For the last couple of years I have eliminated DVD drives from my builds for most of my home systems. Mostly I did this as a measure of keeping the power draw low. I haven't actually measured it, but my guess is that the drive draws a watt or two when idle.

DVD drives are cheap, and they are handy when maintaining or diagnosing systems. Admittedly, making boot USB sticks is a pain, and they don't always work because of one issue or another. So I am thinking that my approach is flawed.

Has anyone measured the idle draw of their optical drive?

Does anyone have suggestions on how the power draw of a DVD drive can be reduced, when idle, if that is possible at all?

Thanks.

Hi,
one can reduce an optical device's power draw with a udev rule.
See here and here

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