Thinkpads Forum

Good day to You all,

after a long period of suspense...
I managed to lay my hands on a T60P UXGA-flexview (2007-FBG) with a T2500-CPU and a/b/g-WLan (among others) in quite a good shape.

I have upgraded memory to 4GB (3,5 under XP) and I'm going to rebuild the OS from scratch to a 250GB/7K500 HD from Hitachi. I intend to upgrade the WLan mini pci-e-card and the CPU.

That's were I lack some basic info in judging my goals:

(1) WLAN:
Should I look for an atheros (sparklan) a/b/g/N or a thinkpad(what original brand ever that means) a/../N card?
Should I look for a card with 3 or with 2 antennas (which would ease upgrading, but eventually changes capacity)?
(I shall need the "open"-Bios, which has been developped by zender, I think, right?)


(2) CPU:
T7600 is as far as I understand the fastest possible CPU. Are both makes (SL9SD, SL9SJ, which seem to have slightly different sockets?) exchangeable, installable?)
I did understand that I should pay attentation to the fan... Installed it seems is the FRU 41W9931, I would go for the 41W9932, right? Will I have to pay attention to other parts, too?

(3) OS:
With the T7600 and max memory installed, I could opt for Windows 7 64bit as OS. My software up to now is 32bit.
Will I gain or loose on a change to 64bit? (My uses are office uses, some economics, some data, nothing extreme nowadays, I have not returned to math, maple etc yet)


Thanks a lot in advance to You all

friedrich-eugen wrote:Good day to You all,

(1) WLAN:

(2) CPU:
T7600 is as far as I understand the fastest possible CPU. Are both makes (SL9SD, SL9SJ, which seem to have slightly different sockets?) exchangeable, installable?)
I did understand that I should pay attentation to the fan... Installed it seems is the FRU 41W9931, I would go for the 41W9932, right? Will I have to pay attention to other parts, too?

(3) OS:
With the T7600 and max memory installed, I could opt for Windows 7 64bit as OS. My software up to now is 32bit.
Will I gain or loose on a change to 64bit? (My uses are office uses, some economics, some data, nothing extreme nowadays, I have not returned to math, maple etc yet)

If I were you....
ad. 1 - there is no big advantage with -n spec WLAN card... 95% home internet connections are within -g broadband... same public hot-spots. You can gain from n card only at work where really high speed connection is available...

ad. 2 - T7600 could ber a good solution only when you need really more power... llike professional software intensively using maths operations or newer games. otherwise the gain will not be noticeable...

ad. 3 with 4GB RAM Win7 x64 should work smooth with no probs at all (with use of full 4GB RAM). This is mine only recommended upgrade from your list

Among the above options, my advice would be to switch to 320 or 500GB HDD drive.. Hitachi Travelstar or WD Blue/Black Scorpio

There was some question as to the availability of video drivers for Win7 64-bit. Sounds to me like this has been sorted, correct?

Seems like Intel Turbo Memory plus an HDD. Is the extra seconds of boot time that important to you? It's not to me. Not at a high price. Plus Seagate has some serious reliability issues.

[quote="Yacek]
...If I were you....
ad. 1 - there is no big advantage with -n spec WLAN card... 95% home internet connections are within -g broadband... same public hot-spots. You can gain from n card only at work where really high speed connection is available...

ad. 2 - T7600 could ber a good solution only when you need really more power... llike professional software intensively using maths operations or newer games. otherwise the gain will not be noticeable...

ad. 3 with 4GB RAM Win7 x64 should work smooth with no probs at all (with use of full 4GB RAM). This is mine only recommended upgrade from your list

Among the above options, my advice would be to switch to 320 or 500GB HDD drive.. Hitachi Travelstar or WD Blue/Black Scorpio[/quote ...]


Thanks Yacek

for the advice!

As I am using WLAN-N at home (the 5Ghz-variant) as it ist very stable, very swift, very reliable; i shall go for an exchange of the WLAN-Card, if Zender kindly lets me have a modified Bios-file.

As for the T7600 I'm rather determined: I do have positive experiences, my whole family uses upgraded A31P-machines (2,6ghz, 2Gb Memory, 100Gb E7K-Hdd with Windows XP & Office 2007) although the design now has come of age; so I do want to use the T60p at least some (four or more) Years...

I am a litle bit in doubt, whether the different makes of the T7600 are just slight but compatible revisions, or more. And I am in doubt, wheterh I should "upgrade" fan&cooling as well (in doubt: Yes, unless otherwise informed).

Thanks for the judgement on Windows 7/64Bit. I wondered, how many problems I would run into, using Windows 64bit only to run - todays status - 32bit-Software. I took for granted, that the driverproblem has been overcome by now, but I remember the graphics (Ati-) problem. It has been a subject here, either in this or the Windows 7-forum.

Thanks in advance for any hints and help...

I am using an Atheros a/b/g/n card from Lenovo in my work T60. A third antenna was added along the left edge of the LCD housing. Most cards are either 3R/2T or 2R/2T.

It is true that most home internet connection will not exceed 11g speed. But I have gigabit ethernet at home and a NAS full of photographs. So it does help having a faster connection.

Most of the T7200/T7400/T7600 are pretty costly. But if you manage to sell your T2500 later, it may offset the cost to some extend. BTW, my T60 has a T5500.

Yacek wrote:ad. 3 with 4GB RAM Win7 x64 should work smooth with no probs at all (with use of full 4GB RAM). This is mine only recommended upgrade from your list

T60/p are limited by chipset to 3GB RAM. You can install 4GB (with more it won't boot) but you will only see slightly more than 3GB, even with a 64-bit OS.

Therefore, with the 64-bit OS requiring more RAM for the same tasks as 32-bit OS and with performance gains coming with 64-bit being neglectable in most cases, I suggest to stay with 32-bit OS.

I'm running Windows 7 X64 Ultimate on my T60p. No problems with ATI drivers. Regarding backward compatibility with 32bit software, that should not be a problem except in very special situations. I have one of those situations: I use an academic word processor (NotaBene) that is still written in 16 bit code. It will not run natively on 64 bit operating systems, but does just fine under XP virtual mode (Windows on Windows).

Finally, regarding the T7600 chips, the SL9SJ is NOT compatible with your T60p, due to its packaging. The SL9SJ has ball grid array packaging; i.e. it is intended to be factory-soldered onto the mother board. The SL9SD has pins and is the one you need. If you purchase your chip over eBay, be aware that some so-called SL9SD chips are actually SL9SJ chips onto which some enterprising folks (mainly in China) soldered pins to turn them into inexpensive SL9SD equivalents. In most cases they probably work just fine, but there have been horror stories of the pins breaking off and rendering the chip useless.

sjthinkpader wrote:...But I have gigabit ethernet at home and a NAS full of photographs. So it does help having a faster connection...

Amen. Gigabit Ethernet Routers with built-in N WiFi are worthwhile home network upgrades. There is a noticeable improvement when retrieving photos, browsing voluminous music directories or copying data between laptops and a home server (especially if the server has a gigabit NIC).

I have a T60p widescreen that came with internal N WiFi. It's a very nice feature.

so the cpu on a T60P is removable? cool. is the graphics chip also?

vand3537 wrote: is the graphics chip also?

No.

Hi,

I am very happy with my upgraded T60p.. you can see details in my signature... have been running the upgraded CPU for 6 months with ZERO problems..

Hello everyone,

thanks !!! to You all,

I will upgrade the CPU to T7600 and a new fan-assembly, an Intel/Lenovo abgn 5300 pci-e-card is on its way, Windows 7-64 is at hand.

Allthough I should like an SSD, Prices for sensible capacity are still souring high. So I will stick for the time being with a Hitachi 7500 and 250Gb.

When Screws (etc) will have arrived, too, surgery will be done.

Anyway, Installing and arranging OS, Admin-Tools and Office-software will take far longer...

friedrich-eugen wrote:Hello everyone,

thanks !!! to You all,
I will upgrade the CPU to T7600 and a new fan-assembly, an Intel/Lenovo abgn 5300 pci-e-card is on its way, Windows 7-64 is at hand.
Allthough I should like an SSD, Prices for sensible capacity are still souring high. So I will stick for the time being with a Hitachi 7500 and 250Gb.
When Screws (etc) will have arrived, too, surgery will be done.
Anyway, Installing and arranging OS, Admin-Tools and Office-software will take far longer...

Hello,
thanks to all the knowledge, that is present in this forum and thanks to Zenders Mods, I was able to upgrade my T60P as I had imagined. It was quick and clean.

Most of the time took
- the process of updating the machine info (as it came with lacking / wrong / old systeminfo)
and I had to find a way to use /simulate a floppy via USB) and
- finding a place for the third antenna without opening the display/cover.

The machine runs fine and cool on Windows 7 /64bit. Installation was quick and easy, but it takes quite a lot of time, still.

thanks again