Ultrabay blu-ray burner at Lenovo.com

So why not get one off ebay at less than your targeted price of 300-400$?

 

I wont have anything to do with ebay any more, plus I like to be sure I am buying genuine parts. In another thread I posted that I just purchased an Asus external blu-ray burner last night for $200 at the Egg, it should be here tuesday.

 

Those wont work for W510. If I am not mistaken, T410, T510 and W510 all use 12.7mm Drives. The ones on your links are all 9.5mm.

The good thing about 12.7mm drives is that they can easily be bought from Ebay for $100-$150. The generic ones will not have a matching bezel, which can also be bought from ebay or use the one from existing dvd drive


Or get one like this
LENOVO IBM ThinkPad W700 R400 R500 Blu-ray Disc NEW! - eBay (item 170520182175 end time Aug-26-10 10:22:33 PDT)

 

The T410 uses Serial Ultrabay Slim (9.5mm)

The R400/R500, W510, T510, etc uses Serial Ultrabay Enhanced (12.7mm)

I did not refer to the W510, nor does the drive which the OP linked to - so I don't see how I was "wrong" in posting the links.

If you check my first post I also mentioned the following:

"Ultrabay enhanced versions are even cheaper."

Edit: (Serial) Ultrabay Slim drives can even be used in (Serial) Ultrabay Enhanced.

 

Sorry my bad about the T410.

The OP has a W510 so I was referring to the cheaper 12.7mm drives. No offense to you

I dont know why no one is making a decent 9.5mm blu-ray reader for $150. A lot of ultraportable notebooks can benefit from them.

 

because only a small number of companies manufacture ultraslim blu-ray burner/reader, and there is not lot of demand for them.

 

Probably. It works in my T510. I bought an ASUS external SBC-06D1S-U, and gutted it. Inside, it's the LG CT21N. I moved the Lenovo DVD parts over to the LG, and have been enjoying it since April.

 

hi is it possible that you post a picture of what the result looks like? So that those members whom are interested can also follow this.

 

I can if there's huge interest, but it was really simple, and pics won't add much, you cannot tell the difference externally-- it looks exactly the same. When I pop the LG CT21N out of the T510, it says LG on the outside. The Lenovo was slightly better looking, but I never see it, so no big deal. The drive form factors are identical, right down to the screw holes.

I bought the ASUS for $150 CDN. It comes with Blu-Ray software, which is essential, and usually about $50. You can see the product here.

I gently lifted most of the edges of the ASUS enclosure with slim steak knife, and pulled out the LG CT21N. The ASUS enclosure has a SATA-to-USB bridge, which you will not need to move over. ASUS includes USB accelerator software in the package, which I also no longer needed, a nice benefit of moving the drive internal.

I swapped the ASUS / LG CT21N faceplate with the Lenovo faceplate using my fingers and a small screwdriver. I swapped the rear plastic "anchor" doohickey on the Lenovo, and put it on the LG CT21 -- this allows the drive to 'click' into place, and unlatch when needed. If iirc, there were a couple of mounts I had to move over as well. That's it.

I put the Lenovo drive (an LG drive iirc) into the ASUS enclosure, so the original ASUS is now an external DVD drive. This was basically a gut-swap.

The LG CT21N shows up in Win7 as "ASUS", likely because ASUS flashed the firmware. But otherwise no apparent difference. This worked perfectly. And I get to re-use the ASUS enclosure for the Lenovo drive. And I got free Blu-Ray software. And I retired the ASUS USB accelerator software that I installed when I used it as an external Blu-ray player for my original testing. Keep in mind, you need sufficient graphics horsepower to run Blu-Ray. Intel HD graphics on the T510 worked very well.

My guess is the Lenovo branded Blu-Ray reader is the same LG CT21N, but just a guess.

I've watched about 20 Blu-Rays so far. It's very quiet. I'm very pleased with the results and pricing. Not as pleased with losing ASUS warranty support, but it's well worth the risk for me. Blu-Ray is awesome on both the T510 and my Dell external.

 

Sure beats paying over $1000.

I know, I know, it's a reader not a writer.