W500 docks and cdrom/extra drive

[Bashar]

i was wondering which of the docs that has builtin bay where i can fit a second drive or cdrom ?

and which is better use the disk internally and cdrom on the dick or the way around ?

thank you

[truk]

The only dock available for the w-series is a mini dock. It will not let you have an expansion slot, but you could use it to hook up an external hard disk with e-sata.

[comptiger5000]

The full-size Advanced Dock (2503-10U) should work with a W500. Not for a W700, however.

[awolfe63]

The full-size Advanced Dock (2503-10U) should work with a W500. Not for a W700, however.

This dock works fine with the W500. The dock uses a PATA drive rather than SATA though. Both should be pretty much the same speed.

[truk]

GAA! I wish there was an easy way to know compatibility on these darn docks. I hit the PATA ultrabay limitation with my dock, and it aggravated me that Lenovo didn't even try to warn me when it was on the t400 accessories page! I still don't have a CD-rom that works in it. For the w500 setup, I'd advise getting a PATA harddrive and adapter for the ultrabay in the dock, since the DVD-rom in the laptop cannot be used there (buy one acessory instead of two.) Correct me if I'm wrong again, but I think the speed differences will most likely be negligible considering the read and bus speeds of the drive.

[basketb]

i was wondering which of the docs that has builtin bay where i can fit a second drive or cdrom ?

and which is better use the disk internally and cdrom on the dick or the way around ?

thank you

If you use the second HD extensively, then definitively keep it in the Thinkpad's ultrabay as it is much faster than the dock's ultrabay (the dock's ultrabay only operates at USB speeds).
Of course, this means (as pointed out by truk) that you also need to buy an additional CD/DVD drive.