Thinkpads Forum

I originally wanted WWAN, Wireless N, Bluetooth, and Wireless USB. But I realized that I could either have BT or WUSB, but not both because they share an LED indicator on the screen.

However, I don't like unused slots. I noticed that the new generation (post 2008) Intel Turbo Memory cards come in a half size mini PCIe. One of these would fit in the empty slot reserved for the Wireless USB card. Is there any reason why this wouldn't work? Or is the Bluetooth module in the LCD physically 'wired' to that slot, thus restricting you from using one or the other?

They come in either 2GB or 4GB configurations. For those of you that have laptops that came with turbo memory, these are the new 'Robson' cards and are 2x faster than the old ones. You can also copy commonly used programs and files to the memory for faster load times.

a little of your topic, but how would you "copy commonly used programs and files to the memory for faster load times". My computer has the turbo memory and wouldn't mind upgrading this part.

The 2GB and 4GB Turbo Memory modules support something called 'User Pinning'. With the Intel utility, you can select files to be copied to the memory. A lot of people put Windows boot files, MS Office, Photoshop, and stuff on there. From what I read, the original Turbo Memory cards were more like an integrated thumb drive... not that fast and sometimes slower than the hard drive. The new Turbo Memory cards have a different controller on them, and are faster, more like a small solid state drive. These are the one's that you can buy with the newer T400 and T500 laptops.

From the Intel website:

"The new user pinning capability feature, via the Intel® Turbo Memory Dashboard, allows the user to choose and control which applications or files are loaded into the Intel® Turbo Memory cache for performance acceleration. Custom pinning profiles can be created to pin applications or files that match the user's activity, such as PC gaming, office work, or home tasks"

"Intel® Turbo Memory Technology Cards
Designed for easy integration into systems, the PCIe* full-minicard and
half-mini interface card are available in 2 GB and 4 GB capacities. The
PCIe card features: one Intel® Flash Cache Logic chip, two Intel® NAND
Flash memory chips in parallel, and supports Microsoft Windows Vista*
ReadyDrive* and ReadyBoost* technologies for the 2 GB card. The
2 GB card, with a one-time OEM configurable option, can substitute
ReadyBoost for “User Pinning”; while, the 4 GB card supports
ReadyDrive and User Pinning only."

Hm... the new ones *do* sound like an improvement. I wonder if there'll be a Linux driver for them some time soon -- if so, I'll get one.

Will the newer cards work on a T61?
I am toying with the idea of installing TB and/or a highspeed CF card (through PCMCIA CF reader)

Why not just put the turbo money towards an SSD drive and have sumpin' really fast that'll work
for a lot more data than turbo?

1. Because I like experimenting and I am waiting/hoping for SSD 2.gen prices to drop when 3.gen hits the market.
2. Because the parts are dirt cheap (pcmcia-> CF = 5$, ITM= 10-20$) and I have a few highspeed CF's lying around from my DSLR