3rd party ThinkPad Serial Hard Drive Bay Adapter

[luichn]

Hi everyone!

I'm looking to get a hard drive bay adapter for my T400. Does anyone know if the 3rd party manufactured harddrive bay adapters are trustworthy? They are relatively cheaper than the genuine adapter offered at the lenovo website.

http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-43R1980-SATA-2n ... 5d23c0e262

[mybellyisempty]

That looks to be about the same price as Lenovo's. I bought a 3rd party (didn't know it was 3rd party at the time) for $20 or so for my W500, and have had no issues with it whatsoever. It's pretty easy to tell it's not a genuine Lenovo part though, as the LED isn't a green circle, but a blue rectangle.

[luichn]

thanks for the reply!

[archer6]

Admittedly I'm a purist / OEM fellow when it comes to parts like that. Yet, I've seen non-oem adapters from ebay that do perform the basic funtion. The big differences I've noticed is in the relatively poor fit, which allows movement when carrying the machine. For my money I'd much rather keep the integrity of an OEM installation, especially since mine gets carried a lot. If your not in a rush, I've noticed Lenovo offering these at handsome discounts rather regularly. Another thought is I've sourced the OEM part from a site called "Pro Vantage". They tend to stock lots of OEM parts at good prices if you watch, as they tend to adjust their pricing matrix frequently.
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Cheers...