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5.25" (CD/DVD/Ect) Drive Enclosure that Matches Mac-Mini Form Factor?

F

foltzie

macrumors member
Original poster
Can someone recomend a 5.25" drive enclosure that matches Mac-Mini form factor?

Ideally, I would like to pick two up, one that works and one thats broken. I have a memory card reader on my old PC that I would like to use with my new iMac, but I would need to gut out the IDE and power connectors since the memory card reader is USB compatible.
 
gkarris said:
This website has a bunch of Mac Mini stuff you can look through...

http://www.123macmini.com/accessories/guide/enclosures.html
Click to expand...

Thank you, however, none of those enclousers would actually allow me to use a 5.25 drive. I need to be able to access the front like I would for a DVD drive.

If its not possible to match the Mac Mini form, thats fine, but I thought someone might offer something in that shape to match the other Apple products.
 
Nobody makes one. And nobody ever will.

For one simple reason: The Mac Mini's 6.5 inch by 6.5 inch size makes it impossible for a 5.25" drive to fit.

I have a collection of old drives, and the smallest CD drive I could find is longer than 6.5 inches. Here are a couple pictures showing that drive next to my LaCie mini-sized hard drive. Not only is it too long, but its width is so close that there would be no room for any circuitry. It's also taller than the main drive section of the mini case. (Although someone could make a taller case and it wouldn't look TOO out of place, it would look odd to have a case that is longer than the mini.)

Sorry, but you'll have to go for something that doesn't match the mini.
 
Perhaps you could fit a laptop drive in one of those, though? Heck, they're thin enough that you could probably stick an extra 2.5" HD in there, too!
 
If it wasn't clear, I was saying simply that nobody makes a mini-sized enclosure with a 5.25" mount. You could modify one of the existing ones to fit your card reader, though, since the card reader is likely not the full length of a 5.25" optical drive. But, again, since all of the mini-sized drive enclosures I have seen are shorter than 5.25" drive, you'd have to take the faceplate and surrounds off your card reader, and dremel the slots directly into the front of the drive enclosure. (Although you'd probably be better off getting a 3.5" drive-bay card reader, and modding and cramming one of those in, it wouldn't come to the very edges of the enclosure the way a 5.25" reader would.)
 
ehurtley said:
If it wasn't clear, I was saying simply that nobody makes a mini-sized enclosure with a 5.25" mount. You could modify one of the existing ones to fit your card reader, though, since the card reader is likely not the full length of a 5.25" optical drive. But, again, since all of the mini-sized drive enclosures I have seen are shorter than 5.25" drive, you'd have to take the faceplate and surrounds off your card reader, and dremel the slots directly into the front of the drive enclosure. (Although you'd probably be better off getting a 3.5" drive-bay card reader, and modding and cramming one of those in, it wouldn't come to the very edges of the enclosure the way a 5.25" reader would.)
Click to expand...

Alas, your pics make it clear that its not feasible to a mini-life 5.25 enclosure.

The card reader I actually want to use is 3.5 (I have a 5.25 case that wraps around it for use in my current PC), but I'm not aware of a 3.5 enclosure thats open since they all assume a hard drive is in use and I didnt really want to get into dremeling.

Thank you for your help.

Does anyone recomend a specific (if not Mac matching) 5.25 case thats friendly with Macs? I will probably get two, one for the card reader and one for a DVD drive of some sort for use where region constrictions may be a problem.
 
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