Thinkpads Forum

Hi all, I am looking to source the above, I am currently running a T9300 in my T61-8895.
I know all about the thermal risks/monitoring but I still want this chip for my well loved, well deserving T61.
I realise I am unlikely to gain much from the "upgrade" from T9300 other than HEAT but I still want 1.
Please can anyone give me a rough estimate for a second hand CPU, Ebay prices seem quite high just now and a good reputable source advised me to avoid ebay CPU's for risk they have been ill treated as such.
Thanks for reading.

Having built lots of FrankenPads, including several with X9000, I would strongly advise against them.
They are extremely over-priced and definitely also over-rated.
The speed-gain compared to your T9300 is only 0.3GHz.
Because yours is 'only' a 14.1" laptop, the extra heat from the X9000 is really too much!
For comparison, see here: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core2-X90 ... -Duo-T9300

Hi, thanks for the reply, much appreciated, would the Temps really be that much of an issue with mild casual use? My T9300 runs extremely cool, would 0.3ghz really make a huge difference?? Really after the CPU for the maxed out trip, the price is extortionate yes, and I would set a limit on what I would spend on 1. I previously had a T7100 in the T61, and this T9300 runs cooler than it by a noticeable difference.

Clock is not a good measure for speed. Both CPUs are a bit different, the X9000 is about 20% faster.

But this extra computing power comes at a cost, more heat.

The T9300 was designed to dissipate 35W, and the X9000, 44W (25% more). And these extra watts will make the battery last less hours.

The cooling system in the T61 was designed to cope with 35W, not 44W. There isn't really much you can do, except trying to change the thermal compound. If you have a T61 with Intel video, then the cooling system for an nVidia T61 (I don't remember if the 140M and the 570M have different parts for cooling, if so, get the 570M parts) may help a bit. I'd go with RBS's advice and keep away from that.

I see, thanks for that informative reply, looks like the X9000 idea is dying a sudden death, its extremely tempting though. Yes I have the intel GPU. Are you X9000 people regretting using this CPU then?? any catastrophes ??

Never tried a X9000 but as a point of reference, one of my T500 is running a X9100 which replaced a T9600. Even at idle the X9100 ran about 10-15 deg C hotter and that is in a machine (T500) that do a pretty good job of removing heat. Can only imagine how much hotter a X9000 would be in a T61 - 14"

All the X9000 I have used, were put in Frankenpads, consisting of a 15" T60/p chassis with a T61 14.1" motherboard.
Inside such a T60/p, there is better air circulation than in the 14.1" models, but I find them still too hot for the too little extra "Oomph" that they provide.
IMHO: don't do it, unless you need bragging rights!

Usually-the absolute cheapest you'll ever see an X9000 is for $200. But because they change hands so rarely, even on ebay, it is quite hard to keep a solid idea on the value.

I'm currently running an X9000 in my NVS 140M T60/61 4:3 Frankie- mostly because my games are very CPU intensive and I figure the "extra oomph" might be worthwhile in the long run. The laptop seems to be taking to the heat just fine... the temps don't rise above 75C and all the games I've thrown at it(reasonable for a machine it's age, but still intensive), have run fluently with no throttling. The game simply reduces the framerate instead of throttling it when I push it a little too hard, which is good. Throttling usually indicates a bad GPU, bad cooler or too hot of a thermal profile.

However- I'm still probably going to downgrade to a T9500 anyways... because RBS is right, the X9000's value really doesn't justify the 200 extra MHz of go-go. UNLESS you do serious gaming, in which case you need to have a post 08/08 GPU in your T61, the X9000 is utterly useless and you really shouldn't use it. The T9300 even works just fine for what it does, and costs less than a quarter of the price of an X9000.

Medessec wrote:I'm currently running an X9000 in my NVS 140M T60/61 4:3 Frankie- mostly because my games are very CPU intensive and I figure the "extra oomph" might be worthwhile in the long run. The laptop seems to be taking to the heat just fine... the temps don't rise above 75C

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details ... ntest.html

Get the software above and enjoy the fireworks from a safe distance.

I can understand the OP's upgrade bug. It's something I'm constantly I'm being infected with. But for the price of a X9000, I'd rather get a T500, which I did, and put a X9100 which I got for $100. Bumped the RAM up to 8 GB with switchable graphics and it beats most any T61. And at a cheaper price than a similarly pimped out T61. Then if I were to get a T410.....

Hi All, thanks for all the replies and its really given me food for thought, I think now listening to the advice I will "SHELF" the x9000 idea, I already have the T9300 installed, I also have a T430-i5 machine but this T61 is my project computer that I have been slowly modifying and I actually prefer it to my T430 but I bought the T430 purely out of greed and the T61 does everything the T430 can do (in my case) perhaps just a bit slower, The x9000 idea was for the ultimate T61 really, I plan to run this T61 for as long as possible into the future and perhaps even get another 4 or 5 years out of it?? who knows? Thanks all again. Some really marvellous replies.

rosebank wrote:Hi All, thanks for all the replies and its really given me food for thought, I think now listening to the advice I will "SHELF" the x9000 idea, I already have the T9300 installed, I also have a T430-i5 machine but this T61 is my project computer that I have been slowly modifying and I actually prefer it to my T430 but I bought the T430 purely out of greed and the T61 does everything the T430 can do (in my case) perhaps just a bit slower, The x9000 idea was for the ultimate T61 really, I plan to run this T61 for as long as possible into the future and perhaps even get another 4 or 5 years out of it?? who knows? Thanks all again. Some really marvellous replies.

My sentiment exactly. Don't know why I even have my T420 and T430 around. Hardly ever turn it on except for updates and battery refresh every few months. T60, T61, T500 and X61T are my semi-regular machines with the T60 being my favourite for some time now because of the marvelous Flexview screen. Fortunately email, websurfing and Office work is not progressing at breakneck speed.

If you don't have one already and still have the upgrade bug. I would seriously consider a T60/61 Frankenpad and enjoy the best of both series. I have one and love it. Seriously contemplating a second....just because I'm a friggin geek.

Quality Cigarguy, I am a total computer geek too, contemplated the Frankie build but to be honest I like the T61 as it is, although I am hunting down a sxga+ screen for it, Yes my T430 is doing next to nothing also ATM, some web surfing and general use but I am almost always on this T61, simply put- the best machine I have ever used, she deserves a wee treat- the x9000 but "she" (T61) might not take too well to the CPU so I will hold back as much as possible to avoid the risk of hurting "her"
Thanks for your comments.

You could try a PLL mod. Not for the faint of heart.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardwar ... s-121.html

OMG, no chance, way beyond my ability or desire, a simple CPU swap interests me far more, but very interesting link there. Thanks.

I suggest you stick to Dundee's favorite product: Keiller's Orange Marmalade and leave the CPUs be...
It's way better than that gawd-awful American junk (Smucker etc.) they call marmalade here,
which tastes disgusting, due to all the artificial crap they put in here! YUCK!

Slightly off topic (X9000) but have you tried IRN-BRU !! , Now there is a product worth bragging about!!

Also keep in mind that the main advantage of the X9000 is that it has an unlocked multiplier so you can easily crank the speed upto unsafe levels and there are people who overclock for sport... just to post screenshots of a fast running benchmark test... (get the screenshot taken before the smoke starts to appear type of thing). This is why you have to be careful when sourcing one as most sold online have been overheated, sometimes to an extreme. I have one in my frankenpad and I can't say it really makes that much difference over a T9300. I also feel the only time I'd even consider wanting a cpu like that would be if I was using it for gaming in which case it would be in a discrete model. The Intel graphics is a great system on a T61, but I think a T9300 is about as much cpu as I'd want in one, maybe a T9500 if I was building a high-end frankenpad, that chip is virtually identical to the T9300 with a slightly faster clock speed 2.5 vs 2.6.

Thanks TuuS, I've now decided against the X9000, my T61 is working perfectly and I was (to be honest) only wanting the X9000 for bragging rights/maxed out feeling, it does seem silly to risk damaging this unit. Astonishing how good a system this is for its age, credit to IBM/LENOVO for the quality of machine. This also free's up some cash for other little extras etc, I used to modify cars for fun but now find pleasure modifying these machines.
I did read a thread about 1 month ago about some new motherboards for these older machines, from memory the motherboards were going to support an i3 or i5 CPU but I cant find this thread now and perhaps it was simply a hoax, nice idea though, I will search this again to establish this once more.
cheers.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details ... ntest.html

Get the software above and enjoy the fireworks from a safe distance.

Not cool man. Almost roasted my poor Frankie...

In the interest of fairness, I decided to run the same test on my W700ds and my Clevo D900F... the W700ds's Q9000 slowly climbed but leveled off at close to 87C with the fan blaring heat, and my D900F maxed all fans and the laptop instantly shut off after a minute of running the software. Which was annoying, because I was watching Top Gear.

rosebank wrote: I did read a thread about 1 month ago about some new motherboards for these older machines, from memory the motherboards were going to support an i3 or i5 CPU but I cant find this thread now and perhaps it was simply a hoax, nice idea though, I will search this again to establish this once more.
cheers.

You must have read putting a new i5 capable MB into a T4x series laptop. This was initiated, conceived and a very very limited quantity was made by a group of enthusiasts in China. I doubt we will ever see any of these on this side of the pond or even outside China. Maybe if the first batch can be debugged and everything can be made to work will they make another, larger batch AND willing to ship it outside their own city.

Ideally it would be great if they can sell this idea to Gigabyte, Foxxconn, ASUS or MSI and one of those MB OEM mass produce (relatively speaking), refine and sell such a product. Would be a dream to be able to order one of these boards from Newegg or walk down to my local computer retailer and pick one up as easily as I could for 1 of my desktop PC. Unfortunately this may just remain a dream.

Well, there's also talk of 51nb planning a similar custom board for T6x machines that will do Sandy-Bridge or Ivy-Bridge Core i-series CPUs... which would be absolutely bonkers. And it definitely would render this whole dilemma redundant...

The T4x custom boards are in actual existence and do function as intended... albeit with Intel HD graphics, but we'll have to wait and see how their lengthy quality assurance hiatus goes.

But for now, we'll have to make do ruining T61 motherboards by cramming extremely overpriced, inefficient CPUs like the X9000 in them and running them ragged.

Seems like a proper field day for any Thinkpadder. Am I right in saying this is pretty long and really intricate discussion for a Marketplace topic?

Medessec wrote:
Seems like a proper field day for any Thinkpadder. Am I right in saying this is pretty long and really intricate discussion for a Marketplace topic?

I was forgetting my place, apologies if this type of discussion is in the wrong section, all good fun though, thanks for the X9000 advice I now no longer need this CPU, I will forget the idea.

Oh, I personally don't mind, and I don't think most of the others don't either. It's alright. And no problem at all! We've all had our share of idiocy playing with these poor old goats of laptops, so if you have any other dilemma in the future involving your machine, feel free to ask on here. Chances are, we'll be able to help you out.

Just FYI, The X9100 runs @ 80C on stock voltage on my T61 on fan 64 and I dare not run intel burn test
And X9100 on 14.1" T61 can be summarised by Ellie Goulding's song Burn
T9300 is the best choice

Actually,

I really enjoyed reading this thread. I am about to go run that Intel burn in software that was linked a few posts above on my E6500. I just re-pasted the CPU about 2 weeks ago and I am enjoying idle temps while light browsing at around 36c.

EDIT: Ran it for 10 passes (default) CPU temps did not go above 81c. Heat output from laptop was not noticeable warmer than watching youtube. But good to know that my AS5 is holding well.

I am too frightened to try the intel burn test, yikes.... Curious though, will try it on Monday when I have more time to monitor everything...

Just make sure you have TPFC installed... and if you see the numbers climb ridiculously fast, such as 63, then 78 next update, then 85 next update, shut it off right away. And at that point check your cooling-because if that happens on a T9300 or T7200/T7400 if you're burn-testing a T60, it's probably the thermal paste or something else not properly done.

So i just ran 20 mins of prime95 on my Frankenpad with dedicated Graphics and X9000. No throtteling. I know 20 mins isn't enough.. But really.. It will never reach such a load, for that duration, anyway. Room temperature is 20C.

Maximum temp was 71C Maximum fanspeed was "7" using TPFC.

it IS possible to use a X9000, and keep it "cool". But its not easy! I only have mine for bragging rigths... Go for the T9300.

Oh and last, here is the proof: http://s29.postimg.org/ylq251pfb/proof.png

EDIT: So i tried the "Intel burn test". I could observe up to 83C while i was watching (first 5-10 mins), then i left it for @20 mins and came back where it was at 79C. Fanspeed 7. Migth have hit 64 while i was away, but i don't think so - since it would have trouble returning to "7" afterwards

None of these scenarios will happen anyway, even under gaming. So i think my Frankie is "cool enough".

^^^ Interesting. Would you have a CPUZ screen shot? Thanks.