[Thinkpad] upgrading ThinkPad T61p with non-Lenovo RAM and HDD

[Aryeh Goretsky (home)]

Hello,

I have been thinking about purchasing a ThinkPad T61p for myself.  Since this
is for personal use, I would like to keep the costs down by buying it with the
least amount of memory (1GB) and smallest capacity hard disk drive (80GB) and
then install 4GB of RAM and a larger disk drive (250GB+).  I will also buy it
with Windows Vista Home Basic, then do a clean install of Vista 
Ultimate to the
new hard disk drive using a retail license of it.  This will save me about $500
or so, at the cost of an evening or so of assembling everything.

I noticed that Crucial offers a 4GB kit (P/N: CT2KIT25664AC80E) that 
is DDR2-800
memory.  The T61p uses a CPU with an 800MHz FSB, but ships with RAM 
that runs at
533MHz.  Is there any advantage to installing 800MHz RAM into the 
T61p, or is it
locked to use the memory at 533MHz?

On the hard disk drive side, I'm considering the Western Digital WD3200BEVT,
(320MB, 5400RPM, SATA) or the Seagate ST9250827AS (250GB, 5400RPM, SATA).  I
know there has been some recent discussion of failure modes with the Western
Digital drives, but was wondering if anyone had any specific experience with
these two models?  Also, does the T61p require custom firmware for its hard
disk drive, like the T43p, or do they work fine "out of the box."

I am planning on purchasing the T61p with the WWAN card, but do not intend to
use it, at least initially.  I was planning to replace it with an Intel Turbo
Memory card.  The reason for purchasing with the card is so that I get a T61p
with the WWAN antennas installed in it (for use in the future).

For wireless, I was planning on purchasing it with the ThinkPad 802.11abg
module instead of the Intel 4965AGN.  If I go with the ThinkPad WLAN module
instead of Intel's, will it still come installed with 802.11abgn antennas?
My plan is to install an 802.11abgn module from Lenovo, but it if requires
me to purchase the Intel one to get the 802.11n antenna, I'll go with the
Intel WLAN module.

If anyone can think if any additional considerations or has specific
suggestions or recommendations to share, please let me know.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky