Souping up performance in an X61S

[rlfaulk]

Hi!

I have had a used X61S (7666-3FU) bought off ebay in 2010. I love this machine! I recently upgraded it to 8GB RAM, a Crucial M4 256GB HDD and Win 7 Pro 64. It has great performance now, but I am always looking to get more out of it.

Does anyone have any other suggestions to improve boot speed, or sysem performance?

I am a bit shy about applying "hacked BIOS" patches to improve the SSD's 1.5GB/s SATA speed, though I read about it. Anyone have any tips on that or experience with it?

Thanks!

Rod

[rlfaulk]

PS: My Win 7 "experience index" is I think 3.1 as limited by the graphics card. Any ideas on the graphics card (is it upgradeable in any way?).

[Cigarguy]

Graphics is soldered on and is not upgradable. Same goes for the CPU. Screen is not easily upgraded but can be done. Recommend Middleton's BIOS upgrade.

[Tasurinchi]

Welcome to the forum!

The BIOS Mod is safe, I've done it in several TPs and never had a problem so far. There is of course always a small risk of bricking the machine, but if you follow the instructions it should be no issue.

You can't upgrade the graphics card.

For the rest you have pretty done all what can be done.

[rlfaulk]

Graphics is soldered on and is not upgradable. Same goes for the CPU. Screen is not easily upgraded but can be done. Recommend Middleton's BIOS upgrade.

THANKS, cigarguy. That is the BIOS mod to which I was referring.

Thanks Tasurinchi -- that helps my confidence. I have seen a couple of posts on the lenovo forums about adding an "EGPU" to the mPCI slot, but that's 10,000 feet above my skill level. From what I read it does not sound like it applies to the X61S either.

[rlfaulk]

PS: Tasurinchi, are you still running all of those models ot TP in your sig block or are those models you have used in the past? I used to love the 600X line myself.

[Tasurinchi]

I have almost all of them. I've lent 4 (an X60, X200s, T60 and X40) to friends and relatives. Those are "Thinkpads on a mission"

[E350]

The only thing I would add (and you probably have already done this but I didn't see it mentioned) is adding the below wireless-N card and third antennae:

IBM Lenovo Thinkpad T61 T60 X61 X60 Intel Wireless WiFi Card, Model: 4965AGN MM1, FRU: 42T0866

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/lenove-IBM-T61-I ... ~~60_1.JPG

Tyco Internal Laptop Notebook WiFi Wireless Antenna

http://pics.laptoppartsreplacement.com/ ... enna_2.jpg

The card replacement is a straight forward swap.

To install the third antennae "right," you need to disassemble the LCD and string the antennae around it under the LCD or the bezel of some such nonsense. Which I have never done.

I have done 4 of these and have just coiled and taped the extra antennae wire to the plastic sheet covering the motherboard in an available area so as not to interfere with the keyboard and routed the flag on the antennae about six inches over to another available space (not over the cpu!).

You can't believe how much faster and farther a connection wifi is with wireless-N in these machines.

Yes, the card creates heat but it is not intolerable and is an easy swap requiring no changes to the BIOS. See the following thread how others are using other cards to avoid the heat issue:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=105076

[rlfaulk]

Thanks all, for the feedback. I did install Middleton's BIOS to speed up the data transfer with the SSD. Machine flies now.... only wish I could get it to boot "instantly" (average is 45 sec).

Thanks!

[ZaZ]

For typical usage, SATA I or II makes little difference. 45 seconds does seem a bit slow. My X220i boots in a little under 20 seconds, but my R60e is about sevens seconds, though it runs Linux. Are you using the Intel rapid drivers?