I've been searching through my favourite hardware suppliers for an hour now, but I can't find anyone that does a slot loading SATA dvd drive! It doesn't even have to be a recorder of any kind, just SATA and slot loading. Its going to be going in a custom case, one of my mod projects, so it doesn't HAVE to be a normal PC unit; I could use one of these slot loaders. But the project defines only the need for a reader, and these three are almost double the cost of a normal PC unit of similar spec. Please help!
Have you looked at IDE to SATA converters? I'm fairly certian they work with standard IDE optical drives. link Or the type that fit flush with the drive link
Seeing as a CD drive is ATAPI, I would assume so... As for a SATA slot-loader, I'm afraid I've never heard of one. The only 5 1/4" slot loader that I know of that's been produced since SATA was introduced is by Plextor, and I've never heard of a SATA variant. Look into converters, or find a way to fit a ribbon cable. Those look to be your only options, I'm afraid.
I've heard mixed reviews of those adaptors. For a toaster/reader I guess it won't matter too much if I lose a couple MB/s really but its not ideal! Guess I'll have to try and make sure it doesn't cause buffering when reading DVD films
