T420 Bluray ultrabay optical drive

[greghad]

I'm looking to upgrade to a Bluray reader/writer. The info for T420s is murky at best. Anybody running the FRU 43N3230, and is there a better option?

[ZaZ]

43N3230 is a 9.5mm, which is what the T420s uses. I would presume it would work, but I don't have any firsthand experience with it.

[pjk]

43N3230 is a 9.5mm, which is what the T420s uses. I would presume it would work, but I don't have any firsthand experience with it.

Actually the T420 uses a Serial Ultrabay Enhanced, which will accept up to 12.5mm height drives.

Which is great, because my T400's use a Serial Ultrabay Slim, which requires 9.5mm height drives. BluRay drives for that form-factor are hard to find and used to be extreeeeeemely expensive (ie$600-$900 a couple years ago) but they finally came down to something not quite so crazy recently. (ie typically around ~$250 retail now)

It looks like Lenovo discontinued most of the Blu-Ray burners though, including the 12.5/12.7mm ones. The first link is to a 12.7mm drive they were selling at the outlet store but it says "0 in stock" right now:

http://outlet.lenovo.com/accessories/43r9150.html


More 12.5/12.7mm previous models:
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product ... MIGR-69014
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product ... MIGR-74541


PS: If you're a little adventurous you could get a generic 12.5mm SATA drive, which will usually work in an Ultrabay Enhanced, but you might have to mess around with the bezel if you want it to blend in with the Thinkpad body.

[JohnD.]

Hi Guys/Girls,

I just wanted to ask since we are talking about Bluray players, what is the Lenovo part number for the drive that would fit my t410i? Also, can we get this part number by looking in the Hardware Manual or a specific Lenovo web site?

Thank you,
John

[ThinkRob]

Actually the T420 uses a Serial Ultrabay Enhanced, which will accept up to 12.5mm height drives.

While you're correct about the T420's bay height, neither ZaZ nor the OP were talking about the T420, but rather the T420s.

(Although given the thread title, perhaps some clarification is needed as to which model the question applies?)

[pjk]

...what is the Lenovo part number for the drive that would fit my t410i?

That would be the 43N3230, since the T410i (like my T400's) has a "Serial Ultrabay Slim" bay for optical drives.

Generally you can get the compatible part numbers either from the hardware maintenance manual or user's manual (generally available from the support page for your model at Lenovo.com) or via the "PSref" or "TAbook" documents - which have always placed the Lenovo products (and many years of IBM PCs before them) ahead of their competition in terms of product information, in my humble opinion.

You can get those here: http://www.lenovo.com/psref/

For non-current products, scroll down near the bottom of the page to the "withdrawn products" link.