Inexpensive Bare DVD-R drive as iMac G5 upgrade?

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tmtomh's picture
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Inexpensive Bare DVD-R drive as iMac G5 upgrade?

Dan K's iBook optical drive upgrade posts have got me thinking.

I'm wondering if I could use the following drive to upgrade my iMac G5's combo drive to a Superdrive:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=171021

It appears to be equal to or better than the drive used in Other World Computing's iMac Superdrive upgrade kit:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MG5SL8XDLK/

And the ZipZoomFly bare unit is only $87 while the OWC kit is $139.

Given that I don't need the media and software included with the OWC kit, it sounds like the ZipZoomFly deal is the one to go with - assuming of course that the drive will work in my iMac. It's a Pioneer so I know it's supported by Tiger.

I'm also assuming it will fit physically because, while my combo drive is a Matshita, the same iMac G5 casing is used for Superdrive models, and those models use Pioneer units (yes?)

So can anyone think of a reason NOT to go with the cheaper ZipZoomFly unit?

Best,
Matt

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re: Inexpensive Bare DVD-R drive as iMac G5 upgrade?

(basically just repeating my response in that other thread . . .)
All modern slim drives share the same formfactor, so it's almost certain the Pioneer drive will work perfectly in an iMac. In fact, IIRC the DVR-K05 is an OE install from Apple for the iMac (and 'Books too.) Just for confirmation, why not pop over to xlr8yourmac and see what their drive upgrade database has to say? A quick search revealed a couple of K05 -> iMac G5 successes.

However . . . the generic faceplate which comes with the new drive probably won't fit on the old iMac drive. That's not an issue if it'd be going into something like a TiBook, which doesn't use an external faceplate, but in the case of an iBook you'd be left with the drive's guts exposed. It'd work mind, but it's not a situation I'd want to have for any length of time.

I did try the Pioneer drive's generic face on the Apple/Matshita UJ-815 SuperDrive I pulled, no go. I can't say however that the Matshita combo drive has the same face mount points as I've got no Matshita combo slotloaders around the joint.

dan k

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Took the Plunge - a little work, but success!

A follow-up on this thread:

ZipZoomFly had the Pioneer DVR-K05 slot-loader in a "new, open-box" configuration for $74 shipped (as compared to $87 for the new in-box version), so I thought What the heck and ordered it.

As Dan predicted, the face plate on the stock Matshita Combo drive that shipped with my iMac G5 was not interchangeable with the face plate on the ZipZoomFly Pioneer drive.

However, I discovered that the Pioneer face plate was neither thicker nor larger than the iMac OEM face plate (in fact, it was about 1/32" to 1/16" thinner, and the same amount smaller in height and width). What this meant is that I could install the Pioneer drive with the faceplate intact - which meant no worries about disks getting screwed up because of a gap between the outer shell of the iMac and the front of the optical drive.

I did have to modify the Pioneer faceplate, though, drilling two holes and carving a large slot in it to make it match up (roughly) with guide posts inside the iMac's outer shell.

That operation took about 20 minutes with a drill and exacto knife - not difficult, just required a little patience.

Now the drive is in my iMac - I've read a data CD, ripped an audio CD, and copied a DVD-ROM disk, and all appears well!

So thanks to Dan for getting the ball rolling on this.

And if anyone is in the market for a slot-loading CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive from an iMac G5, just let me know. Smile

Best,
Matt

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re: Took the Plunge - a little work, but success!

Does the new drive show up as Master or Slave (unit 0 or 1) on whatever bus it's on? Hmm, how did the original drive show up? And more important, can you boot from the new drive?

dan k

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Good Questions!

Dan, I hadn't even thought about the two questions you've asked - thanks for raising them. Here's what I found out:

- The drive shows up as Master (Unit 0), on the ATA bus. The iMac G5's internal HD is Serial-ATA, so it's on a different bus. It shows up as Unit 0 on the SATA bus. I don't know what would happen if the HD and this optical drive were on the same bus.

- The drive is bootable. I just booted up the Tiger install DVD (using the c-key method on an Apple wireless bluetooth keyboard, at that) and it performed just like a factory-installed drive.

Best,
Matt

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Re: Good Questions! - One More Thing

Dan, I hadn't even thought about the two questions you've asked - thanks for raising them. Here's what I found out:

- The drive shows up as Master (Unit 0), on the ATA bus. The iMac G5's internal HD is Serial-ATA, so it's on a different bus. It shows up as Unit 0 on the SATA bus.

Just noticed the other part of Dan's question - what did the original drive show up as on the ATA bus?

It just so happened that I took a screen shot of the original drive in Apple System Profiler, before I swapped in the new drive. Like the new drive, the original drive showed up as Unit 0 - Master.

Best,
Matt

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