Thinkpads Forum

My favourite TP of all time.... the X31 (and X32)... both superb machines, needed a replacement.

Saw an attractively priced X60... purchased... actually is in excellent condition so overall pleased BUT....

CPU is the T1300 Core Solo 1.66..... what the *1££$/##@!

I never knew the X60 could be single core!!

Will keep it but am suspicious that it will really perform no better (or worse) than an X31 !

Why make a single core X60?

I owned one of those and it was OK...most of the *60 generation models came with Core Solo as a low-cost option...

Yeah, there are Core Solo, Core Duo and Core2 Duo variants...

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X60

It's good to do some research before purchasing. That X60 you got should be pretty much equal to the fastest X31. Even the lowest-end Core Duo can nearly double the CPU performance. As for the reason why make a single core X60 - probably a combination of lower price and lower heat profile that made sense at the time.

I thought I knew everything that applied from the 700 series to the 60 series ('92-'06) and never knew that their were any single core past the T43(p)... as no machine past this had the Pentium M processor.

I was vaguely aware of the Core Solo but never thought IBM would have used it... should have consulted one of the PS Ref books....

However subjectively my machine seems somewhat faster that the X31 (although my X31's were XP, and the X60 is running Windows 7 Ultimate).

So I am mostly happy but have learned a lesson

It will take me a while though to determine if overall it is better than an X31, although I like the SD (vs CF) slot and the build seems just as good.

The Core Solo is still a very capable little chip. Even the first-generation Core arch (Yonah). was much better than the Pentium Ms that it replaced (Dothan).

Actually the core solo runs exceptionally cool and other than the classic wlan heat (solved by turning the wlan switch off most of the time) this may be a seriously cool running machine.

It simply runs almost without any warmness.

I borrowed an dual core x60s briefly last year from a friend and it was a heat machine with continually fan on and very hot palmrest and I was prepared to live with that but this machine seems totally different so perhaps the core solo is overall an advantage!

What kind of temperatures are you getting? (In C°)

edik wrote:My favourite TP of all time.... the X31 (and X32)... both superb machines, needed a replacement....Will keep it but am suspicious that it will really perform no better (or worse) than an X31 ! Why make a single core X60?

I am shocked to hear this as well. Core Solo would have made more sense for the X60s, since the X60 was supposed to be a very powerful ultraportable laptop whereas the X60s was supposed to as light as possible, with some sacrifice on performance. According to Passmark, the T1300 Core Solo has a score of only 417. For comparison, 3.40Ghz Pentium 4 is 414, and 1.70GHz Pentium M (not sure if it's Banias or Dothan) is 430. So, as far as the CPU is concerned, this X60 might actually be slower than your X31/32, though the X60's faster RAM and HDD should still make the overall performance better than your X31/32.

What kind of temperatures are you getting? (In C°)

39C° for the CPU when idling, up to about 48C° at max performance (100% CPU).
The fan rarely seems to go, but when it does it is running at slow RPM.

Subjectively the machine does seem faster than an X31, indeed when I first used it seemed snappy enough for me to think it was Dual Core.

I am shocked to hear this as well.

At first I found it hard to believe, as you say, it likely in reality only matches a X31/X32, and the Core Solo is basically in many cases actually a Dual Core production chip with one core physically disabled - so assuming the package is the same - the cost difference to IBM must have been negligible.

I think the Core Solo X60 is quite rare though - mine was purchased from an ex-IBM employee and was an IBM staff purchase initially.

Wow that's really low - near human body temperature when idling! I get 59C° at idle and up to 70C° at 100% on my X61... You're only going to notice an increase in performance for applications that make use of multiple cores, like doing raytracing or video editing.

Also, i believe that on cut-down versions like the Core Solo, the second core is desabled because it's defective.

I came across a UMPC that had a U1500 in it... that thing was amazing. It ran Vista, can't say it ran it well... but for it's size, it was a really cool thing.

I believe the Core Solo is pretty much a Core Duo die... but with one core switched off, to lower power consumption and heat emission, and to market it as a lower-cost solution. Which makes sense. I don't see too many X60 Core Solos though... but I do agree the cool-running property is a good thing. Don't be too worried about the Core Solo sparing on power. Unless you do anything like video editing, serious HD film watching or high-res photoshopping(which I doubt you'll be doing on an XGA screen ), you won't see any serious problems with performance.

I vote you keep it and throw an SSD in it! Nothing beats cool and quiet (most of the time).

Oh wow... an SSD or a 4200RPM drive would make that the ultimate in quiet and cool. No question. That'd be awesome methinks.

Exactly!
Now what OS? XP, Mint, Ubuntu??? My daughters T43p flies with Win8.

Medessec wrote:Oh wow... an SSD or a 4200RPM drive would make that the ultimate in quiet and cool. No question. That'd be awesome methinks.

Never turning the machine on would make it even quieter.