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Hi, I was just wondering if there are relevant disadvantages of e.g. 9,5 mm thin slim drives over 5,25" wide internal drives?

Or just to make it more specific. In the Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2023 viewtopic.php?t=19634 are several drives which perform basically the same but have a different form factor.

"BDR-UD04 Slim 9.5mm tray load slim sata Rip speed 4x BD 66 ~1 Hour BD 100 ~1 hour 35mins"
vs
"BDR-S12UHT Internal 5.25 sata Rip speed 4x BD 66 ~1 Hour BD 100 ~1 hour 35mins"

The BDR-UD04 is obvously very small and flimsy and the BDR-S12UHT is a bulky tank. But what does that mean? Will the BDR-UD04 die early? Are slim drives much louder (pretty sure they are due to less material)? Is the BDR-S12UHT better just because it's bigger and better insulated? Or is this all just indifferent and the 5,25" drives are just 80% more volume for nothing?

Serious question here.
I am asking for reliability and longevity.

There is not one Pioneer drive listed with more than 4x ripping speed
So why would you prefer the big internal drives for UHD ripping when they rip in 4x speed anyways?

BDR-XD08UMB-S Slim top load USB Rip speed 4x BD 66 ~1 Hour BD 100 ~1 hour 35mins
BDR-XD07UHD Slim top load USB Rip speed 4x BD 66 ~1 Hour BD 100 ~1 hour 35mins
BDR-XD06JUHD Slim top load USB Rip speed 4x BD 66 ~1 Hour BD 100 ~1 hour 35mins
BDR-S12UHT Internal 5.25 sata Rip speed 4x BD 66 ~1 Hour BD 100 ~1 hour 35mins
BDR-XS07UHD Slim Slot load USB Rip speed 4x BD 66 ~1 Hour BD 100 ~1 hour 35mins
BDR-212UBK Internal 5.25 sata Rip speed 4x BD 66 ~1 Hour BD 100 ~1 hour 35mins
BDR-211UBK Internal 5.25 sata Rip speed 4x BD 66 ~1 Hour BD 100 ~1 hour 35mins
BDR-UD04 Slim 9.5mm tray load slim sata Rip speed 4x BD 66 ~1 Hour BD 100 ~1 hour 35mins
BDR-S13U-X Internal 5.25 sata Rip speed 4x BD 66 ~1 Hour BD 100 ~1 hour 35mins
BDR-S13UBK Internal 5.25 sata Rip speed 4x BD 66 ~1 Hour BD 100 ~1 hour 35mins

Cheers!

Pioneers are all limited to 4x for UHD.

They are far better readers regarding critical discs compared to LG / ASUS.

They last longer than LG / ASUS. These drives die early.

No data for life expectance Pioneer slim vs. full size.

After doing this for a while I've become less concerned with ripping speed and more concerned with a drive's ability to get a clean rip, especially with troublesome discs.

It is with that point of view that I've ended up with 3 different optical drives, with a 4th on the way to me right now. In my experience some drives just don't like some discs even after they've been cleaned and even if they don't have any visible scratches or imperfections. On the somewhat rare occasion that a disc doesn't work in my 'main' drive, it almost always works in one of my other drives. I think maybe twice I've had discs that had to be replaced and in both instances they were triple-layer UHDs, which are the hardest for any optical drive to read. I think there are several folks on this forum who would agree with the idea that the same disc in a different drive can often produce different results.

My Pioneer drive will often correctly read discs that my LG or ASUS drive struggle with. In my view, the high regard folks have for Pioneer drives is well deserved.

MakeMKV has an option in preferences called 'ask for single drive mode' that allows multiple instances of MakeMKV to be run at the same time with each 'locked' to a single drive. This lets you rip more than one disc at a time. This makes it relatively fast to ingest a whole stack of discs even if some of the drives are a bit slower.

Finally, all my drives are 5.25" 'internal' drives in external, powered enclosures. I prefer this form factor because the drives and enclosures are a bit heavier and less likely to slide around my desk as I insert and remove discs. Also, that each enclosure is powered by its own wall-wort power supply and NOT powered by USB means I've never subject to the power limitations of a USB port.

That is not to say that I wouldn't ever own a slim drive. I don't think that form factor is more likely to less reliable. I think there's probably a stronger correlation to brand than form factor for reliability (with Pioneer considered 'the best' currently). And USB powered drives can work fine assuming both USB-A plugs are plugged into high powered USB ports or if the drive uses USB-C.