISTOR Slim IDE-to-SATA conversion board

• Some older slot-load notebook drives have the 1) 50-pin IDE/PATA notebook interface — typically older slim notebook CDRW drives and DVD drives. If you have that kind of drive and are mounting it on a 2) motherboard with standard (40-pin) IDE/PATA, you need to use this DIGISTOR 50-pin to 40-pin bridgeboard — $6.00USD, again easily mount-able on the conversion bezel though mounting screws:

DIGISTOR 50-pin IDE to 40-pin IDE bridgeboard converter

• But what if you have a 1) Slimline SATA drive and want to mount it on 2) an older IDE/PATA-only motherboard? As curious and rare as this case maybe, DIGISTOR also has the solution for that, with a Slimline SATA-to-IDE conversion kit — $27.00USD, still usable with the conversion bezel mentioned earlier:

DIGISTOR Slimline SATA to IDE conversion kit

Conclusion

So if you really want a slot-load drive for your desktop, do not fret — it is actually humanly possible to have it done, contrary to what your Google search may say. We at MacPCWiz prefer tray-load burner drives ourselves — we want the convenience of having that emergency eject pinhole. But this is not to say that we don’t appreciate the modern, sleek approach of a slot load drive. Study the options, and have a blast installing your new slot-load optical drive to your desktop system!