[talljak]

After being turned off of the prices of stand alone CD/DVD duplicators I have decided to build my own and share how I did it.

I purchased a CD/DVD/Bluray duplicator control unit from the US.

It allows for attaching up to 7 optical target drives 1 source drive as well as 1 hard drive for storing disc images (I did not install a hard drive in my setup)

Next I picked up a tower that had enough room for 8 5.25 drives
I used a Zalman Z7 case as it had room for 9 if you take out the HDD caddy.
I am using a Corsair 450 watt PSU

I installed the source optical drive and the controller. I put the source optical drive at the top then the controller to separate the source & target drives.
I used 7x Samsung 22x CD/DVD drives.

 

[talljak]

Installed the rest of the optical drives

I had to use 1x LP4 to SATA power power splitter as there was not enough with the PSU.

For airflow I used 120mm fans

I installed a 2nd 120 fan by the expansion slots (not pictured)
I have 1 blowing in and 1 going out.

 

[talljak]

Now for the tricky part.
How to power everything with out a motherboard.
The duplicator controller uses the same SATA power connector as the optical drives so had to trick the 24pin ATX power supply connector into thinking it was connected to a motherboard.
I did this by hooking up a 6 inch 20 to 24pin ATX power supply adapter an jumping the green ground to one of the post connections.

Doing this allowed me to cut and connect the ground and post wires with out having to cut into the PSU wires or just having a wire slid in the pin connectors. This allowed for a jumper that snapped into place. The wires are braided together and sealed with electrical tape. There are actual jumpers you can buy but this works just as well. Though does not look as nice. But who is going to see it inside the tower right.

So once I did that the power is now controlled from the on/off switch on the PSU.
I can now burn up to 6 CD or DVDs at once or later once the price drops replace the DVD burners with bluray burners.

If you have any questions please ask.

 

[QuickSilver]

How much did you spend on your build?

 

[talljak]

Duplicator controller $92
7x DVDRW $17ea
Case $70
PSU $90 (I could of gone with a lower end unit and saved 20-30 bucks)
Splitter/Jumper $20
So 390 before tax.

Prebuilt units for the same size sell for over $800 before taxes or shipping.


I did some speed tests as well
6x 700mb CDs 3:24
6x 4032mb DVDs 5:45

If any one is wondering the controller is designed to only make home made CD & DVD duplicates. It will not copy any commercial media or anything with copy protection.

 

[stampeder]

Great job talljak!

 

[jayoldschool]

7x DVDRW $17ea

I shudder to think what I paid for my first 8x CD burner many years ago.

 

[blueroomelectro]

What's it for? What do folks put on CD in bulk anymore?

 

[talljak]

For me its for duplicating photo cd or dvd. I have had many a request for 50+ photo disc copies to give to friends, family, guests of photo events.
Way quicker to make them 6 at a time vs 1 on the pc

I shudder to think what I paid for my first 8x CD burner many years ago.

I know mine was 500 for a 6x

 

[blueroomelectro]

Probably cheaper to buy a Flickr subscription.

 

[talljak]

That may work for you yes.