$200 gamble= Thinkcentre A61 Extreme CPU upgrade (QUAD core)

[jflores]

Hi to all,

I just wanted to report a successful CPU upgrade on my Thinkcentre A61 (type 9144W25).

This machine had a stock Athlon x2 4400+, upgraded it once to a x2 6000+ during a few months.
But I wanted something that had some more 'oomph' to switch to Windows 7 x64.

However, it seems NOBODY upgrades the cpu on their Thinkcentre (at least I did not find out), so I decided to study voltages, socket compatibility, pin counts, etcetera in order to see if it could accomodate a MUCH more recent CPU (my Thinkcentre is over two years old).

I thus ordered an AMD Phenom II X4 945 -[Quad Core Socket AM3 0.045 micron Cache L2 2 Mo Cache L3 6 Mo - Stepping C3]
[edit : indeed the Thinkcentre A61 socket is AM2+, but AM3 processors are backwards compatible with AM2+ sockets]

It simply worked (BIOS was already the latest), and all works ok since a couple of days now.
And it is now 'oomph'-compliant

I wanted to share the information in case it can help someone reluctant to take the plunge. You can go ahead

Joscelyn

PS : one more thing IN CASE it matters : motherboard is rev. 1.02.

[DrThinkpad]

Well done indeed ! Now put a pair of HD 5770 and you've got yourself a powerful monster

[jflores]

You have just spotted the WEAK point of this particular model : the Video.

The inbuilt video is just not up to par, and by today's standards, mostly subpar: Radeon X1250
One more problem : it is a low profile thinkcentre (Small Form Factor), which SEVERELY limits the vdeo upgrade possibilities.

It does have a 16x PCI Express slot, but only one, so a pair oh HD 5770 is out of the question

What I have tried so far : nvidia Quadro NVS 290 (but ageing...) and ONLY two video outputs.
Also tried ATI FireMV 2400 with FOUR video outputs, but I only found a PCIE 1x model (unlucky me)

The problem is I need to drive a T221 monster (which requires 4 video input for acceptable refresh rate).
Sofar I haven't found the good solution ot combination yet. But searching !

Anybody having any advice for a low profile, quad output, POWERFUL video card available ?
thanks !

[zachsandberg]

I realize that this post is old but...
I've got an a61 Thinkcentre and have also upgraded the AMD x2 4000+ cpu to a AMD 5050e. This was a large increase in speed.

Zach