T60 CPU upgrade with pre-installed Windows 7 Professional 32 bit

[impartit]

I have a T60 with 3Mb Ram and a T2400 cpu running at 1.83Ghz. It has Windows 7 Professional 32-bit installed. I wish to install Windows 8 64-bit and am considering changing the CPU for a T7250 from an old T61. If I do so will it still load 32 bit Windows 7 to enable the upgrade to Windows 8 64 bit and if so will the performance increase be worth the effort?

[RealBlackStuff]

I assume you have 3GB instead of 3MB RAM?
That T7250 CPU will not work in a T60, use a T7200 instead.
That will give your CPU an upgrade from CoreDuo to Core2Duo.
It will still load 32-bit W7 and you can change to 64-bit W7/W8.
But 64-bit is hardly worth it, since the T60 is still limited to max. 3GB RAM.

Your best 'improver' would be an SSD instead of the HD.
T7200 will improve some but not that much.

[impartit]

Many thanks for your sound advice. I have a only 64 bit Windows 8 CD so I need to change the CPU (with 3GB RAM).?

[RealBlackStuff]

Make sure to have the latest BIOS installed before you put in that T7200.
You can put in (2x2=)4GB but only 3GB is usable.

[impartit]

Perhaps it's better just to get a 32-bit version of Windows 8?

[ajkula66]

Perhaps it's better just to get a 32-bit version of Windows 8?

It would be even better - in my opinion - to stay with W7.

Power Manager is not officially supported in W8.x and you might get to see your battery life tank and your temps go up.

Your ThinkPad, your call.

[twistero]

Your bigger problem is that you cannot upgrade from 32-bit Win7 to 64-bit anything. If you really want to use 64-bit Win8 you have to do a fresh install.

[twillis449]

I wouldn't think its worth putting 64-bit anything on a T60 as I seem to recall that the motherboard / system can never see more than about 3.5 GB of memory anyway.