This looks cool, but I increasingly seldom I find myself watching physical media. I'd be more inclined to fore-go an optical drive and buy a case like this:
and just rip my physical media ahead of time. Although here in the U.S. I think it may be technically illegal to back up my DVD and Bluray collection onto a hard drive (thanks to the DMCA).
The author reused his last HTPC case. If you'd read the article, you'd know that he didn't put an optical drive in, he used the space for another hard drive.
Ah, missed that part. Personally I'd still like to have the aesthetics of a case without the 5.25" slot, though if I had a way to hide it away from view it wouldn't matter.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003DXI288/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl...
and just rip my physical media ahead of time. Although here in the U.S. I think it may be technically illegal to back up my DVD and Bluray collection onto a hard drive (thanks to the DMCA).