Santa Rosa motherboard 42W7769 on a X61s?

[kokkolis]

Dear All,

I have an X61s (7666-WKD)..Im happy from it but I am always looking for improvements.. What about if

1. I replace its motherboard with the x61 motherboard 42W7769 which has the 2.0GHz CPU (instead of the slower 1.6GHz that I currently have)? this motherboard supports up to 8GB ram (got 4GB Ram on its current configuration).

I 've been re-assured that the cooling fan of my X61s will be sufficient for the faster CPU...My concern though is that the fan might be on for longer periods, therefore making the laptop noisier...

2. How easy is to replace its standard screen with the Ultralight one? (13N7092)

3. Finally, can you add to it the extendable WWAN antenna (the proposed motherboard does support WWAN, I've checked it).

Many thanks,
Christos

[RealBlackStuff]

For WWAN alone, you'd need a different lid, bezel and AFAIK also a different antenna set.
The ultrathin LCD does not look better than the regular one, why bother? Just for a few grams/ounces?
Your current mobo can also support 8GB RAM.
The on-paper 25% increase in CPU power probably means no more than 10% in real life.
It would be a LOT cheaper to look for an X61s that has all these items already!
Or sell your 4GB of RAM and buy 8GB with the proceeds and a large wad of cash, and call it a day!

[kokkolis]

Dear RealBlackStuff,

Fair points; in other words, I wouldn't be seeing any grand difference (on the other hand, I haven't really come across any X61s with anything faster than 1.6GHz, or an Ultralight screen with a WWAN antenna -so far...

Still, I think you are probably right.

Do you think that with my current motherboard, the BIOS and Win 7 (Ultimate) will "see" 8GB of Ram?

I have installed 4GB on my X61s x 32, and if I remember well, its BIOS "sees" 4GB but Windows "sees" 3GB, and my other x61s x 64, both BIOS and Windows "see" 4GB.

Am I right to assume that to make use of the 8GB Ram (and for Win 7 to see it), it only makes sense on a x64 system?

Many thanks,
Christos

[RealBlackStuff]

Correct, you will need a 64-bit OS (XP, Vista, W7) in order to see 8GB.
Unless you are running virtual machines, 4GB is probably enough.
With the money saved, buy a ticket and go watch the Olympics. Or have a few pints of the Real Black Stuff!

[E350]

FYI, I installed 8gb ram, wireless-N mini-card, 3d antennae, Windows 7 64-bit OS, and Seagate 500gb hybrid drive into my X61s 1.6 - and it rocks and works fast and flawlessly. I can recommend all of the above mods without hesitation. I use the X61s for work preparing documents and truly prefer the 4:3 aspect screen. (There is a reason that Jobs designed the iPad with a 4:3 aspect ratio.)

The Seagate hybrid drive really does boot noticably faster. And the wireless-N mini-card doubled my range. Sometimes I eat lunch in my car and I have no problem connecting with my router inside the brick building 300 feet away.

I did buy the second small fan, but can't figure out how or where to connect it since my X61s does not have a WWAN card. I am thinking about buying a card just to have a place to hook up the wires for the second small fan, or I may splice into the wires for the existing fan. I am not sure since I haven't been into the case of the machine since last Oct.

(BTW, I have also learned to love Guinness in the can. The bottles are bitter, but the foam head when poured from the can with the nitrogen ball inside into a frosty steel mug is the texture of cream and tastes almost like chocolate. But Black Stuff is right. Given the price of Guinness, one really does need to weigh the cost of laptop upgrades against a four- or eight-can pack.)

[dmdsoftware]

I too have all my X61 / X61T laptops on 8GB of RAM, SSD and with Centrino 6300 mini-pci 3B wifi cards. The machines perform just as good as current-generations but with the size and configuration I prefer.

I run a mix of Windows 7 64-bit and Linux Mint LMDE 64-bit.

I'll probably be satisfied with these machines for another 3-4 years. Hopefully by then Lenovo wakes up and offers a real replacement for the X61.

[Surfrider]

OP: FWIW, you should know that, although synthetic benchmarks will show an improvement, there are a very limited number of circumstances where you will perceive a difference between 4GB and 8GB of memory. And the chance of you encountering any of these situations while using a low-speced system like the notebook you speak of are virtually nil. If you google a bit, you will find a wealth of information confirming this (beware, however, of the assertions of laymen; "My internets are so much faster since I put 8 GB in my laptop!").

To echo other posters: don't waste your money on an 8GB memory upgrade. An SSD would yield a much higher return on your investment.