can I add a wifi pci card to a IBM T30?

[mcveigh]

I am trying to help a friend get a new laptop to work from home (he has a new baby) I'm looking at a refurbished T30 and a wireless router. his budget is $1500 out the door.
IBM has some decent T30's on fleabay but very few have wifi builtin (he wants it integrated no external cards)
is it hard/possible to put a wifi card in?

 

[kayatai]

you should be able to put one in if it has a minipci slot, but you would have to order the card from IBM (or get an IBM card) because I believe they are using some sort of propriety hardware thing with miniPCI.

I don't know if they were doing something funny like not installing the antenna in models originally sold w/o integrated wireless though.

not sure if this link will work:
http://www2.ibmlink.ibm.com/cgi-bin...lesmanual^&type=D&search=T30&title=T&product=

it looks like all T30 models listed in those documents have integrated wireless capabilities, so you can buy a mini PCI card for it. some of them are only listed as b (or 2.4ghz) I think, so be careful if you want something like a, although g should work with a b antenna.

 

[mcveigh]

thanks. I was looking at some of the mini pci cards on ebay that are supposed to be IBM's they are like $50.00

 

[kayatai]

Originally posted by: mcveigh
thanks. I was looking at some of the mini pci cards on ebay that are supposed to be IBM's they are like $50.00

I guess that's not too bad. Intel's PRO wireless 2100 b (the one that goes with centrino) is only like 29.00 USD new from dell. I guess it wouldn't work with IBM. I guess I just expected them to be cheaper off of ebay.