IcyDock 5.25 slim ODD, 3.5 bay mount

da na · May 2, 2022

Bought this a few days ago and thought I should post a review, as it is quite the useful adapter.

As a bit of backstory, I used a USB card reader with a 5.25 to 3.5 adapter, and had my DVD writer in the other bay. Bought a SATA hotswap dock for my 5.25 bay and sacrificed the USB card reader as I needed the optical drive more. But it's pretty inconvenient using a dongle, so I looked for solutions that didn't involve moving the DVD drive out of the case as desk space is limited, and I found this adapter from IcyDock allowing you to use a 9.5mm/laptop/slim ODD AND a 3.5 hard drive, floppy, or card reader in a single 5.25 bay. This seemed practical since I just needed the drive, how fast it was didn't matter too much (laptop optical drives are usually 1/3-1/2 the speed of full size ones). Adapter was $20 (DON'T buy it on ebay, buy it on Amazon, I bought mine on ebay and realized when it arrived the seller had just dropshipped it from Amazon and I paid $20, $5 extra, for it.) I already had this optical drive but they can be found for under $10 (get one with a bezel) on ebay.

Quite easy to install and to install devices into, instructions are good. Feel of it is alright, despite it being all plastic. My one complaint is that if you tighten the side screws in the 3.5 bay too much it squeezes the plastic part below the 3.5 bay and it sticks out a bit, so don't tighten the screws all the way down, it won't fit in your case. I would haved preferred a smooth plastic since, as you can see from the picture, its textured plastic matches nothing else on the case but that's a trivial complaint.

It also includes the adapter to adapt full SATA to laptop optical drive mini SATA, so you don't need to buy that separately. Adapter does feel a bit cheap, but come on it's like 2 amps max, shouldn't be a problem.

I'd say it's a decent adapter if you want to save a bit of space.

Kid.Lazer · May 2, 2022

Something like could be very useful for me, although not right now but rather in the future. I'm old-school and like having ODD's and card readers, but most cases don't support them anymore. My Node 804 accomplished half that task with its slot-loading drive, but I still have to dig out dongles for SD cards.

thewelshbrummie · May 8, 2022

Bought one of these a few weeks for £15.49 from UK retailer Scan (around $20 including Tax). It does the job but unlike 10-15 years ago it's basically the only choice in the sub-$20 range as no-one makes adapters like this anymore. Personally speaking the optical drive bay could be slightly lower while still leaving space for 3.5" devices but it works well enough.

As for why I bought one... I built a computer for my parents and they wanted to keep a DVD drive in the new computer. Because of that I went with the Thermaltake Versa H15 as ir has a 5.25" bay... but it's useless for a standard full-sized DVD drive, as anything longer than155mm in length hits the motherboard, and in my case the 24pin power socket of the motherboard... and every full-sized DVD drive I have or could find online is at least 165mm long.

It's a viable alternative but it's more a lesson that just because a case advertises a 5.25" external bay, it doesn't mean a standard optical drive will fit. Definitely not happy with Thermaltake for that one,