Thinkpads Forum

We've had a vague report from a member who claims to successfully run this processor on a T61. A check on Intel's website show the socket and frontside buss look like a match. I'm pretty sure there are no T61 bios that will allow taking advantage of the unlocked multiplier of this chip, but it would be interesting to know if it would work safely in one of these as even without overclocking, it is still faster then any cpu rated to run on one of these.

The prices are far more then I'd want to pay, but maybe I'll get lucky and find one in a damaged laptop somewhere.

Any thoughts? anyone tried it?

I've never tried it in a T61, but I used an ES X9000 CPU in a Dell XPS M1730 I used to have. Even in a big 17" gaming rig which was built to handle a very hot CPU, it had trouble with cooling. This is with BIOS settings causing the fans to automatically run at their highest setting when overclocked.

While the T-series thermal design is pretty good, I doubt it could handle the X9000 when overclocked. Undervolting at the stock 2.8GhZ clock speed might result in a stable upgrade, though.

When I was collecting parts for my FrankenPad, I was also looking for the X9000. In the end I decided to go for the fastest CPU Lenovo put in the T61, the T9500.

I came from a T60p with T7600 and Ati FireGL, which runs hot and the fan is always on.
My goal was to assemble a fast machine which runs cool and quiet. The X9000 is supported by the motherboard, but not by Lenovo.

I am satisfied with my machine. The T9500 runs cool (about 40~45C) and the fan does not constantly spin. The T9500 was half the price of the X9000. I suppose the X9000 will also work on the T61, but I think the cpu will run a little warmer so the fan has to spin constantly.

Thank you my dutch friend

I too considered getting the T9500, but I think it was only offered as special order (CTO) systems, as I haven't seen any preconfigured systems that ship with one. I do have more T9300 chips then I know what to do with, so there really is no pressing need to upgrade to get 0.1ghz more speed from the cpu.

Thank you also for the input about the X9000. It would still be nice to have a 1st hand account of installing and running one, as I plan on making a topic specifically about maxing out a T61 series laptop for the Lenovo community knowledgebase website.

However, I may have just found an X9000, so I might be doing this myself. It's a fair chunk of money to fork over just to satisfy my curiosity, and to contribute to the community, but I think we need this information, and it sounds like a fun thing to do, so we'll see how it goes.

Unfortunately, I doubt there will be any way to use the x9000 unlocked multiplier. I think trying to add that to the bios would be difficult.

I'd also like as much info as you're willing to offer about your upgrade/s. Naturally the article will also focus on the T9500 as being the king of the original equipment CPUs.

I just checked on eBay, the price for a X9000 is a lot better now then it was in March of this year. At that time a X9000 ES version was about $400, and the T9500 about $250. At this time you can get a X9000 for $200

I agree, you should not go for the T9500 if you already have a T9300.
I think a X9000 will work in a T61 on stock speed. Overclocking will not be an option, but I personally don't understand why somebody would overclock his laptop. It generates more heat, gives more noise and battery life would drain faster.

I'd also like as much info as you're willing to offer about your upgrade/s. Naturally the article will also focus on the T9500 as being the king of the original equipment CPUs.

What would you like to know more about? Did you read my post here? I made a report how I did the FrankenPad mod

TuuS wrote:I'd also like as much info as you're willing to offer about your upgrade/s.

I accumulated a listing of available threads and postings together with my own remarks about this particular Frankenpad endeavour, BTW giving the great article of our dutch friend (thanks!!!) some special focus.
You can find it at forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/629936-t60p-2-5ghz-8gb-memory.html#post8133984.

I run my T9500 at 2.8GHz Dual IDA (both cores non-stop) when plugged on AC, and at stock 2.6GHz + IDA (max variable) when on battery, giving me great results considering my small T61. However, I still run into situation where my overclocked T9500 hits the top on both cores ... lol, and this is because I love to play Unreal Tournament 3.

Thus, I may look into more CPU than what I have right now ... which would explain my interest in the X9000 these days. Somebody somewhere said that 3.2GHz was the max that the bios would allow, but frankly I cant find that thread.

you can generally increase multiplier and overvolt/undervolt/run Dual IDA with the help of ThrottleStop - great program. I run it standard, as well as RivaTuner to OC my video card to 625 core/950 memory, and TPFanControl to spin the fan on max speed of some 4600RPMs .. thus keeping all under control, and that it does very well - max temps are under 80 deg C for CPU, under 75 deg C for GPU. Only the test over Dual IDA and the Intel Linpack test software did rise the CPU to ~84 deg C after the 5th minute.

either way, theoretically there's a way to overclock by hardmod the clock gen chip by taking a pin to sample "0" instead of "1", thus rising the bus from 200MHz to 266MHz - resulting in CPU overclock to some 3.45GHz and 3.72GHz Dual IDA for the T9500, but that I haven't tried yet as it requires other modifications such as flashing new RAM timings and fighting possible BIOS errors. But if somebody wants to try it first - I got the diagrams Find me on notebookreview.com most of the time though.

I know of somebody running his T9300 at 3.5GHz, sadly not on a thinkpad. IMO, with enough effort it might be possible for as too