Thinkpads Forum

My beloved T20 finally bit the dust (may she rest in piece) - she served me well, running CentOS 5.x in the end.

Just ordered a T520 and I would like to add a Bluray drive. Probably only to be used on long boring bus and train rides.

I've seen several videos and blogs concerning purchase of 3rd party Bluray and installing them in Ultrabay housing. Not T520 specifically, and I know there are many versions of Ultrabay, but I am curious as to who has done this with a T520 and what brand/model of bluray was used.

All I care about is watching movies, I don't need to burn when the drive is in there. I just don't want to be sitting on a greyhound with an external drive attached, I'd rather pop an Ultrabay drive in it when I travel.

Thanks for suggestions. I used the search for both "T520 bluray" and "bluray" and did not come up with any results for this model.

I have the Lenovo 42T2525 Blu-ray drive which was originally spec'd for the W70x series running in my W510 which would fit the T520. This one is a Panasonic UJ230A drive which reads and writes. Send a PM if you are interested as I have another sealed in the box.

Brad

@FunkyRes I use the Blu-Ray combo drive (42T2617) on my T420; it's a very good 12.7 bluray drive that can also play cd/DVD. It cannot burn bluray, but it can burn cd and DVD. Fits perfect in my system and I got it for about $60 on eBay.

From an electrical standpoint, pretty much any standard SATA bay drives will work, including those not designed for ThinkPads. The bezels will be your only concern, but in my experience you can usually modify those to fit with a bit of work.

My advice is to just buy a bluray combo drive (42T2617) - it is not third party, it is an official thinkpad bluray reader that also reads+burns DVD and cd! Fits perfect in w520, t520 and my favorite, the t420!

I purchased a slightly used Lenovo bluray from a member here.
Works very well, once I installed Win DVD Pro 11.

It's a 42T2525

Popped it in, Windows installed some drivers (not sure why, I'm not a windows guy), and played Bluray movies just fine w/ above mentioned software.