Thinkpads Forum

Currently my X220 IPS rig is:

i7 2640M
8GB DDR3
256GB Samsung Evo SSD
Intel Centrino 6205 WLAN
Windows 8.1 Pro
9-cell battery

Is there anything else that can boost up this rig? I do not see a need for upgrading to more RAM, 256GB SSD is more than enough for my needs, i don't think i would ever use WWAN module so i don't need to put that into miniPCIe slot...

What else can i install into miniPCIe slot? is there a list of existing hardware that goes into this slot?

Only things that come up to mind are Bluetooth 4.0 module (if it exists for this laptop) and some sort of docking station. I would not like anything to protrude from the chasis (using big PCMCIA cards) other than Logitech Unify reciever.

If you want you could use one of these guys to hide the logitech receiver inside.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PCIe-mPCIe ... 1c36399c9a

The traditional setup for those who don't need the WWAN is to put an mSATA SSD in the miniPCIe slot, and a large spinning drive in the main bay. This gives a lot of storage capacity, without sacrificing the performance of the OS drive. The downside is that the laptop gets heavier. But seeing as you already have an SSD in the main bay, it may not be an attractive upgrade for you.

You could find something useful for the ExpressCard slot. eSATA comes to mind (and they have eSATA cards that sit flush with the chassis), and maybe Firewire (although I haven't seen these ones come flush).

Possible docking solutions are the Mini-Dock Series 3 (regular or Plus), which will offer a good desktop setup, and a plethora of different video ports (although only 2 can be used at a time), as well as additional USB ports. The Plus model also has eSATA. The other option is the Ultrabase series 3 which has fewer ports (only VGA and DisplayPort for video, for example), but does have an Ultrabay which you can use for an optical drive, another hard drive or another battery.

This USB card looks interesting, + it frees one of my USB ports (BTW, anyone knows how to enable USB charging on X220, i turn it on in BIOS but my smatphone aint charging when the laptop is off)... will this card pass the BIOS whitelist?

mSATA SSD is not interesting for me, i really dont need additional storage in the laptop (i have an external 2TB 2,5" drive in my bag).

I have seen TV tuner cards, GPS modules, HD decoder cards (do i need this for video playback given the CPU installed) for mini PCIe... anyone used those?

Also, can i upgrade my WiFi card? what would be the next best thing after the one i currently utilize? is there maybe something more powerful, like those Alfa 1000mW cards, that can fit into the laptop?

as for the docking stations, i will look into all the options...

thanks

peraklo wrote:(BTW, anyone knows how to enable USB charging on X220, i turn it on in BIOS but my smatphone aint charging when the laptop is off)

To charge when the laptop is off, the device needs to be connected to the yellow (right) USB port, and the laptop must be plugged in.

oh, i used the yellow port, but didn't know about the "plugged-in" must... thanks

dr_st wrote:Possible docking solutions are the Mini-Dock Series 3 (regular or Plus), which will offer a good desktop setup, and a plethora of different video ports (although only 2 can be used at a time), as well as additional USB ports. The Plus model also has eSATA. The other option is the Ultrabase series 3 which has fewer ports (only VGA and DisplayPort for video, for example), but does have an Ultrabay which you can use for an optical drive, another hard drive or another battery.

Later Mini Docks Series 3 Plus had USB 3.0 in place of the eSATA.

I went for the standard version of the USB variant for the reason cited re X220 monitor support.

Another way to add Bluetooth 4.0 is to fit the Intel AC 7260 adapter - this also upgrades wifi to the newer AC standard (something else I have also successfully done - although I had to use the standard Intel drivers to get reliable support for Bluetooth).

ansible212 wrote:Later Mini Docks Series 3 Plus had USB 3.0 in place of the eSATA.

Wow, that's really silly. I had no idea. On the regular (non-Plus) Mini-dock, the USB 3.0 variant "sacrifices" one of the USB 2.0 ports for the USB 3.0. This seems a much more logical thing to do. I have no idea why they decided to get rid of the eSATA and keep a 6th USB 2.0 port on the Plus variant. It means that there is no docking solution which has both USB3 and eSATA for these machines, and it is quite unfortunate. Thanks for pointing it out, though.

ansible212 wrote:

dr_st wrote:Possible docking solutions are the Mini-Dock Series 3 (regular or Plus), which will offer a good desktop setup, and a plethora of different video ports (although only 2 can be used at a time), as well as additional USB ports. The Plus model also has eSATA. The other option is the Ultrabase series 3 which has fewer ports (only VGA and DisplayPort for video, for example), but does have an Ultrabay which you can use for an optical drive, another hard drive or another battery.

Later Mini Docks Series 3 Plus had USB 3.0 in place of the eSATA.

I went for the standard version of the USB variant for the reason cited re X220 monitor support.

Another way to add Bluetooth 4.0 is to fit the Intel AC 7260 adapter - this also upgrades wifi to the newer AC standard (something else I have also successfully done - although I had to use the standard Intel drivers to get reliable support for Bluetooth).

Dock question - aside the 2 external monitors, are you able to use laptops LCD also (having 3 active displays in total)?

WLAN question - did you alter the BIOS whitelist for that card?

I see we have almost identical configs...

On the dock - only 2 monitors are supported on the X220 (although I seem to remember reading a thread on here somewhere where someone claimed to have got 3 working - that could have been about the X230, however).

WLAN - yes whitelisted BIOS. A little fussy to get working - e.g Fn+F5 only works if the original Bluetooth module is left in situ and disabled in Device Manager.

AFAIK - X220 only supports 2 monitors (between dock, chassis ports and internal LCD), and X230 can indeed do 3 (maybe more?)