Time to upgrade to a t60 14" laptop!

[fefrie]

Time to upgrade.

I've had a t42 with the 64mb video, and sxga and I've been very happy with it, inspite of the 2 broken hinges i've had to replace, in the year that i've had it.

I'm determined to get a t60 with the 128mb ati x1400? and fingerprint reader, all stock of course.

What processor typically comes with the ati chip? I'll be doing some hd video editing, so a better processor is good.

Also, I am in love with factory restore discs. It's always a good start to start with a clean factory xp, especially since I plan on SSDing this drive with a SSD with garabage collection support.

Are factory restore discs easily obtainable? Is this something that I could ask for free from members here? Or is it a software kind of thing with copyright?

I have to have factory restore discs. I can't handle searching for new drivers (especially wireless cards, on t42s they are all different and drive me crazy....)

The factory restore discs are the only thing that is holding me back at this point....

If anyone could dropbox me them that would be much appreciated.

If it's a sharing thing that's allowed, then I would be easily able to share my t42 factory restore discs (all on harddrive and ready to share via dropbox)

[ajkula66]

Depending on the generation, X1400 GPU was shipped along both Core Duo and Core 2 Duo CPUs, so there's really no way of telling what you're going to get unless you look at an actual machine that someone, somewhere, lists for sale.

Even if it doesn't have one right now, every T60/p can be upgraded with a FPR, unlike T42.

My daughter has a 2007-6PU with T7400 CPU, and it's a very sweet - as well as fast for its age - machine. I've done some very modest upgrades to it and it runs like a deer.

I'd advise against XP on SSD, but that's just me...these units are perfectly capable of running W7.

I'm sure that you can obtain a set of recovery disks in the Marketplace for not that much money.

Happy upgrading.

[pianowizard]

I'd advise against XP on SSD

Would you elaborate?

[ajkula66]

Would you elaborate?

Sure.

My limited experience is that I've always ended up experiencing random freezing, sudden slowdowns regardless of the machine or SSD involved.

There's an excellent chance that there's a lot that I'm missing when it comes to knowledge of tweaking XP to properly run on SSDs, but at this point in the game I simply install W7 on the same hardware and call it a day. A lot less aggravation in my book.

As always, YMMV.

[Johan]

I'd advise against XP on SSD, but that's just me...these units are perfectly capable of running W7.

I have been running several T60's (with both X1300 and X1400 GPU's) with Windows XP Pro (SP3) for years - with Intel SSD's (both X25-M G1 and G2's and the more recent 320's), and I have nothing but good to say about that. I have never experienced any difficulties with the Intel SSD's, neither in these T60's nor in other laptops. I can only recommend using a (at least Intel) SSD in a T60, both under Windows XP as well as under Windows 7 (recall that Intel has their very fine, free tool Solid-State Drive Toolbox which will also work under XP).

Windows 7 is reported to be far less energy efficient compared to Windows XP... see e.g. the thread Win XP vs Win 7 Battery Time

Johan

[pianowizard]

I did a quick Google search for "Windows XP" and "SSD" and found several articles recommending disabling paging files to improve reliability. Would you guys agree?

[RealBlackStuff]

Depends on the programs you use.
Photoshop definitely requires a page file.
Just for saving a few lousy megabytes on the HD, I would not disable the page file, but instead set it to a fixed size, so it always stays in the same place.

[ZaZ]

I did a quick Google search for "Windows XP" and "SSD" and found several articles recommending disabling paging files to improve reliability. Would you guys agree?

I would agree. I ran XP on my main desktop for a year or so on my main desktop using an OCZ SSD. It ran quite well, faster than Vista or Windows 7 due to the lower overhead. The thing about XP is the SSD has to be properly aligned for best performance. A Windows XP install disc and I'm guessing a set up of recovery discs won't do this. A Vista or Windows 7 disc will align the parition properly. I used a Vista disc to make the install parition before installing XP.

[fefrie]

What would be the ultimate processor that I'm looking for. Past the P4 mobilie nomenclature, I'm not very familar with the txxxx numbers.

Is it the t7xxx or t2xxxx series,

And I'm assuming that ATI x1600 is the best I should want? 128mb?

[RealBlackStuff]

T7600 is the largest/biggest CPU the T60 can take. This is Core 2 Duo.
The T2300-T2600 are 'only' Core Duo.

The largest GPU in a T60 is the ATI Mobility FIREGL V5200/V5250.

[pianowizard]

Just for saving a few lousy megabytes on the HD, I would not disable the page file

You misunderstood. The goal is to reduce the number of write cycles to prolong the life of the SSD. I did more reading and besides turning off the page file, many people also recommend putting Internet Explorer temporary files on a Ram disk. I now do both and feel less worried about overusing my $200 Crucial M4 SSD.

[fefrie]

Could a t60p owner run the following webpage?

It's fishbowl. How many fish and fps do you get when setting the fish to 'auto'

http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/Performance/FishBowl/

I'm in the market for a t60p C2D with the ati 5250 hopefully...

They're getting really cheap these days.