Thinkpads Forum

Any news whether the T60 will allow to drop in a Merom processor at the end of this year? This important as Merom is going to be 64 bits, wider, shorter pipelined, radical, low power ground up design for the entire intel line-up.

It is supposed to be pin compatible, but will it work on the T60.


Or should I just wait for T61.

I don't know for sure, but I'm going to guess no. Support for 64-bit addressing requires more than the current 479 pins used in the current Core Duo socket.

Edit - I think I may be wrong on what I originally posted concerning the # of pins. My guess is that it is just a drop-in replacement, based on the Intel demos at IDF.

Hmm. Wonder if dropping in whole new motherboard with merom processor on it would be possible? Perhaps that would be silly expensive. But curious if one could upgrade that way.

Almost certainly, pigs will grow wings and be able to fly before that kind of upgrade becomes possible.

If you are going for Merom, might as well wait for it to begin with in the first place; especially if you want to work on it to the point of dropping in a new planar.

No, I'm not dying for the merom that bad. I need a new notebook now. I just hate to come so close to missing the 64 bit revolution. And I always like the idea of radical tweaks that you're not supposed to do on a computer. Thanks for the thoughts on the motherboard idea.

Merom is pincompatable and is currently running on the i945m chipset in Intel's labs, ive talked to a guy working there about it. as long as the bios supports it (hopefully this will be similar to the T40/41/42), merom should simply drop in.

this is assuming that currently shipping i945 sets have been validated with merom, we could have the same issue with have with i975 and conroe, there is an updated VRM spec that is needed to run conroe on a i975 board, so a board revision is needed.

Merom/conroe is going to be a huge departure from the p4 in the desktop segment, but not so much in the notebook. its very heavily based on Yonah, and Yonah has many features that merom will have, although it is very noticabally lacking 64bit. Merom is supposed to have a slightly higher TDP, however.

lithium726 wrote:Merom is pincompatable and is currently running on the i945m chipset in Intel's labs, ive talked to a guy working there about it. as long as the bios supports it (hopefully this will be similar to the T40/41/42), merom should simply drop in.

this is assuming that currently shipping i945 sets have been validated with merom, we could have the same issue with have with i975 and conroe, there is an updated VRM spec that is needed to run conroe on a i975 board, so a board revision is needed.

Merom/conroe is going to be a huge departure from the p4 in the desktop segment, but not so much in the notebook. its very heavily based on Yonah, and Yonah has many features that merom will have, although it is very noticabally lacking 64bit. Merom is supposed to have a slightly higher TDP, however.

This is correct. Merom will initially launch as a Napa refresh basically putting Merom into 945 chipsets. Later Merom will get its own platform, Santa Rosa, with an 800MHz FSB and more goodies!
http://www.laptoplogic.com/news/detail.php?id=374

You might be able to drop it in if Lenovo BIOS recognizes it, but it will probably be higher TDP and I'd be worried about overheating; they design these systems with very specific tolerances.

I know a lot of laptop manufacturers solder the CPU chips directly to the motherboard to prevent CPU upgrades. Is the T60 directly soldered like this?

Check http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/sho ... hp?t=95935

It seems this article is for a Fujitsu lifebook, not the T60. I am aware that the two chips are pin-compatible. Lenovo still may have deiced to solder the chips directly to the motherboard as this option is a per-model decision.

kulivontot wrote:I know a lot of laptop manufacturers solder the CPU chips directly to the motherboard to prevent CPU upgrades. Is the T60 directly soldered like this?

No. the only IBM machines that have the CPU's solidered in are the X series at this point in time.

You might be able to drop it in if Lenovo BIOS recognizes it, but it will probably be higher TDP and I'd be worried about overheating; they design these systems with very specific tolerances.

I am almost certain you will be able to drop it in - a couple of watts never made a difference (which is all it is, really) and if the T20-22 and T40-42 have anything to say about it, the T61 will be using hte exact same mainboard.

It should work if they release a bios for it. I noticed that the acer 5672 has new bios that has the release notes for merom support.

That is *if* Lenovo choose to release BIOS for it. They may not, because they might see it cannibalising Merom T6x sales. Then again, it is a pretty invasive operation to replace the CPU.

W.R.T. higher TDP, I wouldn't have thought that it would matter as the GPU is currently running 2x hotter than the CPU in discrete ATI graphics models.

astro wrote:That is *if* Lenovo choose to release BIOS for it. They may not, because they might see it cannibalising Merom T6x sales. Then again, it is a pretty invasive operation to replace the CPU.

No, its not *if* they choose to release a BIOS for it... If the mainboards are the same, they will. They will just roll up the driver package for same mainboard into one package for all of the T6x series using that board, like they have always done.

Replacing a CPU is a peice of cake. takes about 10 mins. You just gotta keep the original incase something dies unrelated to you opening it up :p

Has anybody heard any updates on this? Rumor has it that Core 2 Duo (Conroe?) is to be officially announced on Tues. June 6 at the Computex show......

I am about to pull the trigger on a T60 but can wait if a T61 is just over the horizon.

As far as I know from the local Intel CPU guys, the Merom is totally compatible. You just drop it into the Yonah socket and make the BIOS update to recognize the CPU architecture.

Intel CPUs have been 64bit for quite some time, it has been disabled however for certain reasons. So they appear as 32 bit externally.

In my opinion it makes no sense to upgrade the T60. The speed increase is about 20-30%, but the costs for the new CPU are extremely high, as always. You just better wait a few months,
and get the T61 for the same price, while keeoing your machine intact and with full warranty, which you would lose instantly with a CPU replacement.

Is it feasible to wait Merom? It's seems, that realistic date is January 2007, it's to long for me. Or may be I'm to pessimistic...

donking! wrote:No, I'm not dying for the merom that bad.

I'm not either, however I did just buy a new soldering iron.... however I'm not claiming that I know how to use it....

donking! wrote:I just hate to come so close to missing the 64 bit revolution.

Based on a conversation with a good friend of mine, well placed within Intel, rest assured we are not going to "miss it".

So just get your new lappy and enjoy...

Cheers Mate!
Archer6

beeblebrox wrote:As far as I know from the local Intel CPU guys, the Merom is totally compatible. You just drop it into the Yonah socket and make the BIOS update to recognize the CPU architecture.

Intel CPUs have been 64bit for quite some time, it has been disabled however for certain reasons. So they appear as 32 bit externally.

In my opinion it makes no sense to upgrade the T60. The speed increase is about 20-30%, but the costs for the new CPU are extremely high, as always. You just better wait a few months,
and get the T61 for the same price, while keeoing your machine intact and with full warranty, which you would lose instantly with a CPU replacement.

beeblebrox...or any "voice", you said: "...just better wait a few months, and get the T61 for the same price,..." and that's the question I have been asking but haven't found. When Lenovo/IBM did/do their model intros/refreshes "show" the same price at introduction that they do at the end of their life on their website...and then just use rebates to lower the price and clear their inventory?

Thanks...will really help me with my buy/wait decision.

Glad I found this forum...it's a + order of magnitude higher than any I've read in the past year; I'm learning so much! Thank you.