Hiding an optical drive in everyday objects - suggestions welcome

I have recently (about 2 minutes ago) upgraded my iMac 27 with an SSD. As I may have mentioned, my original plan was to install that SSD in addition to the existing drives, but that turned out to be impossible for the very simple reason that there wasn't enough space behind those heatpipes afterall.

Anyway: This means that I have a slimline slotloading optical drive left over. Since I might need it, the plan is to connect it over USB. I have ordered the necessary adapter to do so, but that would leave me with an optical drive and a circuit board lying on the table, which less than ideal, so here's the question:

I'd like to hide that drive in something, and I'd like suggestions as to what. It should be something that might reasonably be found on a desktop, and slightly larger than the optical drive. The drive with the USB adapter will be roughly 150*130*12.5 mm, so anything slightly larger than that.

Best idea so far is to get an old hardcover book and cut out space in the center to hide the drive. The disc would then peak out between the pages when ejected.

I like the book idea.

You could also, depending on the kind of desk you use, mount to the bottom of the desktop slightly away from the edge and it would be hidden but you'd have easy access.

How about emptying the guts of an Apple II 5.25" floppy drive and sticking it in there? The CD would load through the original opening for the floppy drive. :)

http://members.dslextreme.com/~reade...ticalDrive.jpg

I thought about that too. Other than meaning a very long USB cable (or two really, it's going to be one of those solutions which needs a second port to draw power from), it's an interesting option.

As for the other suggestions: Great ideas, if I had those things to build it out of. Keep it coming though.

The right adaptor should allow you to run off a single port. Most external slimline drive enclosures do. You could hunt for a faulty MacBook Air superdrive on eBay and replace the internal drive with yours. Though its not very interesting.

I investigated this pretty thoroughly, and it seems that slimline DVDs generally run well off a single port while reading, but will need more power when burning. Some of the adapters will ask for more power when burning, and compatible USB hosts - like the iMac - will give it to them, but I don't know if the small adapter I have ordered will do that.

In any case, I intend to run it off a USB hub, and it's old enough that I seriously doubt that it will give more power if asked.

The book idea sounds bad from a heat standpoint. I would just make a coffee cup coaster out of a real drive enclosure.

-Allen

Seems much easier to just buy an external DVD entire - it's not like they're expensive.

I have one of these I'm not using. It's yours for the asking if you want it:
http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=416

Email me at catchmeifyouspam at yahoo dot com if you want me to send it.

If not, there's this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/VLSS9TOPTU2/

Thanks, but I ordered one already.