X40 upgrade questions.

[mfbernstein]

Some followup questions to my earlier thread, now that I've gone ahead and ordered an X40 (1GHZ w/UltraBase off eBay, hope I didn't overpay _too_ much).

1) Underclocker mentioned the HD can be upgraded to 60GB. Any suggestions where to look for such an upgrade? Searches on eBay didn't turn up much.
2) Just a thought, but would there be space for a 44-pin IDE-to-Compact Flash adapter in lieu of the hard drive?
3) On the subject of drives, I've a couple external FireWire 800 drives (coming from a Mac). The X40 has a Cardbus slot. Any suggestions as to a good FW800 card?
4) I'm strongly inclined to get an 8-cell battery. I've seen some (presumably 3rd party) replacement batteries on eBay claiming 4300mAH. Anybody know if these are any good?
5) Will the X40 accept DDR400 RAM?
6) Machine comes with a warranty until Jan. 2008. Is there a way to extend it?

Thanks!

[qviri]

4) I'm strongly inclined to get an 8-cell battery. I've seen some (presumably 3rd party) replacement batteries on eBay claiming 4300mAH. Anybody know if these are any good?

YMMV, but my third-party extended-capacity (4400mAh as opposed to 3600mAh for X21) battery has some sort of jumbled electronics which cause it to sometimes report negative remaining capacity, make the laptop think it's running at half the power draw it's actually running at and do other nice things such as shut down without warning due to the combination of the two above. So it may work, but if you want something that will work for sure I'd go for an IBM genuine.

5) Will the X40 accept DDR400 RAM?

Yes - it will simply run slower, at DDR333.

[boon]

1) Underclocker mentioned the HD can be upgraded to 60GB. Any suggestions where to look for such an upgrade? Searches on eBay didn't turn up much.

It is possible but those hard drive aren't just like anywhere. Only place I can think of is from lenovo. But they are costly that's all I can say, maybe lke 200$, might as well go for x60 in that case.

2) Just a thought, but would there be space for a 44-pin IDE-to-Compact Flash adapter in lieu of the hard drive?

Wether if it works or not, the compact flash card may be like a hard drive, but it has a limited amount of writing compare to a regular hard drive. So the life of a compact flash is shorter if used too often. Something like a mac works better on that. SSD is although same flash technology but can have much more writing life capacity.

3) On the subject of drives, I've a couple external FireWire 800 drives (coming from a Mac). The X40 has a Cardbus slot. Any suggestions as to a good FW800 card?

If you can format the hard drive either NTSC or Fat32 then it will work. Both mac and windows can read FAT32 but only window can read NTSC

6) Machine comes with a warranty until Jan. 2008. Is there a way to extend it?

Eh maybe you can try call customer service on that one. I never try it though but believe you can last time I check on my warranties.

[qviri]

3) On the subject of drives, I've a couple external FireWire 800 drives (coming from a Mac). The X40 has a Cardbus slot. Any suggestions as to a good FW800 card?

If you can format the hard drive either NTSC or Fat32 then it will work. Both mac and windows can read FAT32 but only window can read NTSC.

NTFS, not NTSC. I believe Macs can at least read NTFS, but yeah, go for FAT32 for maximum compability.

[ryengineer]

NTFS, not NTSC. I believe Macs can at least read NTFS, but yeah, go for FAT32 for maximum compability.

Go for FAT32 if you won't be using more than 1 OS.

[mfbernstein]

NTFS, not NTSC. I believe Macs can at least read NTFS, but yeah, go for FAT32 for maximum compability.

Go for FAT32 if you won't be using more than 1 OS.

Filesystem type isn't an issue (I use MacDrive which can read HFS+ just fine for Windows). Just was wondering which brand FireWire card works fastest/most reliably. Will a cheap-o NewEgg FW800 card really let me do 40MB/s? If so, it'd partially solve my disk performance question.

Wether if it works or not, the compact flash card may be like a hard drive, but it has a limited amount of writing compare to a regular hard drive. So the life of a compact flash is shorter if used too often. Something like a mac works better on that. SSD is although same flash technology but can have much more writing life capacity.

I'm aware of the limitations. If I disable Windows' pagefile though, I imagine the CF card should last awhile. Fast 8GB cards (30+MB/s) are now in the $100-150 range.

[dr_st]

Filesystem type isn't an issue (I use MacDrive which can read HFS+ just fine for Windows). Just was wondering which brand FireWire card works fastest/most reliably. Will a cheap-o NewEgg FW800 card really let me do 40MB/s? If so, it'd partially solve my disk performance question.

If you're talking about writing, then nothing will let you do 40 MB/s. That's performance that I haven't seen even when copying between internal 3.5" 7200RPM SATA hard drives.

[dr_st]

Duplicate post removed.

[underclocker]

Congrats on the purchase.

60gb drives occasionally show up on this forum or eBay. $100 or so snagged one, when they're available.

I have a new 8-cell OEM orignal IBM battery for sale on this board, don't risk a knock-off -> http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=41617

You can extend the warranty, but you should wait until you get closer to the original on expiring, in case you lose/break/sell you X40 before then.

Enjoy.

[billp117]

Look at http://www.newegg.comfor your hardrive...they have great prices and stand behind the product. Consider a drive with 7200 rpm...like the Hitachi.

[Ryan T.]

Look at http://www.newegg.comfor your hardrive...they have great prices and stand behind the product. Consider a drive with 7200 rpm...like the Hitachi.

The X4x takes 1.8" drives, so only 4200RPM and only 60GB and under.

[mfbernstein]

Just was wondering which brand FireWire card works fastest/most reliably. Will a cheap-o NewEgg FW800 card really let me do 40MB/s? If so, it'd partially solve my disk performance question.

If you're talking about writing, then nothing will let you do 40 MB/s. That's performance that I haven't seen even when copying between internal 3.5" 7200RPM SATA hard drives.

Really? I've seen a number of tests where even older hardware can get high transfer rates, and FW800, while not as fast as e-SATA, is pretty respectable.