Thinkpads Forum

I just can't make myself pull the trigger on the 440s, so I'm down to the X230 IPS or the T430s. I do have a couple questions and I'd like to make sure the Wiki is up to date:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T430s

What's the fastest RAM supported I can throw inside, still 1600?
Did Lenovo make an OEM Blu-Ray optical drive?
Does the current gen 802.11agnAC wireless cards work?

I've got a SAMSUNG 850 Pro 256 as my primary drive but I'd like to use one of the Internal PCIe slots: 1 Full (51mm) and 1 Half (27mm) for a mSATA SSD. (I run Linux but can see the need for a small Windows drive.) Any recommendations on a plug and play drive?

What can I do with this: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ExpressCard_slot

ExpressCard to eSATA?

I'm curious, in what way do you find the T440s deficient?

I wouldn't be concerned about getting the fastest memory as there's little practical difference between them outside of the benchmarks. Just get whatever amount of DDR3 memory you need and be done with it.

Lenovo did not offer a Blu ray drive for the T430s to the best of my knowledge. They did offer one for the T400, which uses the same 9.5mm optical drive as the T430s. The part number is 42T2517. If you can find one, I'd bet it'll work in the T430s. You may have to swap parts for fitment. I believe the drive is a Panasonic UJ-232. A cheaper option might be to buy one of the Panasonic drives and swap parts with your current drive to get it work. Just be careful as the pins on the bezel break easily. I can't imagine anyone would want to watch a movie on a T430s LCD given their average at best quality.

I don't know if the newer cards work, but you'd probably need to buy a Lenovo branded card to get it work as Lenovo likes to whitelist cards in the BIOS. You can probably search the forums here or Google as this is a fairly common upgrade. Someone has likely done it before.

I'd just buy a drive in whatever size you need from a reputable brand.

bmstrong wrote: Did Lenovo make an OEM Blu-Ray optical drive?

Not that I'm aware of.

Does the current gen 802.11agnAC wireless cards work?

You'll need a modded BIOS for that...

The lack of bottom buttons on the trackpad and the increasingly dumb keyboard are why my t530 will probably be my last thinkpad.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

muffin_man wrote:The lack of bottom buttons on the trackpad and the increasingly dumb keyboard are why my t530 will probably be my last thinkpad.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Yeah. Unfortunately I just can't escape the bad trackpad reviews. I really love the design on the actual 440/440s/440p itself and the screen. And you can find them for excellent rates on eBay. But man the hate is strong for that trackpad. And I really want that flawless under Linux. I'm gun shy on these particular models...

ajkula66 wrote:

bmstrong wrote: Did Lenovo make an OEM Blu-Ray optical drive?

Not that I'm aware of.

Does the current gen 802.11agnAC wireless cards work?

You'll need a modded BIOS for that...

Thanks!