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Last thing you bought

BD-HDD.jpg
Looks boring, eh?

Well, two things are going on that made this look attractive to me:
  • My 2007 desktop tower PC isn't practical to move to Windows 11 (without a new motherboard, CPU, memory, etc.) and the Windows 10 mini-PC I have can't upgrade either. The latter is woefully underpowered for even fairly light use today, and its use of a small eMMC main drive doesn't even have room for the late updates to Windows 10, much less 11.
  • No companies are making optical drives any more. Yes, you can still buy a USB DVD or Blu-Ray drive, but that's dwindled to new old stock.
A while ago I got a higher-spec mini-PC with Windows 11 Pro. It has a larger SSD main drive and room to install one internal 2.5" HDD, which I have.

But using an external USB DVD drive has been a pain. The mini-PC gets hot enough to slow down or fail if you place anything on top and those external drives really aren't sturdy enough to set the mini-PC on top either. So the result is a mess, taking up too much desk space, and everything at awkward angles due to short cords. Those USB drives are mainly meant as occasionally-used devices for laptops.

I tried to find some sort of shelving to use, and considered designing and making something.

But even Snitz (my old desktop tower) doesn't have a Blue-Ray drive. When I found out they've gone out of production I decided to go shopping for another external drive.

Then I found this one.

Large enough and a metal case so Buzzy (my newer mini-PC) can sit on top. Bonuses:
  • On the rear panel a 2-port USB 3 hub is exposed, so extra ports. There is also an additional "fast-charging" USB port there for charging a phone or what have you.
  • On top near the back, there is a slot where you can plug in a 2.5" or 3.5" SATA I/II/III HDD. This is not only potential expansion, but it will also be useful in transferring data from Snitz when I decommission that machine.
So much neater and more robust, and extra features like being able to read and burn BD as well as DVD and CD discs. Sadly, Windows 11 stripped out the codecs and other support for even DVDs let alone BDs. So I also forked out money for CyberLink PowerDVD 24 Ultra, which offers support for nearly any formats one might need.
 
I just bought myself a gift subscription for Kindle Unlimited. Most of the time, I can find a discount coupon, but even without that, it is cheaper to pay for a year than the regular monthly payment for KU. In order to have that payment option for KU, I have to send it to myself as a gift subscription, so that is what i do each year.
 
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