Dear Diary: My New/Used T61p ...

[storm-chaser]

Best of luck with your new project. I recently did my own "customization" to a new/used T61p which was also purchased from eBay. Much of what I did was received with negativity but I hope you enjoy the challenge and make it your own. Thats what owning a ThinkPad is all about!

Of course I'm guessing you already have a potential CPU upgrade in mind for this build?

And no ThinkPad upgrade would be complete without a solid state drive...

[storm-chaser]

Great to hear your project is progressing in the right direction.
I would highly recommend you first and foremost ditch the rusting hulk of your mechanical hard drive and replace it with an SSD.
You can buy a used 80GB SSD on eBay for about $35.00 shipped. Huge return on that investment. It's the single most important upgrade you can do relative to performance. If you can find a caddy (they are rare) you can replace your existing DVD ROM with your mechanical hard drive if you wish to have a storage drive.

As for the CPU, I would recommend a T9300 or T9500 C2D.

If you want bragging rights, might as well go all way to the top and get a core 2 extreme X9000. They can be had for about $44 shipped. This runs at 2.8Ghz stock and have an unlocked multiplier so you can overclock using ThrottleStop. I currently have my T61p running this processor @ 3.4Ghz stable. I have pushed it to 4.0Ghz for fun, but it runs much to hot at that speed and the stock cooling cannot cope. Be forewarned if you do choose the X9000 it is a beast and you'll need all the cooling you can get.

Please post some pictures of your build, would love to see it!

[Thinkpad4by3]

@Annecy, you scared me. I saw the image of "System Failure" and I expected something much more grim. That T61p will take you far, well that's if the battery gives more than 2 hours !