Thinkpads Forum

Hello, Taz1956 here and new to site. a little bit about myself:
I have a great amount of experience building computers and have been into my T61 many times doing repairs, and also in my wife's T61 replacing cooling fan. Very well made, and built to be taken apart! I have been in many other make laptops, and by far, IBM/Lenovo is the best I have seen.
Having said that, I also support networking at my job as well as desk support and very much involved with virus/malware removal. To this day, I have never been NOT able to remove unwanted garbage in any one's machine to date. (proud gene working here).

I love Lenovo! That said,
* I would like to upgrade my present 2.4ghz CPU to the fastest that is possible.
* I would like to upgrade my present 4gig ram to largest that is possible.
* We use a docking station for both of our computers and do not want to replace old laptops/old docking stations for new.

I have read, and looked at videos of upgrading this laptop and would like anyone that knows, or has done it... past the point that I presently am at now) would be very appreciated. So,...
* What is the biggest CPU I could shoehorn into my machine?

* What is the largest amount of ram I could shoehorn into my machine?

Machine Info;

s/n: 2312W001316
model: ThinkPad T61 6459-CTO 15.4 screen
CPU: 2.4
Mem:Corsair VS4GSDSKIT800D2 4GB DDR2 PC6400 Dual Channel Laptop Memory Upgrade - 800MHz, 2x2048MB, Non-ECC, 5-5-5-18
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
Drive: Crucial M4-CT512M4SSD2 [Hard drive] (512.11 GB)
Display: ThinkPad Display 1680x1050 15.4"
Display Adaptor: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M

Any information about what I can do would be very much appreciated, and Thank you!

Taz1956

You seem to run Penryn motherboard, which is great.

CPU upgrade options:


I would recommend T9300 which is best value for your money when it comes to a faster CPU.

T61 supports up to 8GB ram.

But the biggest difference will come when you replace the slowest part in your system - your hard drive. Put a good Crucial/Intel SSD in the main bay, and use other hard drive in the Ultrabay for storage.

But above that all, I would highly recommend to install the MIDDLETON BIOS which will unlock some forbidden fruits on your T61 like SATA2 speeds.
For more info you can check http://t61.wikispaces.com/

You're wasting money if you buy a T9500 instead of a T9300, T9500 is only 0.1GHz faster but costs a lot more.
Recommended RAM: Hynix, Elpida, G.Skill, Mushkin, Crucial, Axiom, Samsung.
Stay away from so-called ValueRAM (such as from Kingston) as well as the cheapo junk from eBay.
Middleton's BIOS has been applied thousands of times, no problems there.
Make the self-booting CD, then run that using the CD/DVD drive from inside your T61.
Before you do, check in BIOS that Config/Network/Flash over LAN is ENabled, no passwords set, and that Enduser is allowed to flash BIOS in the Security settings.

Thanx for the speed of light reply.
Yea, I know about the cheapie ram. I stay away.
Thanx for info on using the 9300 instead. I will obey! Looks like you have been here before time and time again.
Thanx for reminding me of the bios password, yea have one of those.
I will take your word that this bios has been proven.

Taz1956

+1 for the middleton bios - tried and tested! You shouldn't worry about it. Post your results after the upgrade please

CPU's from e-bay should be OK. There was a slew of overclocked, remarked, CPUs a couple of years ago but that seems to have died down. You can use a 2.6GHz T9500 but it is a waste of money as you will notice no difference from a T9300, notwithstanding the larger cache. You may run into overheating problems with the X9000.

I got a few T61, all with a T9300, 4 GB RAM, SSD and of course Middleton BIOS. My Frankenpad have a T9500 and 8 GB RAM but frankly I don't notice any benefit from spending the money on a T9500 and the extra RAM.

Looks like you'll be shelling out a lot of $$ for these upgrades. Another thing to consider is upgrading to a T500 which have native SATA II support, takes DDR3 RAM which is much cheaper and will take a faster CPU. T500 and T61 will take the same dock and battery. I really like my T500(s) with ATI 3650 GPU and switchable graphics. A T500 can be had for cheap....but where does the upgrading end?

As for M's BIOS, pick either option you want.
Don't worry about saving the 'old' BIOS, as you can get that from Lenovo any time.
If you want to 'swap' Ctrl/Fn again, you need to load the other BIOS version.
Buy some of the RAM I recommended, any PC2-5300 or PC2-6400 Sodimms from them will do.

I have probably built more FrankenPads (T60 with T61 motherboard) than anybody else on this forum.
I have used every CPU that is available for a T61, including the X9000.
With Throttlestop you can overclock that X9000 all the way to 3.60GHz.
Cheapest recommended CPU: T8100
Most bang for your buck: T9300
Most money wasted: T9500 and X9000, as well as more than 4GB RAM.

You've been told a few times what to buy, what not, and why.
Stop asking dumb questions, please.