A crazy idea has just hit me. Are the Ultrabay Enhanced SATA drives more or less universal?

The 12.7mm tall optical drives they're using in the T510 and W510 (and W700, R400, whatever) use a mini-SATA connection.

Are these drives more or less universal?


I know back in the PATA days, the physical interface was different between a Thinkpad optical drive, and the kind you'd find in a non-hot-swappable drive. But the new ones are mini-SATA, so they should theoretically be compatible, outside of any mounting hardware, correct?


The reason I ask this is, according to SlickDeals, there's a Gateway laptop going for $499 that is listed as a Core i3, but comes with a Core i5. I'm toying with the idea of picking that up for work, and it comes with a Blu Ray drive. If possible, I'd like to swap out the Blu Ray drive with the DVDDL that will come with my W510, assuming the only real differences are the bezel (easily swapped), and the mounting hardware to keep the drive from simply sliding out.

 

I have a T400. I bought a Dell E6400 drive to put inside it hoping to change the drive locking/eject mechanism which seems to be propritery.

While the drives including the sata connectors are standard the groves where the holes are were different which spoiled the swap. I probably could easily i punched 2-3 holes and it would have worked but didn;t seem worth it.

 

The T400 uses a slim drive, as does the E6500. It's possible Lenovo will do this on the larger drives...I guess I'll have to wait until the W510 arrives.