[funkboy]

Is the iMac G5's Combo Drive/SuperDrive a laptop-sized drive? If so, couldn't it be doable to stick the laptop-sized drive in the aluminum base of the iMac G5?

If this was stuck in the base (and maybe along with the hard drive), they could be sitting horizontally instead of vertically. That means the CD/DVD drive can run faster, and maybe the hard drive, too.

So... yeah, ain't that an idea?

[Randman]

Speed isn't going to change that much, if at all, from a horizontal or vertical placement.
Heck, I've run my PB sideways plenty of times. No problems. And a pizza box would be much harder to look at since you'd need to stand up and look down at the monitor.

[tooki]

But, um, the iMac G5's aluminum foot is only 1/4" thick. You couldn't fit a drive in there, and even if you could, you wouldn't want the slot 1/8" from the surface of the desk. (Hard to fit the disc in.)

Besides, one of the big things about the iMac G5 is that with the adapter Apple supposedly started shipping a few days ago, you can remove the foot altogether and replace it with any industry-standard VESA mounting device.

tooki

[Will C]

I don't see why an optical drive should work any faster mounted horizontally? A disc takes the same power to spin it flat or vertically.
I don't thinkg that gravity has much effect on the the read head assembly movement, it is very light these days and you can arrange it so it tracks across the disc platter rather than up and down.

Or do you know for sure?....

[tooki]

In the past, many drives didn't work correctly off-axis (either perfectly horizontal or perfectly vertical). I don't know why. But that's why, at the intro of the G4 iMac, they said that a vertically-mounted SuperDrive would only write at half speed, which is why they put all the computer in the base. I guess that by now they've matured enough to work in any orientation.

tooki

[funkboy]

I do agree about the VESA mount - an outstanding example of Apple on the cutting edge of adopting standards developed elsewhere. The only problem I see is - where are the Apple-branded VESA mounts?

Once my iMac G5 can be just as easy to use and flexible as my iMac G4 desk lamp, I will seriously consider getting one.

As for the optical drive speed - 4X is what's in the iMacs right now, not 8X. Why not use the 8X SuperDrives? Because they were proven to be unreliable in a vertical orientation maybe?

[tooki]

Originally posted by funkboy:
1. I do agree about the VESA mount - an outstanding example of Apple on the cutting edge of adopting standards developed elsewhere. The only problem I see is - where are the Apple-branded VESA mounts?

2. As for the optical drive speed - 4X is what's in the iMacs right now, not 8X. Why not use the 8X SuperDrives? Because they were proven to be unreliable in a vertical orientation maybe?

1. "Cutting edge"? Hardly. More like "it's about damned time Apple adopted it". VESA mounting holes have been around since at least 1999 on almost every flat panel except Apple's, which still don't have them built-in, you need the adapter first! As for where they are, they're coming mid-December, read: mid-April.

2. Apple's always one generation behind with the drives they include. You're reading way too much into it.

tooki