Which Ultrabay Caddy to buy for T530?

Plan to put the HDD drive into the ultrabay using a caddy and buy a SSD drive.

What caddy do you recommend for T530? Are there ones that completely flush with the ultrabay with no wriggling space?

 

I did give you an answer to your same question in a different thread.

Anyhow, if someone asked me for a single recommendation from my varied experiences with UltraBay caddy adapters, I would say go with NewModeUS -- light weight, perfect fit, excellent quality.

Bonus: There is a discount code.

 

2nd SSD HDD Hard Drive Caddy for Lenovo ThinkPad T430 W530 T530 | eBay

Enjoy.

 

You did give me a link of the same product. But it is about $44 so I decided to forgo. Where to get the discount code?

 

There is the option of buying from that ebay seller for about $10.

 

You pay for what you get mate. The other caddies will probably work just fine but may not fit as snug and have the same matching finish as the Newmodeus, also the newmodeus has a handy blue LED built-in to show HDD activity, something that most other caddies don't.

Is it all worth an extra $30 vs the cheaper ebay specials... only you can answer that. It was for me.

 

You should have recommended the expensive one sold by "Lenovo/IBM."

 

I have used this one for 9 months now. $9.45 USD, ships out of Queens, NY, fits perfectly in the T530, matches the black trim very well, and has a flashing blue light when the ultrabay SSD is activated.

New Ultrabay III 3 2nd HDD Lenovo ThinkPad T420 T520 W520 T420i SATA 3 0 6GB S | eBay

 

Yeah, that's the one I'm using right now. (They're all made in China, presumably by the same manufacturers that supply the adapters to Lenovo. But this seller ships from NY and charges less than most.)

 

Good to hear, I guess the main difference is the newmodeus is almost all Aluminium construction and made in the USA vs China but if the other one does the job and fits well then I can see the attraction in saving $30.

 

I use newmodeus caddy adapters as well. They are lighter and better built -- more elegant if you can tolerate such a notion.

 

Does this support SATA III speed if I put in a SSD drive?

 

The caddy has no problems with SATA III, it's the laptop chipset you need to be sure about. I am told the W530 supports SATA III speeds from the Ultrabay, I imagine the T530 would do the same. I could be wrong as I have heard mixed information about Ultrabay SATAIII support, hence I would also like some clarification.

In saying that, when talking real world performance, the difference in speed between SATAII and SATAIII will hardly be noticed with current generation laptop SSD drives. If you're at all concerned place the SSD in the primary drive bay and the HDD in the caddy, that's what I did.

The primary bay will 100% support SATA III.

 

Right. The UltraBay caddy adapter's connector is just a passthrough device.

Speaking of chipset, the Intel QM77 chipset supports 4 SATA ports, 2 at 6Gbit/s and 2 at 3Gbit/s -- Lenovo assigns the two faster ones to the main bay and the UltraBay, and the slower one to the PCI-Express/mSATA slot.

W530 and T530 both support SATA III (6Gbit/s) for the UltraBay port.

Most users put a SATA 1.5Gbit/s or 3Gbit/s HDD in the UltraBay anyway. (Generally speaking, I doubt if most use-cases saturate the SATA III transfer speed.)

 

W530 user here; machine gets a daily workout on the train and all around the office (I'm IT.) I'll throw in my rec for the NewModeUS adapter, as well. I used a cheaper caddy for a while ( Amazon.com : Ultrabay SATA 2nd HD Hard Drive Caddy Tray Lenovo ThinkPad T420i T510 W510 T520 : Computers & Accessories) but ultimately upgraded because the cheaper caddy had a cheap looking bezel (silly issue) and because the ssd in the caddy kept coming loose (larger issue.) If you opt for a cheaper one, be careful of the bar-locking mechanism. It's good for short term use, but is bound to wiggle free in the long term.

Best part of the NewModeUS caddy is that you can screw the drive in, so it's nice and secure.

 

Right. The newmodeus UltraBay caddy adapter uses 4 tiny screws at the bottom of the tray to hold the drive tight.

Most, if not all, of the other parts use friction to keep the drive in the tray: two screws on each side, plus a snap-down plastic bar at the non-connecting end. The 4 screws stick out from the 2 sides and create friction when you push the drive down onto the tray. With regular shaking (like on commuter train twice daily), the drive may come loose.

Hey, welcome to the forum. (Just noticed your first post.)

 

0/10.

My Jimmies remain unrustled.