Thinkpads Forum

Hi,
I just bought a X61s with Vista. Thinking that I could take advantage of ReadyBoost, I also bought a 8GB ExpressCard SSD from Lexar. The problem is that the card doesn't fit into the slot. The slot is almost twice as wide as the express card, and I don't know what type of adaptor if there is any to make this work.

Anyone with suggestion?

There are two ExpressCard card types: ExpressCard/34 and ExpressCard/54. The numbers refer to the card width in mm. If a notebook has a wider slot, it accepts both types. A short slot would only accept the 34mm cards.

Since the X61s has a wide slot, you don't need any adapter. Just align it to the left side of the slot and plug it in.

Check the Wikipedia entry on ExpressCards, there are pictures of both types:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard

Here's what Wikipedia says about the card sizes (relevant part emphasized by me):

ExpressCard supports two form factors, ExpressCard/34 (34 mm wide) and ExpressCard/54 (54 mm wide, in an L-shape) — the connector is the same on both (width 34 mm). Standard cards are 75 mm long (10.6 mm shorter than CardBus) and 5 mm thick, but may be thicker on sections that extend outside the standard form — for antennas, sockets, etc. The 34 mm form factor cards fit into both 34 mm and 54 mm card slots via a diagonal guide in the rear of the 54 mm slot that guides the card to the connector. The 54 mm card will fit in only a 54 mm slot.

Thanks, but i don't think my X61s came with an express card slot although the description says it does. The expresscard ssd from Lexar would not fit into the slot.

Looking at the specs for at least one X61s, it has: "One Type I or one Type II, CardBus Plus (34mm ExpressCard via adapter), door". That is probably what you have. If so, I believe you need to get the ExpressCard adapter to use your SSD card.

EDIT: BTW, you posted this in the wrong forum. I am moving it.

AFAIK, the ExpressCard slot on the X6x is not a "complete" ExpressCard slot in the sense that it needs an adapter, and only USB connection is supported.

Search this forum and you can find several threads discussing this before.

Sorry folks, but the slot is a standard PC Card (used to be called PCMCIA) and can only do USB connection to ExpressCards with a PCMCIA adapter. Have you considered an 8-16gb SDHC card for the memory card slot just below the PC Card slot?

what is the best way to use that express card?? i was actually considering in buying one of those things..

I would recommand SanDisk 8GB Extrem III SD card over the express card.

Extreme Speed at up to 30MB/sec read/write (200X)

http://www.buy.com/prod/sandisk-8gb-ext ... 30856.html