Thinkpads Forum

I currently have an old A31 that I built from scratch last year with some help from the folks on this forum. That went well, and I learned a lot, but now the SXGA screen is dying and although the A31 is a great machine (I loved the 3 spindles) its just out of date. For instance I can't even watch a H.264 video on it without it almost freezing.

I just don't see the wisdom in throwing more money into an outdated laptop I've decided to part-out the A31 and build a T60. I figure that the T60 should have the CPU power that I need for some work related media programs and it'll have a longer shelf life.

I've read the board several times looking for answers but I'm still unsure about some issues so a couple of quick questions before I take the plunge.

1) Would the T60 be a good target machine to build for multimedia purposes? I'm not a gamer at all but I often have to run h.264 videos from everything I've read the T60 should be able to handle it but I just want to be sure.

2) I can get my hands on a new T60 mobo (41V9918) but try as I may I can't find any info on that sys board and before I purchase it I just want to make sure that it's a legitimate T60 mobo (ATI X1300 64MB).

3) I'd like to use a 15" sxga screen on this computer and I just want to confirm what I read in other threads here that any T60 board, even a 14.1 will support a 15" LCD, as the base allows an either/or configuration?

Two final questions, with a T60 is there any known heat, Nvidia (time bombs), GPU issues that I should be aware of before I start purchasing parts.

Any other comments or instructions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

T60 was never offered with nVidia graphics, so no time bombs there. Any board - including the ones with Intel integrated graphics - will run any screen resolution used in this series.

Heat and noisy fans are known problems with all ATi-based T60/p units. Generally speaking, stronger the GPU, hotter the machine. Core 2 Duo units may actually run a pinch cooler than the original Core Duo ones.

The board that you're interested in is indeed for a T60, with 64MB ATi X1300.

Mutlimedia purposes is somewhat of a broad goal...if you could narrow it down a bit, it would help. What exactly are you intent on using the machine for?

ajkula66 wrote:Mutlimedia purposes is somewhat of a broad goal...if you could narrow it down a bit, it would help. What exactly are you intent on using the machine for?

Thanks, I figured out some of my other questions like not being able to find that board in the HMM. Turns out I was looking in the wrong HMM guide (T60 widescreen). I found it in the 14.1/15 T60 HMM (41W1366-41V9918).

As for use, professionally my company will circulate HD (h.264) files around for clients so I have to be able to view those without the laptop freezing. Other than that just basic internet browsing and the occasional stream.

I've successfully played up to 1080p h.264 files on a T60. However it may be a bit borderline, and depend a lot on the decoder quality and the file bitrate. Also I would advise one of the more powerful T60 CPUs (T7200/T7400/T7600), but I would advise them in any case.

720p and less should play without any hickups. Even much weaker machines can handle them just fine.

The T60 does indeed perform well in multi media oriented tasks!
If you get a dual core T60 (C2D even better) with a ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 (x1400 even better) you should be just fine.
With my specs below I am able to play 1080p flash videos, edit HD videos in movie maker while listening to 320kbps MP3 in the BackGround and even run graphics demanding applications like Games (CoD4, GTA IV,....), Photoshop and more.....

If you get a T60 with Intel GMA then it would be a huge draw back so try to get one with a ATI Chip!!!
Video decoding is mainly CPU work so also try to get at least a T2400.

Intel GPU vs ATI GPU makes no difference whatsoever on these models when it comes to playing videos. The ATI X1xxx series do not assist in decoding H264.

For games, it's a big difference.

dr_st wrote:Intel GPU vs ATI GPU makes no difference whatsoever on these models when it comes to playing videos. The ATI X1xxx series do not assist in decoding H264.

For games, it's a big difference.

It doesn't!?!?!
Well.....google is your best friend: http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook ... specs.aspx

Quoted from the webpage: "◦Accelerated MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, VC-1, and H.264 decoding and transcoding"

I seemed to remember that it didn't. I wonder what the easiest way to check it in practice would be.I have both ATI and Intel GPU T60s with the same CPU, and would be interested to set up a test and check for any differences. The question is how to set up the hardware acceleration.

Should't the Hardware Acceleration be auto-initialized as soon as you play h264 with the newest drivers?
My "Intel Atom Dual Core 1.5GHz, 2GB DDR2, GMA950" Netbook won't even play 720p without lagging, but the T60 plays 1080p + defragging + music + antivirus + Win7 Aero and only %80 CPU usage!!!! D:

The X1400 is one of the best "lower Mid-Class" Laptop GPU's out there that actualy performs well and doesn't drain the battery like fire wood! (example the nVidia Go! series)

I think the video player application should also somehow support hardware acceleration. Which one are you using?

I had no trouble playing back 1080p video using Media Player Classic on my R60 with T7400 and X1300. CPU usage was usually in the 30-40% range.

WOW!!!
That should proove, how much pressure the GPU takes off the CPU!!!

You know, I still have my share of doubts.

This morning I did a simple test with my two T60s.

Both have the same CPU (T7200), one has GMA950, one has X1400.

Playing the same movie (MKV H264 1080P), using the same player (Media Player Classic Home Cinema), and the same set of codecs installed (K-Lite), I couldn't find any difference in the CPU usage (which was between 40% and 50% most of the time).

I was led to believe by reading a few forums that MPC-HC can utilize hardware acceleration if available, but maybe I have to do something to get it to work?

And in any case, the CPU usage numbers quoted in this thread do not seem significantly better than what the GMA-equipped T60 is getting...


Edit:
According to this, MPC-HC actually does not support DXVA on anything as old as ATI X1xxx.

This page discussing Avivo / Avivo HD suggests that Avivo HD is what is needed for video playback acceleration. At the same time the footnotes of the Mobility X1400 page suggest that while it supports Avivo, it does not support Avivo HD.

Then again, the link hoax32 brought up clearly states that it supports video acceleration.

Lots of confusion on the ATI site...

Well it is really kinda confusing but it doesn't matter to me!
There is clearly a performance difference between a GMA and a Mobility Radeon.
Even my older Integrated ATI xPress 1150 beats the GMA950 by far!
But then again - it depends on how high Lenovo has clocked the GMA!
I have seen 950 GMA's running as low as 150MHz and as high as 400MHz!
A higher clocked one will give you a big advantage once hardware acceleration is used!

But overall in 3D Mark2001 the 2253 Points [GMA950] v.s. the 11869 Points [X1400] it prooves that once hardware acceleration is in the game, the GMA950 isn't even in the same class as the X1400 anymore!

Of course there is a difference in performance when it comes to gaming (and this is what 3DMark shows).

When it comes to movies, I am not sure at all there is any difference, despite what the ATI page says.

Im shure that there will be some difference but nothing SIGNIFICANT!
It's hard to imagine that a Video Card does't do anything at all while playing a movie / video.

Although it's mainly CPU work, it is always good to have a decent GPU onBoard!

hoax32 wrote:it is always good to have a decent GPU onBoard!

Not if you prefer longer battery life.

FredGarvin wrote:Not if you prefer longer battery life.

Uhh....Yes?
Decent = Power Saving + Performance!