Thinkpad T30--Looking for (1) 512MB PC2100 DDR 266Mhz 200-pin SO-DIMM

Helping a friend out overseas who has this as the only computer. It has 1 512MB card in it now but from what I can tell, its expandable to1GB via (2) 512MB cards. As a last resort I can buy a new card for around $20 delivered to me, then postage overseas, but if it doesnt boot, into the trash it goes, therefore I'm hesitant to spend more than I have to. I believe a PC2700 would work also, but just at the PC2100 rate, is that correct? Not interested in performance, just the increased ram since its running XP, 512mb, just isnt enough. What would you all suggest the most economical way to achieve this one card would be?
Thanks

Make no mistake, T30s are VERY fine machines regardless of the memory slot problem...and that problem is fixable.
There is nothing to be unsure about when it comes to RAM: any laptop-size PC2100/2700 (DDR266/333) 1GB stick will work, as will 2 of them if both slots are good. My last T30 (2366-97U) had 2GB of PC2700 RAM and a 7200rpm drive, and it flew in XP in all normal applications that were not video intensive.
The only reason that IBM's site states that the maximum memory is 1GB is the fact that at the time of the announcement, 512MB was the largest DIMM available. This also holds true for A31/p, R40, G40/1...etc.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
George
In daily use: R60F, R500F, T61, T410
Collecting dust: T60
Enjoying retirement: A31p, T42p,
Non-ThinkPads: Panasonic CF-31 & CF-52, HP 8760W
Starting Thursday, 08/14/2014 I'll be away from the forums until further notice. Please do NOT send private messages since I won't be able to read them. Thank you.

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Solved!
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Waldo000000 wrote:
Oh really? Do you know of any difference in the keyboard, or have any advice as to which one might be the "best" choice?
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I'm looking for a new small, efficient media player.

Hi there.
The background that will give you insight into my situation but doesn't need to be read
I come from a very cushioned past media-wise. When I really started to get into listening to music I was still using Windows. It was Winamp first, which I liked but found a little much, but a few coincidences later found XMPlay, a free but closed-source media player capable of playing not only some weird file formats such as MO3, MOD, IT, XM, S3M etc, of which I have a few files in this format, but also MP3, OGG, WAV, and all the other general stuff out there. The timing was just perfect and I "grew" into my "media years" with this player. I used it across my transition from Win98 to XP, and also used it on a Win95 laptop - and I don't even think I had to "help" the system "like" the player to make it work, although I could be wrong.
However, XMPlay has no Linux version, and as far as I can see, no porting is planned. And as I said before, it's closed source, so not much can be done there.
In my setup I had a machine set aside for media playback because it had a SB16 in it, and I'd run it with the bass set to 100% and treble set to 0%. Despite what you might think, the output was awesome with headphones - it could give me a good headache or two without distorting at all.
So, when I first switched to Linux, I didn't initially switch this machine over, but left it running Win98. This got to me in the end so I switched it over... and immediately faced issues. Since there was no port of XMPlay, I needed to find a new player, and fast. XMPlay has a bunch of audio postprocessing features I had enabled, none of which I found support or equivalents for in Linux (for example, an EQ setting promoting bassboost, in addition to that provided by the card - you can understand the headaches). I eventually gave up and ran XMPlay using WINE... and left it that way, for several months. I mean, it worked, didn't it? Then the fact that XMPlay over WINE on a 450MHz processor (it's a P3, haha) used 50%+ CPU -minimum- for the player to even be running (IIRC) got to me, so I decided once again that a new player had to be found. After some digging, I found XMMS to be the most likely candidate (it supports LADSPA and I could configure a bass-boost filter), and for the most part, it worked well. Quite well.
Then... after I recently found myself recording some audio from the SB16's output to my main machine's input (the simplest way to get around the issue that the bass boost isn't very easy to feed back into the card - or impossible, I haven't tried it for so long), and had my headphones connected to my desktop to monitor the recording. Then, after that was done, I somehow started listening to some other piece of music (through my main box), for whatever reason. I immediately noticed a rather stark contrast in quality to what I'd recorded from the SB16 and what I was listening to. A doublecheck later confirmed that yes, my SB16 was of terrible quality, and yes, I needed a solution, since I wasn't gonna listen to that kinda sound quality anymore now that I knew.
Over the past few weeks (months?) up until this point I've slowly been weaning myself off the music I liked so much (XMs and MODs, and maybe the occasional S3M), and the postprocessing features I thought had glued themselves into my ears....
The, uh, like, point.
....so I need a media player that doesn't have much in terms of sound processing, but meets all the following requirements, either built in or as a plugin (as logically applicable):
* Can hide completely, leaving only a hotkey to bring it back. I don't use a system tray and don't want to, for any purpose.
* Is written in a compiled language.
* Has configurable global hotkey support
* Isn't bloated, dependancy-wise, filesize or memory-wise, or desktop-real-estate-wise - something that uses basic C and has a basic GUI preferred
* Controls the hardware volume so that volume changes are instant
* Supports tracks longer than 60 minutes / 1 hour
* Has good file management / playlist support
* Is something I can throw a gigantic directory tree at and expect to load all the music in it, FAST. I could throw my entire 32GB HDD at XMPlay when I wanted to see/remember what new music was on it and I'd just leave it alone for slightly under 5 minutes. When I returned to it, bam, playlist. That was on the 450MHz P3, running Win98. XMPlay also gave me feedback - if you can recommend something that shows me where it is on the filesystem, that'd be great.
Up until now, Audacious has met those requirements. But it's had the following issues:
* The track details window won't open for random tracks
* The time display stuffs up for tracks longer than >60m, showing the position at 0:59, then, 1:40, then after 10 minutes have passed 1:41, etc
* The volume control randomly forgets how to change the volume, and I refuse to change the controller to use a software volume since it'll induce delays
* The system has no ability to add directories recursively - this was present in XMMS, but the BMP guys removed it (?!?!?!) and since Audacious is a fork of BMP, ...
* The latest version's global hotkeys plugin restores the window to a non-changeable location when I use the "toggle player windows" function. As a visual person I find this a huge blocker.
Now for the list of players that don't do what I want. XD
* mpd - expects all your files to be in one folder; mine are everywhere, even thrown across sshfs mounts to other systems.
* audacious - ...
* xmms - too boring. GTK1. old stuff. unsupported.
* xmms2 - seems too "unreachable". I haven't tried this player yet, mostly because Arch has no clients in the repos. *stab*
* banshee - 200TB of dependencies, and it needs 400TB of RAM to run. Read: I dislike Mono.
* rhythmbox, banshee, amarok, exaile, quod libet - iTunes-ey UI. I hate iTunes-ey UIs.
* songbird - depends on the Gecko rendering engine. I have 512MB RAM, and I already run Firefox, thanks.
* bmp, xmms, audacious - winamp-ey UI. I want to move away from winamp-ey UIs.
If you have any suggestions... I'll be amazed.
-dav7
Last edited by dav7 (2008-09-09 12:55:22)

* Can hide completely, leaving only a hotkey to bring it back. I don't use a system tray and don't want to, for any purpose.
Sonata, disable system tray icon, modify any panel settings to ignore it
* Is written in a compiled language.
mpd is written in C
* Has configurable global hotkey support
Set up keybindings for mpc commands
* Isn't bloated, dependancy-wise, filesize or memory-wise, or desktop-real-estate-wise - something that uses basic C and has a basic GUI preferred
mpd uses basic C, many, many GUIs for it around, extremely small memory footprint
* Controls the hardware volume so that volume changes are instant
Keybind alsamixer commands
* Supports tracks longer than 60 minutes / 1 hour
Is there a modern media player that doesn't do this?
* Has good file management / playlist support
I never use mpd's playlist capabilities, but they do seem fairly extensive.
* mpd - expects all your files to be in one folder; mine are everywhere, evn thrown across sshfs mounts to other systems.
Apparently you have never heard of symbolic links. OH SNAP! Just create a single directory to collect all the links in. Also, mpd does not expect everything to be in one folder; it expects everything to be available from one parent folder, allowing you to organize beneath that parent.
The problem you're having isn't that you're looking for a music player, you're looking for a wm/media player/file manager, and that just doesn't exist on Linux, largely because we are sane (for the sake of argument, ignore Songbird right now, I don't think any of us are crazy enough to use it anyways). Like looking for a zebroctonoceros, even though a zebra exists, an octopus exists, and a rhinoceros exists, they do not exist in the same creature. For interfacing with X (keybindings and the disappearing music player), you're better off going through a configurable wm like Openbox. For the actual music playing, well, I don't see any problems with mpd besides your music files being messy, and you can't expect music playing software to solve a personal organization problem. If your file system is messy, then use a file manager to fix it, not your mp3 player. I put a lot of effort into keeping my music files properly tagged and accessible from a single top level directory called music, which then splits off into mp3/ogg files, flac files, podcasts, etc, and that largely solves the problem of wondering where s--t is.
Another idea for you, if you have multiple machines. Collect all your music onto a single machine, and then set up that system to serve exclusively as an mpd jukebox you can listen to from your other computers over the network. Give it a try.
Last edited by coarseSand (2008-09-11 16:03:31)

Looking for a new 13' or smaller laptop. Do you recommend U330 and U110?

Hi all,
My 4-year old T42 just died. I'm looking for a new laptop. I want the following:
13' or smaller
Lightweight
Good performance for home and work use, may run PS or some authoring tools
May play small games, mainly Internet, movies
DVD recordable?
Bugget is up to $1500
I am interested in U330 or U110 (so pretty). Any recommendations?
Thanks,
CoCo

CoCo,
I have found that there sadly isn't much information on this forum about the U110, but I'll offer some comments that perhaps you may find useful. I also have a Thinkpad T40p that I have had for a few years and like it very much. It has the SXGA+ screen (1140x1050) which I like a lot. While it has been a great laptop and pretty portable (less than 5 pounds), my wife and I take a lot of road trips in our Corvette and the T40 is a bit hard to manage in the car (we use it for our map program a lot). So when I saw the little notebooks (or netbooks) at Costco I was intrigued.
I didn't really like any of the cheaper netbooks that much, except for the nice price of $500 and under, so I started looking to see what else was available. I found the U110, which seemed to be a comparitively powerful and well built computer (especially when compared to the cheap netbooks), but the price tag of $1500 and up was too much. I found a slightly used one on ebay still under warrantee for $800, so I bought it.
I started reading up on it on various forums and online reviews and a common complaint about the U110 was that is was slow using Windows Vista. But a number of opinions recommended Windows XP, and since my other computers (T40 and two desktops) run XP, I thought this would be for me as well on the U110.
When I got the U110, I too was somewhat disappointed in the performance of Vista, although I will admit I'm not familiar with Vista while being very familiar with XP. So I decided to delete Vista and install XP, which turned out to be somewhat of an ordeal because I could find very little information on this forum or elsewhere regarding the details of the U110 partitioning and other related issues. It is actually very easy, but it is very helpful if you talk to someone who has done it and can offer suggestions and procedures.
Since I installed XP I am very happy with the performance and it's a great little, and VERY portable, computer. It will be a great travel computer because of its portability.
With all of that said, I'm not sure I would recommend it for a direct replacement of your T42. First of all, you said your T42 "died". Before giving up on it, I'd suggest you go to the Thinkpad forum - Google search for "thinkpad forum" and you'll find it - and go to the T4x Hardware forum. There is a ton of information there and a lot of people contribute to it. There are many problems solved, and it is likely your T42 may be salvagable. It's a great computer.
While I like the U110 a lot, the larger Thinkpad displays are easier to read if you'll be staring at them for long times. The U110 is fine for quick internet surfing and getting information, but it can't compare to the bigger displays. What the U110 is great for is being really portable. If that is your primary consideration, the U110 is your answer. But if portability is not your primary concern, I'd stick with the Thinkpad. And pricewise, the Thinkpad will be considerably less expensive than a late model Thinkpad like a T60 or similar. You can pick up a good T60 for under $600, while I got a good price on my U110 for $800. Performance wise, the Thinkpad is a real bargain.
The U110 will do what you want it to - DVD recording, small games, internet, movies, etc. But you mentioned "home and work use", and I'm thinking you might mean this to be your only computer. While I really like the U110, I wouldn't want it for my only computer - it's just too small. The display is too small and the keyboard, while just fine for travel, will not compare to larger Thinkpad's.
I haven't seen the U330, but it's my impression that the Ideapads are sort of a lower end product when compared to the Thinkpads. I won't give up my T40p until I can't fix it, and even then I will buy another one to replace it. But my U110 is still a great little travel companion.
These are my opinions and impressions. If you get a U110, please post your own impressions so others can benefit.
Good luck,
Ray Kawal
Sequim, WA

Looking for newer Mobo, like the MS-7345 Platinum P-35.

Hello,
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Some people have asked if i updraded Win7 drivers for the MSI boardw hich i'm sure i did. Some asked me to check the board for bad or damaged caps, so I checked both the GPU, and Mobo, but could not see anything. Then someone told me it could be the Power supply...really?
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To be honest, I like MSI, I bought my new MSI Platinum five years ago, and love it! I'd like to keep it if i could, but technology supercedes practicallity, with the newer atx case with front USB 3.0 (mine is only 2.0....if it's backward compatible, then fine.) I'd like to ahead of the game, but not if i'm going to go BROKE!
With my old build, with the mobo, Intel Quad Q6600,700W Toughpower PSU, memory,hard drives, That set me back about $1200.00.
So..... for someone like me who is not a gamer, does not overclock, wants a minimum of 32GB DDR3, 700W PSU, three SATAII hard drives, does anyone have some Mainboard choices of newer LGA 1155 or 2011 that would either of these work?
This time, I'll need the i7 (or i5) new mobo, new DDR3 memory...up to minimum 16GB, maybe 32GB, and that's that. I'll use what I can,. or give or sell this tower and everything inside to my sister.
I was only looking at these two for specs:
Z77A-G43 DDR3 1600 LGA 1155 ($ 97.00) OR
X79A-GD65 (8D) ATX DDR3 2400 ($ 291.00)
I know the MS-7345 Platinum is off the production, but is there a board out there that's similar to the MS-7345 P-35? {it's just easy to set up.}
MAINBOARD ~
MSI P35 Platinum/Intel P35 Chipset Crossfire 1395 (MS-7345)
POWER SUPPLY ~
Thermaltake "TOUGHPOWER" 700W ATX 12V - 2.2 & EPS 12V
CPU ~
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz (4 cpu's)
DISPLAY ~
EVGA Nvidia Geforce 8600GT (512MB) DDR2 128-Bit
(Memory clock speed 700MHz / HDCP Capable PCI-e / Total memory 4071MB (Driver version 8.17.12.9610) 2-29-12 DirectX11
MONITOR ~ 20" Viewsonic - VX2035WN
60Hz ( Screen Res. 1280 x 800) True Color (32 Bit)
HARD DRIVES ~
Boot drive > WD SATAII - 74GB Raptor (10,000 rpms) 16MB > 4.6MS
Storage drive > WD SATAII - 2TB Green (7200 rpms)
Storage drive > WD SATAII - 500GB Caviar Blue (7200 rpms)
External drive > Seagate 3TB
OPERATING SYSTEM ~
Windows 7 Pro OEM (64 Bit) (6.1, Build 7601) SP1
BIOS ~
American Megatrends Inc. v.1.10 / 11/10/08
Current Bios version - 1.A0 / VGA Bios v. 60.84.41.00.06
MEMORY ~
8GB DDR2 / PC6400 / 800MHz (8192 MB) RAM
Available Physical memory - 6.12GB
Paging file > 4463MB Used, 11917MB Available
AUDIO ~
Realtek High Definition Onboard Audio
CASE ~ Coolermaster CM 690 / ATX
MAINBOARD ~
MSI P35 Platinum/Intel P35 Chipset Crossfire 1395 (MS-7345)
POWER SUPPLY ~
Thermaltake "TOUGHPOWER" 700W ATX 12V - 2.2 & EPS 12V
CPU ~
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz (4 cpu's)
DISPLAY ~
EVGA Nvidia Geforce 8600GT (512MB) DDR2 128-Bit
(Memory clock speed 700MHz / HDCP Capable PCI-e / Total memory 4071MB (Driver version 8.17.12.9610) 2-29-12 DirectX11
MONITOR ~ 20" Viewsonic - VX2035WN
60Hz ( Screen Res. 1280 x 800) True Color (32 Bit)
HARD DRIVES ~
Boot drive > WD SATAII - 74GB Raptor (10,000 rpms) 16MB > 4.6MS
Storage drive > WD SATAII - 2TB Green (7200 rpms)
Storage drive > WD SATAII - 500GB Caviar Blue (7200 rpms)
External drive > Seagate 3TB
OPERATING SYSTEM ~
Windows 7 Pro OEM (64 Bit) (6.1, Build 7601) SP1
BIOS ~
American Megatrends Inc. v.1.10 / 11/10/08
Current Bios version - 1.A0 / VGA Bios v. 60.84.41.00.06
MEMORY ~
8GB DDR2 / PC6400 / 800MHz (8192 MB) RAM
Available Physical memory - 6.12GB
Paging file > 4463MB Used, 11917MB Available
AUDIO ~
Realtek High Definition Onboard Audio
CASE ~ Coolermaster CM 690 / ATX

If you already looked at X79A-GD65 (8D) and you are going for 16GB ram minimum or 32GB a Socket 2011 Core i7 would be a good choice. If you are just looking for an easy to setup system a X79A-GD45-8D would be of the same socket without any flaws but still somewhat less expensive.

Mac Newbie looking for short answers to multiple questions...

My computer experience started with the Commodore 64 in the 1980's and progressed to building my own Core Duo PC with 4 GIG RAM running 64 bit Vista Ultimate and several flavors of Linux. My only Mac experiences happened when I visited my elderly parents, who insisted on only using Mac's, generally ancient Mac's that they bought on eBay.
I was not interested at all in Macs and found the GUI very confusing to use. All that changed when my dad showed me the Mac Mini he bought. Instead of the hulking, slow, underpowered behemoths he usually used, this little machine was amazing. I had to have one, and yesterday bought a Mac Mini with superdrive and 512 MB of RAM, along with Bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse. This was amazingly easy to set up, just starting with all of the PC stuff I have lying around.
Now, I need some one-line opinions from people who use Mac's, nothing complicated, just opinions. I don't need help configuring this machine, I just want to know what I can do with it. I find most people enjoy giving opinions!
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--Does anyone have any experience using open source software like Open Office or GIMP on a Mac?
--Are there any decent flight simulators that work on a Mac?
Please don't flame me or tell me to read the manual. I am looking for opinions, not instructions. I am also not interested in running Windows software on my Mac - I have had mixed results trying to do this under Linux, and I also have plenty of Windows machines to operate Windows software. Remember, the more people like me who are interested in switching over to Mac's, the better and cheaper the platform should become. Thanks in advance!

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Glad you found your way to the Mac in the present incarnation of MacOS. Earlier flavors of it were perhaps somewhat less elegant, though I have always had a liking for the relative simplicity and the integration of features which tend to make some work more easily accomplished than on the PCs I have also used.
--Is it worth it to upgrade the RAM to 2 GB? I wanted to do that at the store yesterday, but the salesman said that the procedure was too complicated in a Mac Mini to do myself, and I wanted to take the computer home right way.
Yes, the memory upgrade is very worthwhile. A stock mac mini runs perfectly well, but when taking into account the RAM used by the on board video, and the possibility of using Rosetta if you're using any non-native software, 512Mb is really not enough for smooth operation. Indeed, you'll tend to get pauses which can become annoying, particularly if you want to run multiple applications.
The salesman really should have pointed out that while the procedure to upgrade RAM isn't really all that difficult, the mini is not intended to be opened by the user at all because there are no user serviceable parts inside. However, RAM is readily available from third party suppliers and with a little on-line research, is a fairly simple job to undertake. Two things to watch for: 1) that the memory comes from a supplier who will swap it without question, because Macs are rather more fussy about RAM than PCs tend to be, and 2), when completing the memory upgrade, ensure you reconnect the tiny fan control cable - failing to do so will leave the fan running at full blast all the time. It's an easy omission, and even the experts forget it sometimes!
--I use Photoshop Elements 5. Is it worth it to get Photoshop Elements 4 for Mac, or does my machine come with imaging editing software that does the same thing, just as well?
Depends on what kind of editing and image adjustment you generally do. The mini comes with iLife, which includes iPhoto, which has all the usual array of adjustment tools for brightness, contrast, color balance etc, plus a useful one for tilting images to straighten them if taken at an angle, but it doesn't include the filters and effects of a true image editing application. Photoshop Elements on the other hand is feature rich and easy to use, though at a cost. Personally, I don't like iPhoto much and use Photoshop Elements, though there is also a truly excellent shareware application called GraphicConverter, which started life as a tool to convert images from one format to another (hence the name) but is now a very feature-rich image processor in it's own right. Worth a look and can be tried out for free. Have a look at http://www.lemkesoft.com/xd/public/content/index.cGlkPTE5Mw.html
--I use Quicken 2007. I read a couple of reviews of Quicken for Mac from unhappy customers. Any comments?
No experience of this personally, but I'd check those reviews and any others you can find to see what it is the writers liked or didn't like about using the software, and see if that helps you. There are always unhappy customers though, so reviews in magazines may be more objective.
--Can I use my existing external USB 2 or Firewire drives with my Mac Mini, even though they are partitioned as FAT32 and have many backup files from PC's on them? Do Mac Mini's write to FAT32 like Linux does, or do I have to reformat the drives?
You can use your FAT32 formatted drives with the Mac though you are limited to files of 4Gb maximum.
--I use Acronis True Image to backup & image my hard drives so I can restore them if disaster occurs (as it seems to, rather often). How do you image a hard drive with a Mac, and is it worth doing?
It IS worth doing, yes. I use SuperDuper! which is first rate and free for making complete duplicates of a drive, or $29 for the paid/registered version to allow incremental backups. Works like a charm. If you use a drive partitioned in the GUID scheme (as the mini's internal is) you can even then set that drive, and the cloned copy of your system to boot the mini.
--Is it worth it to use antivirus software on a Mac?
Personally I'd say yes. ClamXav is open source (thus free) and reliable, has a marginal hit on CPU load and helps ensure you don't inadvertently pass on infections (it can also spot types of malware such as phishing scames). As yet, however, there are no known viruses/worms/trojans that affect MacOS, so it isn't critical at this time. However at some point it is likely there will be - in my view it's better to be prepared than to be left to react at the time.
--Does anyone have any experience using open source software like Open Office or GIMP on a Mac?
Yes. Like all open source projects, there are some good and some bad, but by and large the open source community for MacOS based systems is active and effective. Both Open Office and Gimp work well for example.
--Are there any decent flight simulators that work on a Mac?
X-Plane springs to mind.
There really are very few people you'll find in Apple Discussions who would flame you for asking such questions. Indeed, answering such things is one of the prime reasons we're here, and while there's always value in reading the manuals, it must also be said that in many ways getting useful information out of them means you have to know enough already to be able to work out what information you need from all the stuff available. Questions are easier to ask and pertinent information easier to give as a result!

Looking for a Suggestion on Protege Notebook Model

Hi,
I might have posted this in the wrong forum, if that is the case then please accept my apologies for the same.
I am looking to buy a new ultrabook. I am looking for the following specs:
Price: Around USD800
Screen Size: 13.3" (This is important as there are weight considerations and hence cannot go for any bigger screen)
Screen should be easily tilted to 180 degrees since I have a small kid who could pull the screen back (I hope you people understand what I am asking for, this feature is not listed in any datasheet of Toshiba Notebooks)
RAM Installed: 4GB (min)
RAM Maximum: 8GB (min) (I should have the option for upgrading the RAM later to 8GB minimum, more the better)
Weight: 3 lbs (or there about)
DVD-ROM: Not NEEDED
HDD: Would like to have a SSD with 256GB but given the price, I guess I have to settle with the normal HDD. But it would be great if I could upgrade later this HDD to a SSD.
Keyboard: Backlit and SPILLPROOF
Now I have kind of short listed some of the models and would love to hear the advise of the techies here.
Model 1:
Portege R935-ST3N02
Link for Datasheet: http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/content/product/pdf_files/detailed_specs/portege_R935-ST3N02.pdf
Questions in my mind regarding this notebook:
Will the screen be tilted back to 180 degrees, cannot find this information anywhere.
The maximum RAM shown is 8GB but since this device has 2 memory slots, then wouldn't it be possible to have 16GB as the max RAM with 8GB card in each slot.
HDD = 750GB but later would I be able to upgrade to a SSD Harddisk or not, to reduce the weight even more later.
Keyboard: Is the keyboard SPILLPROOF and Backlit?
Model 2:
Portege Z935-ST3N02
Link for Datasheet: http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/content/product/pdf_files/detailed_specs/portege_Z935-ST3N02.pdf
Max RAM is only 6GB (is there a way to upgrade to 8GB)
SSD: Can I later upgrade to a higher capacity SSD like 512GB if an when they get cheaper, I know it should be possible but wanted to ask anyhow?
Model 3:
I am comparing these 2 models against THINKPAD X230.
Any suggestions and enlightening thoughts on my above questions would be deeply appreciated.

Please just let me know if the screen can be tilted to 180 degrees in Portege R935-ST3N02

Looking for an (external) Vendor Supported DVD burner

Hi all,
For years I've been working with pleasure on my 700 MHz eMac, despite of the loud fan noise. The only thing is that not until now I regret the fact I didn't bought the SuperDrive at the time, for budget reasons.
Looking for an external solution, I encountered the LaCie FireWire DVD burners, but those machines don't seem to be cooperative as it comes to iMovie and iDVD. Apparently Apple don't consider them equal to 'their' SuperDrives
What brand and type (or part number) should I be looking for to have the external drive be recognised as a Vendor Supported device?
Please, somebody help me here. Otherwise I will have to ask a new Mac with those specs for Christmas and that means waiting another year....
Olaf

Patchburn is a free software download that allows you to use Apple's iApps application such as itunes for burning of non native drives. Your OS will most likely be ok with the new drive for playing movies & audio cd's but have you tried burning with your drive? If you have iDVD this will most certainly not be supported by your drive due to special firmware within Apple superdrives that technically you cannot get around. Though if you have the version of iDVD with iLife 05/06 it places a disk image on your desktop so that with application such as Roxio Toast you can burn freely with.
eMac 1.42 GHZ (2004) Mac OS X (10.3.9) 512 DDR, 120GB HDD, Emprex 16x DVD RW

Thinkpad T30--Looking for (1) 512MB PC2100 DDR 266Mhz 200-pin SO-DIMM

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