slot load superdrive?

[macagain]

Anyone care to speculate if and when there'll be a slot load superdrive?

I'm quite ticked off that after waiting a month for a TiBook 550, and having it for only a month, I'm faced w/ shelling out 300 bucks to upgrade to a combo. I have a nasty feeling that a month after I do that, it'll be another 300 to upgrade to a superdrive...

 

[Falleron]

I am pretty sure that you wont see the superdrive in a powerbook for a while yet. Look at the trouble they had finding a Combo drive into the powerbook shell. However, I reckon that the powerbook is due for a speedbump at the next expo, if you can wait, why not. Maybe you will see one then.

Your guess is as good as mine.

 

[kiwi_the_iwik]

Do you really think that there'll BE a slot-loading Superdrive? I'm a bit doubtful, considering that even the new iMacs have TRAY-loading Superdrives. Therefore, the mechanism must be quite large.

I've been dying to get a Superdrive for my Cube, but have the problem of internal chassis space. I suppose the only real option would be just to get a firewire version, and park it on the desk. Not so bad, really, when you think about it...

Does anyone know whether the Nvidia card in the iMac is upgradeable, or is it STUCK on the motherboard? Although the iMac only has a 15" screen, I'm surprised they didn't opt for a 4X AGP slot to future-proof it that bit longer.

I'm still miffed Apple didn't ressurrect the Cube...

 

[agreenster]

They did, sort of

Dont you think the iMac is kinda like the resurrection of the cube? I think so. The only thing different (other than design, of course) is that it is more affordable, and includes the lcd monitor. 17 inch would have been better, but you probably would have only gained an inch (viewable), and it probably would have added to the top-heaviness of the machine.

The more I look at it though, the better it looks. Im just still waiting for the G5.

 

[dolstein]

Slot loading superdive on TiBook

I think we're still at least a year a way from seeing a superdrive in TiBook. As far as I know, nobody has developed a slot-loading DVD-R/CD-R/W drive. It will probably happen eventually, just like we eventually got a slot-loading combo drive. But I suspect that a slot-loadig superdive would be very expensive and probably wouldn't perform as well as a tray loading device.

I think we'll see an improved graphics chip and a 1 gHz+ G4 chip in the TiBook before we'll see a built-in superdive.

 

[Falleron]

Re: Slot loading superdive on TiBook

The superdrive is a little slow compared to the combo drive isn't it?

 

[blackdog]

First, one of the reasons the drive in the iMac is tray-load is that there are many odd-sized novelty discs (small or weirdly-shaped) that can't be accepted by a slot-load device. While slightly less elegant, the iMac is therefore more versatile.
Second, as far as monitor screen size is concerned (correct me if I am wrong) the flat panel size *is* the viewable size. The non-viewable portion of a CRT was related to tube geometry, and that is no longer an issue on the flat panels.
Third, the 15 inch display seems to be the industry-accepted minimum standard at this time (largely related to price). As prices come down, there will be a migration to larger displays, and I suspect we'll see choices in the iMac line in a year or so. In the meantime, the greatest fault with the iMac concept is the inability to add a second display (aside from mirroring, which isn't all that useful).

 

[Falleron]

Yes, the 15" LCD imac is viewable so its equivalent to a 17" CRT monitor.

 

[GigaWire]

There's bound to be some goos minaturization tech to come from the iMac and help with the powerbook/iBook. As far as the slot vs tray on the iMac, a slot would have looked like a wound or small gash, so i'll bet that is why they went tray. as for superdrive on TiBook, how practical is that? Moreover, how necessary? Presumably anyone with a Ti has a tower and can burn dvds there. So that looks to be a while off yet.

 

[kiwi_the_iwik]

I was checking out the Cube-Zone website (www.cube-zone.com), and it has an interesting comparison between the new iMac and the Cube. As far as I'm concerned, the Cube still wins, thru it's expandability.

i.e. - bigger monitor, 1.5 Gb Ram, graphics card upgrade, dual-processor upgrade, etc, etc....

I'm also surprised to find after studying the internal layout of the new iMac (see "inside-out") that it's a bugger to get to the second memory expansion port (something about putting thermal paste on some of the joins to stop it from overheating during reassembly caught my eye!), deep inside the chassis.

I've decided to go for the external drive upgrade, anyway. I know that the burn times for these Superdrives aren't THAT super after all...