Replacing a Del lInspiron 8100 drive from another company

[shlznit]

I am going to order an IBM Travelstart 48GH and I was told by Dell's tech support that this was not possible due to the restraints that a drive for any 8100 needs to be from Dell because of the casing that holds the drive into the laptop. I feel that is bs. I took out my POS Hitachi drive and it just sits in a little casing. Both drive's dimmensions match so I don't see that this would be a problem. According to tech support it is. Then again, they want me to buy the same damn drive from them for $400 instead of $300, a pricewatch quoted price. Will this work, has anyone done something like this with their Inspiron 8100. Any feedback would be great, thanks.