Thinkpads Forum

I own a IBM ThinkCentre M51 Tall Tower. Specs: http://www.pacificgeek.com/product.asp?id=106423

It has a Nvidia Gforce 8400 installed in it and a 1TB SATA HD, 4GB Max memory RAM, Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz, and running Windows XP Professional.
I use this as my gaming PC and will be my main Gaming if they ever bring more Games to PC over consoles. But im looking to see about upgrading my IBM tower to a new motherboard. To run a Intel core i7 with a max of 16GB memory RAM and Windows 7 "have a copy".

May get off newegg or tigerdirect or have to get a used Lenovo motherboard that has these specs.
Now looking at my tower you may notice something, The motherboard is on the otherside of the tower compaired to basic towers.

i'm not sure what you are wanting, here..
to sell or to buy..?

Im looking to get a new motherboard.

At the very least you are going to need a new MB, CPU and RAM. That CPU was what made AMD the CPU performance king in the day. You basically need a new PC so might as well throw a few $$ for a new case and don't forget a good PSU. For gaming, a good GPU is a must and it's not hard to beat a 8400. Getting a new MB for this particular rig is just not worth it.

Well I found my answer, its called a BTX Board, thats why its backwards. unfortunately the BTX boards were discontinued in 2006 witch makes since being this is a 2006 IBM ThinkCentre desktop tower.

Would it be possible to switch out a Intel Pentium 4 for a Intel Core 2 Duo or a Intel Core i7? I know later on processors got rid of the pins on processors to make it user friendly to switch out without bending off the pins on processors. I think my desktop processors has the nonpin one. It says its a Intel Inside Pentium 4 H T.

I replaced the Pentium 4 in a M52 (small form factor) with a Pentium D, an early dual-core processor. It is pretty snappy. Nothing later works. The Pentium D is actually listed in the spec sheet as an option. M51 is probably similar.

Andrew

I have my IBM ThinkCentre M51 maxed at its 4GB of RAM and was woundering if the graphics card I have in it is whats making it play games slugish. I got last year for it a Nvidia Geforce 8400. So im just woundering if its the graphics card. I would think a Pentium 4 (3.0GHz) would still be good as a Core 2 Duo (3.0GHz) and a max 4GB of RAM. Half-Life 2 plays well on it, but valve keeps giving it updates and something is making it run slugish, Resident Evil 5 is really rough. Im hoping I dont need to upgrade to a new board in which I can only do in my A50p. I had a person on tigerdirect find the board that will fit inside the A50p, A gigabit brand MOB "I can give the full discription about it but its saved on my other PC". So would this GPU work in my M51? Galaxy GeForce GTX 650 Ti. Another thing is my current GPU is 512MB and the 650 says its a 1GB in video memory.

I would recommend a new system build; from what I have been able to find, I don't think your current GPU requires an external power connector, therefore I doubt that your PSU would have one, meaning that while yes, you have a PCIeX16 slot, you would have to upgrade your power supply, which looks to be either proprietary or BTX standard, so finding a new one is going to be tough. I don't believe that your current gpu is double slot either, and since the BTX standard is backwards, since you don't have a free PCI opening above the PCIE slot, it will not fit in your case (assuming a double slot design, which seems to be most common nowadays).

In regards to the cpu upgrade, while it has the same socket as the core 2 duos/quads, they will NOT work. Since it uses the 915 chipset, it is limited to 800mhz fsb, which IIRC, is lower than the core 2 duos.

my $0.02

I got a new graphics card and the newer games play fine "Not perfect, but playable" I replaced the Nvidia 8400 GS 512MB GDDR2 with a Nvidia GT 520 1024MB DDR3 card. But the system as soon as it gets to the WELCOME screen, the arrow of the mouse is lagging and the everthing as loging in and such. Didnt do it until the I got this card. I ran the PC doctor and the card passes the test.

ThinkPad560X wrote:I got a new graphics card and the newer games play fine "Not perfect, but playable" I replaced the Nvidia 8400 GS 512MB GDDR2 with a Nvidia GT 520 1024MB DDR3 card. But the system as soon as it gets to the WELCOME screen, the arrow of the mouse is lagging and the everthing as loging in and such. Didnt do it until the I got this card. I ran the PC doctor and the card passes the test.

Wipe a drivers and reinstall the newest ones. If that doesnt work, your psu cant handle the card. Had the sam symptoms on a mate's rig. The 240 watt psu couldn't handle a gtx660.

Basiacally your new gt520 is the 8400s replacement. Its quite a bit faster but they both hold the same place in nvidia's product range, higher low end. They're a few generations apart though.