Ok so I know how to install them, I just have one question. I am going to school at Johns Hopkins for Network engineering/secirity and my instructor mentioned that you had to always install the cd drive over the hard drive for reasons unknown. He said that he had read this information online somewhere but has not been able to find the link since. I hope someone can help explain this a little further. Although, I do not think I will ever be in a situation to have to do this. I am very curious! Thank you in advance!

Hi and welcome

I guess that would be because pretty much every standard ATX case out there has the optical drive spaces physically located above the hard drive spaces.

If this is not on the right track, it may be that the BIOS should be configured to boot from the optical drive before the hard drive. This is because if ever the computer failed to start properly, and (for example) you wanted to run a repair from your Windows CD, then the CD drive would need to be checked first, otherwise it wouldn't boot from the CD.

Does either of those sound right?

Troy

That it could be, but he was thinking that it had something to do with the magnets in the hard drive. Not really sure! But thank you for your reply!

Other than the restrictions of cage placement in the case, which is determined by the case manufacturer, there are no restrictions on placement of the optical drives. There is no physical reason that an optical drive cannot be installed beneath a hard drive unless the case doesn't provide for it. This is especially true when using SATA drives as the cables will give one more options on placement than the old IDE ribbons with dual connectors.

In my Antec 900 case, I've installed the optical drive in the bottom location...under the hard drives...without problems. With my messy desk, however, this proved impractical and I moved it back to the top. It was kinda nice having the drive tray just above the desktop, but for those who have their computers sitting on the floor, the lower position would be equally impractical.

So, in a nut shell, cases are designed around human ergonomics and habits and it's those designs that determine optical drive placement. There are no mysterious forces in or around the machine, magnetic or otherwise, that dictate drive location.