Upgrading the optical drive, Straightforward or not?

I just recently bought a Dell Inspiron se 7720. The 17" model with the i7 3630 QM, and 8 gigs of ram plus a TB hdd. So far I have added a 240GB SSD, and ditched W8 in favor of my go to OS, W7 Ultimate and I have a 6235 advanced N wireless card on the way to replace the Centrino 2230. The laptop works awesome. Thing is, I would like it to have a BDR optical drive, as I do backups on bluray discs. Is it just a matter of swapping the drive out for an appropriate BR unit, or are there other things to consider? My "modding" experience with laptops in non-existent, I have a fair amount with desktops though. Any advice offered will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Anthony.

 

Physical installation should be a snap as long as it fits the bay and uses the appropriate connection interface (sATA). You'll just need to remove the screw(s) that secure it, slide it out, slide the new one in, and secure it.

Don't forget that for certain blu-ray media playback, you'll need the necessary codecs as well.

Take a look at this video (from 1:20 to 1:50) for a quick how-to on getting the drive out.

 

I'm not too worried about the codec's. As far as bluray movie's, that is not my primary goal. I use bdre's to back up documents and software in addition to flash media. As long as I can read from and burn to bdre's, it will suit my purposes quite nicely. Thanks!

 

You're welcome! And good luck!

 

It's straight forward but you need to use your Dell service tag and check on the dell site and find the Service manual and that should show you how to remove and replace your optical drive but don't forget to switch the face plate so they would match.

 

It is very simple. Any tray-loading (not slot-loading) 12.7mm SATA Blu-ray drive will work. It doesn't require any special drivers, but as prostar states, to playback the Blu-rays, you will need to get Total Media Theater, PowerDVD, or some other playback software that includes the codecs for Blu-ray discs.

Page 27 in this manual: ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/Common/inspiron-17r-se-7720_Owner's Manual_en-us.pdf

That tells you how to remove the old ODD and install the new one. It is only held in by one screw which is right next to HDD1 bay. You will also need to transplant the bracket from the old ODD to the new one as well (it's only held on by two screws).