TP 410 as a travelling music box.

[Old Nick]

Hello all, first post.

I recently obtained a TP T410 for (more or less) the sole purpose of housing and playing my digital music collection. I wanted a relatively sturdy machine as I do some DJing and cheap modern machines just aren't up to being slung about, sturdy modern machines are outside my current budget.

So, I'll be running a DJ package (Spacial SAM DJ - I don't do any of that mix-y, scratch-y stuff), a few audio production packages and probably some "essentials" like Open Office, Firefox, Thunderbird & my VPN client.

The machine is currently specced as i5, 4Gb with a 500Gb HDD. Ideally I'd like to modify it to 8Gb with a 250Gb(?) SSD & a 1Tb HDD in place of the optical drive. I've a vague notion about an internal 3G or better WWAN card if practical.

I count myself as 'reasonably capable in an amateur fashion' on the technical front, I've assembled my own generic desktops in the past and replaced screens, inverters, memory & the like in laptops.

What I'm asking for is a "one stop shop" answer to what I should be looking for and anything I should be avoiding. I'm aware that memory can be a problem and intend to order direct from Crucial who guarantee compatibility. Anything on the HDD/SSD front that I should be aware of? I know there's a Lenovo specced, WWAN card for this machine, would I be best to obtain it or can I use others? Some include GPS functionality, which while a bit of a novelty on a laptop can certainly be handy when you're travelling.

Any advice at all appreciated, but particularly any warnings of products which are specifically NOT compatible!

Loving the build quality of the Thinkpad.

[Temetka]

For SSD's I'd recommend the Crucial MX line or Samsung Pro line of SSD's.

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/ssd

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820147360 - Samsung 850 Pro

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820148948 - Crucial MX200

Regarding a 1TB HD, WD has some great drives or you can look into the Seagate momentus line also.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822236221 - WD Blue 1TB 5400PRM 16MB Cache

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 24G15Y1068 - Seagate SSHD 8GB SSD Cache, 64MB Cache

GPS - How practical is it going to be using a laptop for this? I'd prefer a phone. Smaller, already has all the built in radio's and apps necessary.

If you really want laptop GPS, perhaps a dedicated GPS unit and software is what you're looking for - http://mightygps.com/expresscardgps.htm

If you are going to be doing audio and hooking the laptop up to a portable DJ rig, I would recommend this:

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-SB0950-E ... B001BS3A3E

The on-board sound on a laptop from the built-in chip is OK for headphone use. I'm not too sure if I'd want to blast it through some decent cabinet's though. You'd getter cleaner sound from the card I listed above.

[Old Nick]

Thanks. I never use internal audio except occasionally for cueing "live", my mixers accept USB input.

GPS isn't really practical at all in a laptop but as I'm installing a WWAN card anyway, if I can include the feature without inflicting problems on myself... I might as well, or at least that's how I see it.

[Billaboard]

I don't know if this is much help, but I use laptops for pro audio and have an X201 with a Qualcomm Gobi 2000 internal WWAN card.
The GPS with this is excellent and, when I have time I'm going to have a real attempt to get marine navigation going with it.
It's much more sensitive than the android devices I have with GPS.

I have older X-series units with WWAN and GPS that apparently needs a sim card installed to work, but I haven't yet had any success with these, and they are on the "too difficult for now" shelf.

I have an unanswered question in the X200/201 forum about putting the card into an X200tablet and whether it would work, but have had no replies. A tablet would be ideal for navigation etc.

I'm interested in this as I've recently purchased a very cheap T410.

I hate ExpressCards. In the real world they always fall out at the most tense moment.