Size of hard drive bay for Thinkpad Edge E430? and SATA 300 vs 600

[automattack]

I'm looking to get a larger hard drive for my Thinkpad Edge E430, and I have two questions.

The current drive is a Toshiba MK5061GSY - SATA 300. It's 0.4 inches high. I'm looking at a WD Green WD20NPVX - SATA 600. It's 0.6inches high.

1. What size is the HDD bay? Will a drive that's 0.6 inches high fit?
2. Is a SATA 600 drive backwards compatible with a SATA 300 port?

Thanks.

[lead_org · Accepted solution]

Ivy Bridge CPU in the E430 supports SATAIII (6 Gb/s) for the main hdd and optical drive bay.

The height of the E430 hdd bay is suitable for 7 and 9.5 mm (not sure what that equates to in inches).

[automattack]

lead_org wrote:
Ivy Bridge CPU in the E430 supports SATAIII (6 Gb/s) for the main hdd and optical drive bay.

Thanks, that's good to know. So you're saying that it will support SATA-600 at SATA-600 speeds, correct?

lead_org wrote:
The height of the E430 hdd bay is suitable for 7 and 9.5 mm (not sure what that equates to in inches).

That's odd... 9.5mm converts to 0.374 inches, which is smaller than the specs the manufacturer gives for the drive (0.4 inches).

[lead_org]

The 12.7 mm drive not going to fit. Also the value they gave is probably rounded off.