Thinkpads Forum

Hi, I am using the X61s (with 2GB ram and 80GB 5400 HDD) as a second machine and love its size, screen and keyboard, but it's getting too slow for multi-tabbed Chrome, multitasking Office apps and light video streaming.

1) Should I get a new machine or try speeding this one up with more RAM and an SSD and long life battery? Would I get enough bang for the buck? Or, will it still be too slow?
2) If I upgrade, what kind of SSD can it take? SATA I, II or II?
3) Will more ram in Windows XP make a big difference? Should I put in 3GB or 4GB even though XP can only see just over 3?

Thanks for your help!!

Welcome to the forum!

Get a SSD, install Middleton's BIOS to enable SATA II transfer speeds and move on to W7. You'll love that resurrected X61s.

Thanks for the quick reply, ajkula66!

I was trying to avoid (if possible) the expense & time of upgrading to Win 7 and re-installing everything... (Was going to clone my drive). Based on your experience, how crucial is that to performance vs. keeping XP?

Much appreciated!!

Many will disagree but...

a) I'd *never* clone an install from a rotational drive onto SSD

b) XP on SSD would really not be my preferred choice, since it lacks native TRIM support and takes a lot of tweaking to run properly...

I had a X61 with SSD and XP and wasn't happy with it. W7 made a world of difference.

YMMV.

That makes a lot of sense. One last question - where can I find the latest Middleton Bios? Seems to be several versions floating around.

Thanks again! Will post the results of my resurrection here...

I believe that there's a link in the Lenovo section on notebook review forums...

Middleton's BIOS: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... ost6501443

depends which SSD.

samsun needs alignement to run well, and XP aligns them very badly which kills their perf. W7 should be better there.

but most other SSD does not care about alignement cause they can work around it, and then the difference is marginal.

I use an intel SSD, which works perfectly well under XP.
there is intel SSD toolbox to clean it everynow and then under xp too.
works veryy well!

Anyway, i also think 2GB is a bit short in memory, so you may want more memory, all the more if u install 7.
But the SSD will change your life all the time, while more memory will change your life when u need more memory (ie every now and then)

so
1) get an SSD
2) you may want to get more memory (4GB would be enough)
3) you may want to install 7.

Thanks for the advice @bgx!

I think I'll do that. Will get the SSD first and see how things run. Then I will go for the Win 7 upgrade with more memory. A project for next weekend.

Upgrade to 8GB and add the SSD.

Been there, done that, and I couldn't be happier.

@dmdsoftware - Thanks for the reply. Did you also upgrade the bios? which one? Is that what enables the X61s to accept 8Gb? I heard it natively tops out at 4.

Normal (32-bit) versions of XP, Vista or W7 stop at 4GB RAM (3GB in a T60/R60/Z61/X60 due to chipset limitations).
To recognize more than 4GB RAM you MUST install a 64-bit version of XP, Vista or W7 (and also 32-bit Windows Server 2008 or better).

zippychimp wrote:@dmdsoftware - Thanks for the reply. Did you also upgrade the bios? which one? Is that what enables the X61s to accept 8Gb? I heard it natively tops out at 4.

zippychimp wrote:@dmdsoftware - Thanks for the reply. Did you also upgrade the bios? which one? Is that what enables the X61s to accept 8Gb? I heard it natively tops out at 4.

Sorry for the late reply. I never got notified that you posted.

It is supported natively! I personally use Patriot 2x4GB in my X61 and X61t. No special requirements or hacks to make it work. Just make sure you get compatible memory (DDR2 etc).

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6820220382
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6820220495

Harder to find the proper memory at a good price now I ended up buying 4 modules last year for $50 shipped each from Newegg. I should have bought more You can never have enough memory when you have a "community's worth" of X61* hardware

dear all experts here,
my case would be slightly different, i am owning X60s.
Thinking to purchase Intel 330 series SSD 180GB, not sure is it compatible and what kind of configuration have to be done in the BIOS.

Should be supported, but X60s are limited to SATAI so things might chug a bit.

x61's are my favorite machine, definitely worth the upgrade. The form factor is one of a kind, and the machine can still chug. The key is the middle ton's bios, absolutely necessary. have fun!

I figure something like Middleton's BIOS should be linked on the thinkwiki. I would not have come across that without looking at this thread.