Thinkpads Forum

Oh, great Oracle, I have the opportunity to buy a Thinkpad T60p Core Duo 2300 for $375! Sounds like a good price if I can bump the CPU to a better one at some later date. So tell me, oh Wise One, will the Core 2 Duo microprocessors work on this humble motherboard, and if so, which ones?

Your servant........

Not being any (!!) kind of "Oracle" I am only capable of Searching this forum, using e.g. with the terms "t60 cpu upgrade motherboard" (and choosing "Search for all terms") which yields the following very relevant references Core 2 Duo T7400 CPU (see the post by brentpresley of Fri Feb 22, 2008 7:45 pm) and T60 Core Duo --> Core 2 Duo which is pointing to Core 2 Duo Upgrade.

These threads might be a useful starting point? No need to think for very long about this T60p at that price, provided it is in OK condition! And if it is perhaps even an UXGA (FlexView/IPS!!) then go get it immediately!!

Update: To make this answer a bit more "self-contained": What CPU's were used in T60/p's? See the System service parts - ThinkPad T60, T60p. Detailed specifications for these processors are found in Personal Systems Reference Intel PC Processors, September 2008 - Version 346 (page 6 and 20 of 21). There, you will find the options.

Johan

What Johan says. Plus, even if you couldn't upgrade the CPU, this was a steal for this price (even if it only has the 14" screen).

I upgraded my T60p with a T7600 - works perfect.

That's a fantastic deal. If you end up not buying it, let me know...

Thanks, guys. I did do a search before I posted but I got the usual several thousand hits with every word in my search term. Maybe I need remedial "forum search training"!

I also thought that the price was too good to be true, but I'm going to look at it this afternoon anyway.

From what I know:

If motherboard is Rev. 3 (CPUZ will show you)
and BIOS is fairly recent (you can always flash it to the latest version),

then you can update to any of the Socket M Core 2 Duos:

T5200 SL9VP (1.6GHz, 2MB cache)
T5500 SL9SH (1.66GHz, 2MB cache)
T5600 SL9SG (1.83GHz, 2MB cache)

T7200 SL9SF (2GHz, 4MB cache)
T7400 SL9SE (2.16GHz, 4MB cache)
T7600 SL9SD (2.33GHz, 4MB cache)

Only the last three I would consider a worthwhile upgrade to a T2300.

Saw computer, ran CPU-Z and it is a v3 motherboard but it's a CTO model and the battery died before I could go into Device Manager to see what hardware it has. I'm guessing the battery is toast. Says T60p at the top of the keyboard so I'm guessing it has the 256Mb ATI Fire GL 5200 or 5250 GPU (what's the difference?) It has wireless (again, guessing IBM/Atheros a/b/g), bluetooth, 1.66GHz CD T2300, 120Gb HDD (don't know if it's 5400 or 7200), 1Gb RAM (probably 2x512) and fingerprint reader. I didn't think to check to see if it had a CDRW/DVD or DVDRW (IDIOT!)

So the guy is going to charge the battery overnight and I'll loook at the hardware configuration tomorrow morning. But I'm assuming I'm going to buy it!

Does it have 14" or 15" LCD?

basketb wrote:Does it have 14" or 15" LCD?

The real key here. Anything else can be upgraded.

Brad

sktn77a wrote:I didn't think to check to see if it had a CDRW/DVD or DVDRW (IDIOT!)

Er... it says it on the drive itself. Either "CD-RW DVD-ROM" or "DVD MULTI" should be written on the front panel of the drive.

Yes, I know.... That's why I'm an idiot!

basketb wrote:What Johan says. Plus, even if you couldn't upgrade the CPU, this was a steal for this price (even if it only has the 14" screen).

Only? I for one wouldn't want a 15" laptop. 14" SXGA+ is optimal for many people.

I think the statement "only" was just to indicate that T60p's with 15" tend to cost more than with the 14" screen, because of the higher quality and price of the 15" Flexview LCD.

Well, it was "only" a 14 inch screen but that's actually what I prefer. The guy is being squirrelly, though. When the battery died after about 2 minutes he said "it just needs charged". Before that, though, I was able to determine that there were several POST beeps but as I wasn't expecting them, I wasn't paying attention enough to remember what the were, and the screen was very dim - I was trying to adjust the screen brightness with the keyboard controls and power management settings when the battery died (I have a T41 with the same 150 nit screen and it's much brighter than this one). On the bright side, it was a rev 3 motherboard.

So, the guy hasn't called back in 2 days and the battery has had plenty of time to charge - I suspect there may be some hardware issues with the computer that he knows about. But if he does call, I'll go and check it again.

Watch this space!

Yeah that price is almost too good to be true. I am pretty sure that he hasn't called you back because:

1. He sold it to someone else
2. It has issues
3. He's busy

However #2 seems the most plausible in my experiences.

Well, the guy has gone to ground - no response for 3 days so I'm guessing it has issues and he either doesn't want to bother with me finding out or it's crapped out on him already!

Such is life in the fast lane!