Thinkpads Forum

My 2 1/2 year old T60p is starting to give up the ghost with frequently recurring crashes, so I decided to replace it with a new T500.

Below are the complete specs for the new machine, which has just been ordered...

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
=====================================
SYS.2055CT CONFIGURED SYSTEM
2055CTO THINKPAD T500
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I am a consultant, and I travel out of town M-F throughout the year, so I have configured my current laptop (the T60p) to run with a 2nd hard drive in the UltraBay Slim slot, and I use that 2nd hard drive strictly for nightly backups via R&R.

I would like to do the same thing with the T500, but I am having a hard time trying to figure out the specs of it's UltraBay slot. I don't THINK my current ThinkPad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter (40Y8725) that I use in my T60p will work in the new T500, but I can't seem to find the specs of the UltraBay slot that holds the Blu-Ray drive in the T500. I've heard that there are differing thicknesses (~9.5mm?, 12.7mm?, or something close to that), and that some of the thicker slots that accommodate Blu-Ray drives leave a gap above the thinner hard drive caddy when the Blu-Ray drive is not installed.

I have been scouring this forum for hours trying to find out answers to the following questions:

1) Will the ThinkPad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter (40Y8725) that I have in my T60p work with the new T500.

2) If not, what serial ATA hard drive adapter should I order for the T500?

3) What are the thicknesses of the hard drive adapter and the Blu-Ray drive, and will there be a gap above the hard drive adapter when installed in the UltraBay slot?

If anyone here can help with the above, I would be greatly appreciative.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Roadster

It will not because the T60 optical drive has a PATA connector while the T500 is SATA.

I believe the part number is 43N3412.

The T series uses 9.5mm drives unless. There will be no gap.

Thanks, Fred.

That part number definitely pointed me in the right direction, and I found some additional information which confirms your feedback.

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... ec2009.xls
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... TNTTA.html

According to the Lenovo ThinkPad Options Compatibility Matrix, which was just recently updated in December 2009, there are TWO different Blu-Ray options available for the W700 (UltraBay Slim, 43N3215; and UltraBay Enhanced, 43R9150), and this was the source of my confusion. Since I could not previously find anything about the Blu-Ray options for the T500, I figured they might be the same as the ones for the W700. I suspect the UltraBay Enhanced model is a thicker model than the UltraBay Slim model, and the W700's UltraBay slot can accommodate both models, the former at full height with no gap, and the latter at partial height with a visible gap. I don't really know this for sure, since the spec sheets on the second link above don't clearly identify the height dimension.

Anyway, regardless of the W700's available options, the Options Compatibility Matrix definitely clarifies that there is only ONE internal Blu-Ray drive available for the T500: ThinkPad Blu-ray Burner Ultrabay Slim Drive (Serial ATA), 43N3215.

Furthermore, it confirms there is only ONE internal hard drive caddy available for the T500 as well: ThinkPad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter III, 43N3412.

So I'm going to order the 43N3412 per your suggestion.

Thanks again for your help, Fred!

Best regards,

Roadster