X20 upgrade worth it?

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Terrahawk · #1 Post by **Terrahawk** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 5:21 am

Hi everyone,

I have a recently revived Thinkpad X20 2662-11M, which is a pretty minimal machine. It has a 500 MHz mobile celeron in it. I have the opportunity to grab an X21 board with a P3-700 on it and install that.

The keyboard had some non-functional keys (most notable being the Fn key, the space bar and the power button) and I have a replacement coming in soon, along with a 256 MB SO-DIMM for it.

Any ideas on what kind of speed improvement can I expect (I have a fair feel for desktop CPUs but the mobile celeron is quite unlike a desktop celeron 500 in that it runs at 5 x 100 MHz), and what kind of power savings I can expect with SpeedStep?

I'm just trying to decide whether it's worth it. The celeron 500 is okay for most of the things I want to do.

#2 Post by **underclocker** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 9:59 am

The real speed bump came with the X22's and up. They have PIII-m CPU's that run with a 133MHz BUS, plus 512KB cache vs. 256KB.

In the U.S., perfectly useable X22's and even some X23's & X24's sell for around $200. So, the issue is how much money - we already know the effort is significant - maybe 1-2 hours.

$50, go for it. $100, sell your old machine and combine funds for a newer X-series.

I just picked up an X24 in almost new condition with Bluetooth (and a spare antenna lead which I used for internal WiFi) for under $250. Let's just say - sweet!

#3 Post by **tomh009** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 11:14 am

underclocker wrote:$50, go for it. $100, sell your old machine and combine funds for a newer X-series.

There is an X24 system board with a 1.13 GHz CPU for sale on eBay for $69 ...

pianowizard · #4 Post by **pianowizard** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:43 pm

tomh009 wrote:There is an X24 system board with a 1.13 GHz CPU for sale on eBay for $69 ...

The seller is incredible, all of his/her 13475 feedbacks are positive!

Terrahawk · #5 Post by **Terrahawk** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:16 pm

Second hand X series machines seem to be relatively rare in New Zealand in the places I have looked, and I have been quite selective in choosing who I buy from on ebay due to some of them wanting $60-$80 for shipping.

I had to repair the CMOS battery connector on my X20 since the contacts had lifted off the motherboard and I know it's about ten minutes for me to disassemble it to remove the motherboard. So if all went well, time would probably not be the issue.

As far as I know, X22-X24 system boards cannot fit into an X20 chassis. Looks like I might as well just fix this one up and sell it. It's not likely I'll buy another X series for now though due to their relative rarity here (although I have seen some X30s and X40s for sale locally)

boon · #6 Post by **boon** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:22 pm

worth to upgrade because your x20 is only celeron and having a pentium III with 512kb cache is a big performance boosts

also 800x600 screen does needs to be upgraded, I find a bit annoying surfing the net with that screen as sometime you have to scroll left and right to see everything.

Terrahawk · #7 Post by **Terrahawk** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 5:34 pm

I just missed out on a 12" XGA LCD from an X20 for AUD$80 the other day. I don't think the X20 (or X21) can take a P3 with 512k cache, just the 256k ones. I'm most interested in the SpeedStep though.

X20 upgrade worth it?

X20 upgrade worth it?

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