Thinkpads Forum

I'll soon be doing some rennovations to my trusty T60 (more on that later).

One of the items on my list is an SSD, displacing the current HDD to the Ultrabay.

I've narrowed down the brand to a few choices after reading up here. One detail remains fuzzy. Do I really need the "retail kit" or "notebook upgrade" versions, or can I save a few bucks and go OEM/brown box? Will the 7mm (0.28") drives require an adapter bracket to fit properly?

BK

Buy the cheapest version, then re-use your hard drive's caddy/rails/screws.
No adapter req'd.

Sometimes the warranty is better on the retail box. That might be worth consideration.

If the price differential is not too great, I'd pay a bit more for the security of the boxed version. Not only will you have better warranty protection, but some manufacturers don't support firmware upgrades for OEM SSDs. Samsung is one that does not, and unfortunately Samsung drives are generally the OEM drives offered for sale on eBay. SSD technology is fairly mature now so this might not be too big of a deal for you, but it is a minor consideration at least.