Question Mystery media slot, any idea what this could be for?

[InOuter_]

I bought an unbranded mini-ITX case off ebay for a retro build I'm doing. I'm not sure how old it is, but since it's mini-ITX, no older than 2001. The case has a very diskette-looking slot on the front bezel, but it's way too small for a 3.5" floppy and there's no space for an eject button. The whole slot is 55.5mm wide and 2mm tall and the center of it is 22mm wide by 3mm tall.

You can see in the second image that whatever it is doesn't have a drive bay, but the chassis does have an internal opening for a tiny drive (58mm by 7mm). With a motherboard and hard drive installed, the drive could measure no larger than 70mm wide by 25mm tall by 90mm deep.

I've never seen anything like it. Google and ChatGPT were dead ends. Is this a real drive slot, or was it just decorative?

 

[Lutfij]

My guess is that it's a mini optical drive slot, if you have an optical drive, you'll see there's a small indentation on a 5.25" optical drive's tray which handles a mini disc.

Back in 2001 mini itx wasn't popular, which makes me wonder if the cased is in fact from 2001 or if the board will drop in without any issues. One other thing people tend to learn late is that the primary issue with mini itx cases is heat management.

 

[InOuter_]

It can only be as old as 2001, probably newer. The board went in with no problems, all the screw posts are correct. And the CPU has a TDP of 4W, I think it'll be okay.

 

[InOuter_]

Also, I just looked it up. The smallest round minis CDs made were 60mm, 5.5mm too large for the bezel slot. It can't be an optical drive.

 

[Ralston18]

Perhaps a SD memory card slot.

Only the middle (wider) part is used.

Just a generic coverplate should a SD Memory card reader be installed.,

 

[XboXScott]

Looks like an Express Card slot. No ejection button is needed as you just removed the card that hung out of the slot a little ways. It provided a way to get an extra expansion slot for small format computers and mostly laptops.