Save The Optical Drive
Jul. 8th, 2026 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
armainaHonestly, I feel a Kind Of Way (negative) about platforms that pride themselves on giving power back to the owners and they still can't be bothered to offer anything with an optical drive.
Services Like Frame Work and System 76 talk a big game about being able to build out your system however you like, which is mostly true, unless you want an optical drive. Worse still, their desktop cases don't even accommodate space to install it on your own. Especially for a desktop, what's even the point of getting it through them when places like microcenter and newegg (Or your local PC repair shop!!!! Support your local shops!!!!!!!!!!! ) will build the thing for you so what's their benefit really if they can't even give you space for an optical drive.
And yes, the ability to have built-in access to or means to install an optical drive I think is pretty dang important. An External Drive is something you use in a pinch, not a permanent solution. And I hate hearing 'you don't need one' excuses when I bring up this problem. Yes! I need one! I wouldn't be looking for it if I didn't! I wouldn't have gone out of my way to purchase a case with room for a drive bay if I didn't use it. I very frequently re-watch my DVDs as well as archive my music.
I'm reminded of this issue every time I watch Venture Brothers with Z. See, we don't really have space for a couch so the only way for us to watch something together and cuddle, is on the bed. But to watch it on the bed, we have to use the laptop, but to watch my DVD collection on the laptop, we need to use an external optical drive.
Out of curiosity I went looking around for laptops with optical drives. Turns out! Most stopped making laptops with optical drives back in 2019!! I had been hoping services like Frame Work and System 76 might rekindle that but it doesn't look like they even intend to go in that direction :/
And I'm sure this isn't intentional just opportunistic coincidental, that access to optical drives have scaled back as access to digital streaming services scaled up. It's really important that we keep access to physical media, but it's becoming an uphill battle to play it.
Services Like Frame Work and System 76 talk a big game about being able to build out your system however you like, which is mostly true, unless you want an optical drive. Worse still, their desktop cases don't even accommodate space to install it on your own. Especially for a desktop, what's even the point of getting it through them when places like microcenter and newegg (Or your local PC repair shop!!!! Support your local shops!!!!!!!!!!! ) will build the thing for you so what's their benefit really if they can't even give you space for an optical drive.
And yes, the ability to have built-in access to or means to install an optical drive I think is pretty dang important. An External Drive is something you use in a pinch, not a permanent solution. And I hate hearing 'you don't need one' excuses when I bring up this problem. Yes! I need one! I wouldn't be looking for it if I didn't! I wouldn't have gone out of my way to purchase a case with room for a drive bay if I didn't use it. I very frequently re-watch my DVDs as well as archive my music.
I'm reminded of this issue every time I watch Venture Brothers with Z. See, we don't really have space for a couch so the only way for us to watch something together and cuddle, is on the bed. But to watch it on the bed, we have to use the laptop, but to watch my DVD collection on the laptop, we need to use an external optical drive.
Out of curiosity I went looking around for laptops with optical drives. Turns out! Most stopped making laptops with optical drives back in 2019!! I had been hoping services like Frame Work and System 76 might rekindle that but it doesn't look like they even intend to go in that direction :/
And I'm sure this isn't intentional just opportunistic coincidental, that access to optical drives have scaled back as access to digital streaming services scaled up. It's really important that we keep access to physical media, but it's becoming an uphill battle to play it.
no subject
Date: 2026-07-08 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-07-08 08:25 pm (UTC)I've been trying to find one that was made around that time, because I'm just so tired of having a laptop I can't watch movies on easily.
no subject
Date: 2026-07-08 10:40 pm (UTC)OMG, my bestie bought a Blu-ray for us to watch because the musical we wanted wasn't available on DVD. So we had to buy a Blu-ray drive because neither of us had one… and then we had to pay for a program that could play Blu-rays on my computer or the program logo would jump around the movie the whole time!