Which "Non-IBM" Upgrades Make Sense?

[Grumpy]

I know memory is available from after-market sources and from the forum most seem to think that avenue is a better price/performance option. But some upgrades seem to be available from IBM-only as they have a proprietary interface.

So which T-Series components make sense to replace/upgrade from possible sources other than IBM directly?

[lfeagan]

I would say memory, this is a very generic thing and there is nothing wrong with Crucial memory. The cost from them is about 1/2 that of IBMs. A less obvious one would be the Mini-PCI WiFi card. You could easily pick out one of your choosing from a place like http://www.netgate.com/ (I have bought from them before) or any of a large number of companies. Other than that, there is nothing wrong with picking up a new hard drive from Newegg. IBM really rips you on their hard drive upgrade pricing. So, maybe you would get one with the cheapest hard drive out there, then upgrade it to something more of your liking. Just remember to make the backup CDs. Other than that, not much else is coming to mind at the moment.

[skanky]

a hitachi 7200rpm hdd!

the mini pci wifi card needs to be IBM certified else you'll get a 1802 error. or you can use the no-1802 hack.

[ZPrime]

all of them?

I bought all of my components from ebay or 3rd party vendors, much cheaper than going through IBM...

[Grumpy]

Zprime,

I would guess you bought the following outside IBM:
60G 7200rpm, 1G PC3200, DVD/CDRW, IBM a/b/g, Bluetooth

So what do you think you saved? What drivers or work-arounds did you have to install? What if anything works differently than if IBM had preinstalled it?

[JHEM]

I would guess you bought the following outside IBM:
60G 7200rpm, 1G PC3200, DVD/CDRW, IBM a/b/g

I'm not Zprime, but I did buy the following outside IBM for my T40:

2X512MB RAM from Crucial.

7K60 HD from zipzoomfly.com

IBM 802.11a/b/g mini-PCI card from Bill.

24X CD-RW/DVD Combo II Ultrabay Slim optical drive from eBay.

9 cell extended-life battery from eBay.

I saved a minimum of $500! Difficult to determine exactly anymore as the prices have changed so much, but, as an example, the CD-RW/DVD drive cost me $85 at the same time IBM was selling it for $219.95!

The memory from Crucial was less than $200 total and IBM was asking more than $400 for it at the time.

No updates or work-arounds were required with any of these purchases. Everything worked right out of the box.

Regards,

James