Replaceable dvd drive in MBP?

[Jig]

Anyone have any idea of the dimensions of the slim dvd drive in the MBP? I've heard it is thinner than in previous versions. Are they a standard size?

Having just replaced my hard drive in my 12" Powerbook, I noticed that it looked fairly easy to change the dvd drive too.

The reason I ask is that the new MBP, unlike my current PB, appears to have a Panasonic dvd drive that won't do multi-region - not something I want at all! Ideally I'd like the replace it with a non-panasonic drive. I don't care if it writes dvds or not. Anyone know about laptop dvd drive sizes?

[Faraday]

You can theoretically change the DVD drive in your Macbook Pro. Based on the pictures in the service manual, it looks like a similar job to changing the optical drive in an Al Powerbook.

BUT - At the moment, there is no other optical drive available which will fit inside the Macbook Pro. The Macbook Pro uses a 9mm thick DVD drive. Normal laptop DVD drives are 12.5mm thick. Eventually, when/if other manufacturers release 9mm thick optical drives, you can replace the unit in a Macbook Pro.

[robbieduncan]

Faraday is almost correct. According to the MBP service manual (a link was posted in these forums a few days back, I'm sure a search will return it) the previous PowerBook used a 12.7mm thick drive, the new ones are 9.5mm thick.

It doesn't seem to list the other dimensions.

[Jig]

Thanks for the info - is as I feared. Hopefully someone else will produce thinner drives in the future.

Even more importantly, I hope Apple don't put a panasonic drive in the new Mac Mini. It's annoying not being able to play multiregion dvds on my new laptop, but on what I was hoping would be a media center pc, it would be a deal breaker.