Thinkpads Forum

I have a T60 2623-D7U that has served me well for several years. After discovering that 4:3 laptops have gone the way of the dinosaur, I am now looking into upgrade options to keep the laptop viable for me.

I am a freelance writer, and I use the laptop pretty much exclusively for internet access and writing purposes when I am on the road. I don't play games with it, or anything of that nature.

That being said, I might be interested in using the laptop for music production in the future, and as such I had some specific questions about upgrades to speed it up.

1 - What is the fastest processor that I can install without seriously compromising battery life? I like the 4 - 5 hours I currently get. Is the T7800 the fastest processor that fits on my revision 3 motherboard?

2 - I intend to keep using Windows XP Home as my OS. I have read about some people having issues with this OS when using an SSD. Are SSDs compatible with Windows XP Home in this machine?

3 - I intend to upgrade the RAM to the 3 GB max. In your opinion, what would be a better upgrade for me to go with that - replacing my T2500 processor with something faster, or installing an SSD?

4 - Will an SSD negatively impact battery life in any way?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Welcome to the forum and congrats on living in one of the finest cities in North America.

Nothing will improve performance like an SSD. You can add maximum memory (4GB, but only 3GB useable, although with 4GB you'll get the dual channel boost of 5-8%) and the maxium CPU (T7600), but only the SSD will make it fly. (No issues with XP Home.)

Also, you should note that there are many types and manufacturers of SSDs now, but even the lower cost, good units, like an Intel X-25 G2, work very, very well.

The articles I've seen are all over the board on SSD power consumption. Perhaps it depends on the specific drive.

Swapping Core Duo to Core 2 Duo CPUs won't change battery runtime noticeably, if at all.

thank you - I really appreciate the quick and detailed reply. It looks like an SSD will be the first stop on my upgrade list.

Also, I appreciate the welcome and the compliment regarding Montreal - it is a wonderful place to live, except for the winter months, when it then becomes a mortal struggle between man and nature.

Please be aware that Windows XP does not support the TRIM command. Using an SSD without this support will lead to performance degradation over time.
If you plan to install an SSD and use XP, you should get an SSD that provides the equivalent support directly, for example the Intel SSD's which include the Intel SSD Toolbox.

ashleys wrote:Please be aware that Windows XP does not support the TRIM command. Using an SSD without this support will lead to performance degradation over time.
If you plan to install an SSD and use XP, you should get an SSD that provides the equivalent support directly, for example the Intel SSD's which include the Intel SSD Toolbox.

could you please explain to me a little bit more about what the TRIM command is?

It's to ensure the correct reuse of free space.
Here's a good link for a description,
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2738/10

As Windows XP does not support the TRIM command you need to do it manually. For the Intel SSD's, Intel provide via a download, a utility called the Intel SSD Toolbox. One of the options in it is run run an SSD Optimiser, which in effect mimics what the TRIM would do, if done by the OS.

ashleys wrote:It's to ensure the correct reuse of free space.
Here's a good link for a description,
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2738/10

As Windows XP does not support the TRIM command you need to do it manually. For the Intel SSD's, Intel provide via a download, a utility called the Intel SSD Toolbox. One of the options in it is run run an SSD Optimiser, which in effect mimics what the TRIM would do, if done by the OS.

I appreciate the link. Is the SSD Optimizer from Intel something I could run say, as a scheduled task and not have to think about?

I don't think the SSD Toolbox has any command line switches, so you couldn't schedule it and get it to run without manual intervention.

Here's a link to the Intel download, which includes a User Guide.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_ ... ldID=18455

ashleys wrote:I don't think the SSD Toolbox has any command line switches, so you couldn't schedule it and get it to run without manual intervention.

Here's a link to the Intel download, which includes a User Guide.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_ ... ldID=18455

I have run into a few alarming links that talk about SSD's showing slowdowns over time that are unavoidable. I assume that the software provided by Intel to replace the TRIM command takes care of this issue?

That's the idea.

In fact the link regarding the TRIM command is part of a larger article about SSD's in general and it's worth a read.

Windows XP also suffers from a problem related to Partition Alignment. In order to maximise performance of an SSD, the partition(s) need to be on particular boundaries. Whilst the Windows 7 installer understands SSD's and postitions the partition(s) accordingly, XP does not. That said, in normal day to day running, you are unlikely to notice the difference, especially as you will be comparing it do an existing mechanical drive.