Thinkpads Forum

Hello all

I built my own T60 out of spare parts I had and buying few necessary parts from eBay. It's based on 2008-UE7 with X1300, T7200, 3GB RAM and 15" SXGA+. Everything was great until I got my hands on a new SSD. With all the price war going on between SSD makers I could not resist buying an SSD. ($45 after rebate and coupon for OCZ Agility 3)

I installed the SSD and WOW!!!
What a difference from 60 GB 5200 RPM mechanical drive. Before I continue, I suggest you drop what you're doing now and get your self an SSD for your thinkpad.

But this drive speed improvement got me thinking, 'Maybe I should upgrade to a T61 board with Middleton Bios for SATA II speed?' So long story short, right now 'm looking 2 auctions in eBay for following spec.
Both are "For parts or not working" auction, and sellers claims that they both boot to bios.

Auction 1) ThinkPad T61 (8897-01U)
T7100(1.8GHz), 1GB RAM, 100GB 7200rpm HD, 14.1in 1024 X 768 LCD, Intel X3100, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11abg wireless,

Auction 2) ThinkPad T61 (8892-02U)
T7500(2.2GHz), 1GB RAM, 100GB 7200rpm HD, 14.1in 1400x1050 LCD, 128MB nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn wireless

Here's my dilemma.
For my purpose, I really don't need better graphics board but I'm looking towards auction #2 because it has faster processor but it has that nVidia graphics which I see on many posts around here to avoid at any cost due to high failure rate. So my question is,

#1 Should I get auction #2 assuming boards with nVidia should have failed by now and boards that are still working should last 2-3 years?

#2 Get auction #1 with X3100 board that is less prone to fail due to graphics? But this one comes with slower processor

#3 What is the reasonable price for each auction would you pay? Both do not come with AC adapter, battery, Hard drive, and cracked LCD. These are thing I don't need

#4 Can I use my current processor (T7200) in T61 boards? (I'm guessing not)

In desperate need of fellow's guidance.....

Get the Intel board.

CPUs - apart from top of the line ones - are inexpensive nowadays.

Your CPU won't work on that board, but if you're interested I've got a Penryn that I'd trade for it which will work and run both faster and cooler than the Merom you'll get in the machine.

ajkula66 wrote:Get the Intel board.

CPUs - apart from top of the line ones - are inexpensive nowadays.

Your CPU won't work on that board, but if you're interested I've got a Penryn that I'd trade for it which will work and run both faster and cooler than the Merom you'll get in the machine.

Do you mean even trade? I send you mine and you send me yours kinda thing? If so, yes. I'll do that
Which Penryn do you have?
If I do get that Intel X3100 board, I'll PM you with arrangement

Thanks

I've got a T8100 that I'd trade for your T7200.

If you get the board and are still interested, drop me a PM.

ajkula66 wrote:I've got a T8100 that I'd trade for your T7200.

If you get the board and are still interested, drop me a PM.

Oh.. I thought you meant for T7100 I would get with T61 system. I'm sorry but my current T7200 in my T60 is already spoken for. I do have 3 other T60 in my house

But I will have T2400 and T2300 once this upgrade is done. Both for your T8100?

The nVidia chips are great, but unfortunately sites like ebay are full of ones that have already failed. It's a trivial matter to get a failed one to boot to bios and sell it described as "not working" (read these auctions carefully).

If you do want a real working nVidia board I can help you, probably a bit more then you'd pay on ebay, but I get them from fuly working corporate laptops and put considerable time into testing them.

However, if you don't care about performance that much, the Intel would be the choice to make.

ps. If you want a cheap upgrade for the T7100 I can give you a great deal on a T7300, or a T7500. I have faster ones too, but the T7300 I'm selling very cheap, all pulled from fully working laptops.

Thank you both for your suggestions and your "offers" I will keep your offers in mind when I give up searching in eBay

I lost both auctions in eBay (maybe one of you have something to do with it?!?!? ) so no T61 boards yet. I decided on X3100 board. Don't want any troubles than I need to with nVidia. So my hunt for X3100 board continues.