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Internal blu-ray drive

T

tecknical

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 23, 2008
239
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Theoretically speaking, is it possible to install a blu-ray drive in place of the superdrive we get now?
im asking because im looking to swap my display with a hi-res 17" one, and i saw this slim internal blu-ray drive on newegg, and it looks like it could fit.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118027

question is, software wise, would there need to be a lot of hacking done to make this work with os x or is it impossible to make them love eachother
 
Is this an older mbp? I wonder if it would fit in the unibody... Maybe you could take off the black front and mod it to fit where the unibody superdrive slot is. I don't think there is any os x software to run bluray yet but as ^^^ said you could probably use it in windows and maybe it will work when apple eventually supports bluray (or software becomes available). The only issue that comes to mind right away is driver support. You wouldn't want to lose the dvd and cd support. But if you can get os x drivers for this than it would be an interesting idea (might do it myself after I get my unibody mbp).
 
Also... that's not a 9mm drive, so it would probably only fit in the 17", except we know nothing about the internals of the 17" unibody and I don't know anything about the internals of the 15" unibody except that it'd probably not fit, as 12mm drives don't fit in the 15" old-style.
 
Good find on that drive. If there is enough room in the unibody this would be a really sick idea. I'm going to keep my eye on this for sure. When I heard the didn't give the 17 bluray as BTO I was kinda ticked. Every other laptop has it and bluray is growing fast now that hddvd is dead.
 
Well my theory is this:

There is a superdrive in the 15 inch unibody.

It must be some sort of standard size as matsushita makes it.

Might there not be a blu ray drive that is the same size?
 
zorahk said:
Well my theory is this:

There is a superdrive in the 15 inch unibody.

It must be some sort of standard size as matsushita makes it.

Might there not be a blu ray drive that is the same size?
Click to expand...

Yes...

The drives in the MacBook and 15" MacBook Pro are 9.5mm. These two models do not support 12mm drives.

The drive in the 17" MacBook Pro is a 12mm, and I don't know if it supports 9.5mm drives.
 
Tallest Skil said:
Yes...

The drives in the MacBook and 15" MacBook Pro are 9.5mm. These two models do not support 12mm drives.

The drive in the 17" MacBook Pro is a 12mm, and I don't know if it supports 9.5mm drives.
Click to expand...

I have a 12.5mm HDD in my Unibody MacBook Pro, so there is a good chance that a 12.5mm optical would fit.
 
tecknical said:
Theoretically speaking, is it possible to install a blu-ray drive in place of the superdrive we get now?
im asking because im looking to swap my display with a hi-res 17" one, and i saw this slim internal blu-ray drive on newegg, and it looks like it could fit.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118027

question is, software wise, would there need to be a lot of hacking done to make this work with os x or is it impossible to make them love eachother
Click to expand...

hey man here is a step by step instructions of how to take completely take apart the UMBP. its pretty ridiculous. it might help you out getting to the super drive altho i suggest you stop there haha.

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/First-Look/MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-Unibody/590/1
 
Vancouvercanuck said:
I know its hard but i would like to know if that is possible at all to swap this drive in the the macbook pro?
Click to expand...

well as you can see you can definitely get to the super drive and remove it. i guess whether or not a new drive would fit or that osx would accept it is something that you may have to ask apple directly or just experiment on your own.
 
12.7 will not work.

The internal DVD player inside the new Macbook Pro 17in Unibody has a 9.5mm slim slot loading drive. The new MacBooks are extremely thin. Here is the model pasted from my new MacBook. MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-868
Panasonic makes Matshita drives and customizes them internally and externally to work for mac. Within a year drives should be available so I'd wait and by then Apple should have better software which allow you to run BR-Media. The drive you posted will not work because it has a button, there is no way to access the button if it the drive is completely enclosed inside the macbook. I soon hope that they release a 2.5" 1TB SATA internal HD!!!!
 
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