I don't have a T5540 but this brief description has kindly been provided by Jem Atahan:
"I thought you might be interested in some info on the HP t5540 to add to your excellent guide, as it has something that is increasingly necessary in today's hardware world: a (potential) SATA port!"
1Ghz Eden
6 USB 2.0 ports
512 MB SODIMM
128 MB IDE flashVia VX800 chipset
Via Chrome 9 HC3 integrated graphics
VX800 SATA/EIDE controller
VIA VT1708/A Azalia HD audio
VIA VT6120/VT6121/VT6122 Gigabit ethernet
The SATA port (outlined in red) is at the top left in the picture - just above the IDE connector.
(Click on the picture for a larger version).
For those to whom it matters here is some detail from Linux's /proc/cpuinfo (courtesy of Ben Pye)
vendor_id : CentaurHauls cpu family : 6 model : 13 model name : VIA Eden Processor 1000MHz stepping : 0
"Now the hard bit. There are surface mount tabs for the SATA plug, but nothing connected.
Me and my novice soldering skills have managed to attach a salvaged plug from another card,
and if I can do it, anyone can.
I have cut a hole in the side of the USB recess above the new port and run the cable out to a 3.5" disk, but one could probably mount a 2.5" drive internally. I haven't connected the SATA power headers yet, but I'm willing to guess they work too. hdparm -t /dev/sda reports 100 MB/sec transfer rate out of the disk's cache, which is a damn sight better than USB, and the system boots and runs pretty snappily. The picture of the motherboard shows my hacked on port before I smothered it with hot melt glue."
Any comments? email me. Last update November 2010
