That thur iMac which now bares the twin G3 logos is in for more... if this is possible.
I've never seen documented anywhere whether or not the HD IDE bus in a trayloading imac only supports one device. If it supports two, would it not be feasible to install a standard trayloading CDRW drive in one?(I'm assuming the front lower case would need some modding for this...)
I can tell you that the IDE bus that the HD for this peticular iMac rests on can support two drives. For a few years, I had an IDE cable sticking out the front of mine, right under the iMac logo. When I wanted to burn a CD, I broke out my 4x IDE CD burner in a SCSI case, attached it, fired up Toast, and burned what I wanted.
I've also read that several other members have done the same or similar, but I did it before I read that someone had done it first.
The nice part about my approach was I didn't have to hack up the iMac (lol, still can't believe I was worried about that) and when I wasn't using it, the only difference was the cable, which hid under the keyboard.
I would suggest that the CD-ROMs in these things are basically slim laptop models, and that a burnin' laptop drive might be used to achieve the same effect internally. I considered that too, but I ended up using what I had lying around at the time.
Let me know if I can offer any additional information.
-- Macinjosh
I'm thinking of finding a way to mount such a drive internally... and come up with an eMac-style spring mechanism for the standard CD drive door so it flips open when the tray is ejected.
This is gonna need a lot more research but it would make for one funky trayloader!
I have worked on more rev/A-D iMacs then I can count, I have a FlexATX conversion as well (in my profile). Finding space is going to be extremely hard. The other problem is heat. These machines dont run cool, adding another HD isnt going to help the already fragile analog board.