Thinkpads Forum

I'm buying a cheap mid-2006 vintage T60 for backup for my kids. It has an Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83GHz CPU. Anybody know if it will accept the Core2Duo and/or what the maximum speed CPU this computer will take? (not too up on the T60s - leap-frogged that series from the T4x to the T61!)

EDIT: Picked it up tonight and it appears to be in excellent condition. Motherboard is a 42T5380/41V9912 (Rev 3).

It'll take up to a T7600 2.33 Ghz Core 2 Duo. I've heard that this may run hot but I don't have any experience with it so cannot compare. Most posters suggest upgrading to a t7200 2 Ghz Core 2 Duo which has similar thermal pattern to the T2400. Plus, you can pick up a T7200 for $80-$90 on ebay whereas the T7600 runs about $220 to $240. btw - I think you may need a rev 3 motherboard to upgrade to a Core 2 Duo cpu.

Thanks. I think my motherboard is already a Rev 3 (CPU-Z and Sandra said 1952-AS2 Rev3 but there were lots of mising entries in their output). Do you think it's worth upgrading from the 1.8 GHz T2400 to the 2.0 GHz T7200?

Well that's the $80 question...

I have not done it yet. However I am planning on doing the upgrade. I'm doing it for two reasons. I am a software developer and, when I'm on the road, I use my T60 with MS Visual Studio and Sql Server and I could use a little extra compute power. I don't exactly know what the impact will be but even if it's only 20%, I'll be happy. The other reason is that the Core 2 Duo has the 64 bit extensions and it'll allow me to install windows 7 64 bit. I'm currently using W7 32 bit. Now I may not move to W7 64 bit on this machine due to the 3Gb memory limitation (there's an argument which says, what's the point given the major reason for going to a 64 bit o/s is to be able to use more than 4Gb which is impossible on the T60), but in the future, there may be some reason I cannot see right now, but I'd like to have the option.

The bottom line for me is that I really, really love my T60. The feel of the keyboard, the lcd size, the look and feel, weight, ruggedness, keyboard lamp, etc make this machine a keeper and moving to a T7200 is part of keeping it as fast as possible without breaking the bank...

FYI - Found one cheaper than $80! There's a t7200 for sale for $75 on ebay including shipping.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-Core-2-Duo-Mo ... 4cee63a55c

I'm going to say "yes" with a couple of gotchas...

I went from T2500 to T7200 on the FrankenPad that I built for my kids, R6x-based.

The machine does run faster, and will take a 64-bit OS (played with Linux and W7 since this is the only machine in my house that will run a 64-bit OS).

It runs hotter, not by a huge margin, maybe 7-10 degrees C.

Battery life has gone down, once again, not by a huge margin, maybe 15%.

My experiences only...

ajkula66 wrote:I'm going to say "yes" with a couple of gotchas...

Thanks for giving the benefit of your experience. Any thoughts on how much faster this processor was? Anyhow, I just pulled the trigger and ordered one for $75. There's one left at $75 it seems...