Thinkpads Forum

Hi, it seems that the T60 are shipping with different DVD-Burners. Some with GSA-4083N from LGand some with UJ-842 from Panasonic.

The Panasonic is a bit slower when you compare the tech. informations(what wonders me since the part Number for the Panasonic claims it shoult be able to write 8x DVD-R/+R instead of 6x).

Can someone report who knows both drives which is the better one? Maybe the LG is faster but reads DVD's not as accurate as the Pana or is louder etc.

As far as I know, the LG is superior in everything. Panasonic drives are said to be picky on certain media types, they don't offer firmware updates, they are more tricky to set to work with multiple DVD regions, and subjective write quality tests conducted by some claim that it's so-so on them.

I know from a user in germany that his LG drive wasn't that good. It has problems reading some CD's and DVD's.
But maybe his drive had a failure.

I wonder if it would be possible to change the Pana because the specs told that it has to write 8x but only does 6x.
Maybe I will call Lenovo/IBM about that. But only if I am sure the LG is the overall better drive.
It would be great if some LG users can report about this drive.

Can no one report from their LG Drive?

mine works just fine. it reads the dvds (retail) and burned dvds just fine. pretty fast too.

I have the UJ-842 and havnt had any issues with media on mine. It is quieter than most i have owned.

Has someone compared the UJ-842 and the GSA-4083N?

You know what you need? You need to stop worrying. Mostly either one is going to be fine. If not, you have a 3-year warranty on them (assuming you get 'em with the laptop and not separately, otherwise it's 1-year).

dr_st wrote:You know what you need? You need to stop worrying. Mostly either one is going to be fine. If not, you have a 3-year warranty on them (assuming you get 'em with the laptop and not separately, otherwise it's 1-year).

I agree, well said.

As a long time ThinkPad user I can assure that the IBM/Lenovo components are all first rate. I have yet to have a hardware failure in all the years I have used ThinkPads. Like any other large scale manufacturing operation, they rely on a few different vendors for their parts in each area. That does not mean that there are some good parts and some bad parts. Just different manufacturers building to a standard. So although there may be subtle differences, they all perform within the critereon.

For example: I currently have a T42, T43, Z60m, T60.

Now on this forum it seems that most people prefer the NMB or Alps keyboards to the Chicony.

Here is my experience. I have an NMB on the T42, an Alps on the T43, and Chicony on both the Z60 and T60. Is there a difference? Yes. They each have their own unique feel. I personally find the Chicony a very nice keyboard am glad that both the T & Z have the same keyboards.

Compared to other brands I have tried from time to time (Sony, Toshiba, Dell, Acer) they are so sub standard compared to a ThinkPad that it's not even close.

I too can be very picky/obsessed when focusing on a particular issue, but taking 10 paces back and looking at the big picture, ThinkPad is always the computer of choice.

My computer is mission critical to my business and for me there is only one computer and that is a ThinkPad.