Need help on T20 CPU upgrade

[rnorris1b]

I have two questions about upgrading my T20 cpu.

My T20 has a 650 mhz pentium III cpu. I would like to upgrade to an 850 mhz or 900 mhz processor. Would I need to upgrade the fan? Or would the current fan in the T20 be sufficient to handle the extra heat? I have priced the fan assembly for a T22 and it is more expensive than the processor.

As long as I stick with a micro-pga2, 100 mhz bus speed, with speed step, do I need to worry about the core stepping configuration of the processor? I got the idea that as long as you are not running dual processors, you don't have to worry about the stepping.

Thank you.

[beeblebrox]

yes, I did it.
the T20 can handle 900 Mhz, but the system becomes VERY hot and the fan spins all the time. Avg. temp is around 70-85°C, that was to much for me. At 100% usage the temp is aroun 90-95C
The T21/T22 fan and cooler is actually a huge massive thing with a large connection to the motherboard, wide heat pipes and large spreaders.
The system stays at 40-55°C, never goes beyond 79° at 100% CPU.
If you do not run intensive tasks, then you could use the old T20 fan and patiently wait for the rigth ebay bargain to upgrade.
I found a cooling system including the 900Mhz CPU for $ 40 at ebay, brandnew.

[rnorris1b]

Thank you for your reply. As long as I use a fan assembly from either a T21 or T22 it will fit OK, won't it? How difficult was the upgrade? What type of thermal grease did you use?

P.S. I think I read another post of yours about IBM changing the bios and afterwards cheap batteries did not work in your T20. What battery do you use now? I saw that batteryrefill.com cuts open Thinkpad batteries and replaces the Lithium cells. Do you have any thoughts about this type of service?

[CeNG]

I'm replacing the system board on my T20 and was also wondering why type of thermal grease or compound to use. I generally use arctic silver on my other systems but the stuff on the heatsink/fan assembly for the T20 is very thick, almost 1mm, and kind of rubbery in texture. I'm wondering if I remove that and apply arctic silver, whether the heatsink and cpu will even come into contact any longer?

Anyone have any insight into that?

[beeblebrox]

The T20 uses industrial silicon thermal compound. You can not use grease. The gap is too large. With using the T21/T22 cooling system everything changes, with springs. There you can use regular white silicon grease. Actually there is not much difference between the various 50ct greases and $20 arctic stuff (1-2 °C).
Several tests have shown that toothpaste (!!) actually is the very best heat conductor (because it contains water which is always the best by nature) Unfortunately is dries up and then later the cpu overheats.

I use my regular old IBM battery, took out the half-dead battery cells and replaced them with new ones (3x 2cell Panasonic high capacity coupled as pair). So with $25 is was set with a highest-capacity battery, using the old IBM electronics and having no BIOS problems.

[AbsoluteRaleigh]

I have two questions about upgrading my T20 cpu.

My T20 has a 650 mhz pentium III cpu. I would like to upgrade to an 850 mhz or 900 mhz processor. Would I need to upgrade the fan? Or would the current fan in the T20 be sufficient to handle the extra heat? I have priced the fan assembly for a T22 and it is more expensive than the processor.

As long as I stick with a micro-pga2, 100 mhz bus speed, with speed step, do I need to worry about the core stepping configuration of the processor? I got the idea that as long as you are not running dual processors, you don't have to worry about the stepping.

Thank you.

A mpga2 900mhz SL53T CPU goes for around $45 on eBay.

Use a T22 fan if possible...