Thinkpads Forum

Hi everyone!

I am currently working on my X61 "Uberbook". I decided to use an X61 laptop for this instead of buying a new UltraPortable, due to the poor build quality of low end ultraportables. I think I will have a great little machine for my light computing needs.

My X61 has the T8300 1.8 GHz CPU. I have a motherboard from an X61 tablet with the L7500 1.6 GHz. I know the T8300 is rated at 35w whereas the L7300 has a power rating of 17w. My question is how much real world power savings / longer of a battery life can I expect will I see? I.E. is the switch worth it?

Thanks for your help.

zog

Welcome to the forum!

First and foremost, I'm not at all certain that a tablet motherboard will fit into the conventional X6 chassis properly.

Secondly, you have a rare board with a Penryn CPU (T8300 should be 2.4GHz not 1.8 though). I'd hold on to that if I were you.

Hi ajkula66,

Thanks for your response. Yes the motherboard from the X61 tablet will fit in the X61 laptop chassis, both boards are almost identical. I will have to figure out how to wire the palmrest fan, other than that, I would see no problem.

Your right about the CPU:

root@laelaps:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 23
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T8300 @ 2.40GHz
stepping : 6
microcode : 0x60f
cpu MHz : 2401.000
cache size : 3072 KB


What makes these boards so rare? I was planing to use it for a gateway server board, at 35w, beats any full size board for power consumption.

BTW, any thoughts on the power consumption between the two boards?

zog

Personally, I was never happy with X61T's fan ability to control the heat, and always felt that it was a serious step backward when compared to X60T.

Most of the non-tablet X61 units shipped with Merom CPUs (T7100/7300/7500) and a Penryn processor on one of these - be it T8100/8300 or T9300 - is a pretty rare find. Penryns generally run a good deal cooler than their Merom siblings.

I'd venture a guess that swapping the boards around will not yield any measurable battery life savings.

There's no way to wire the second fan unless the machine was eqiupped with WWAN and has a proper socket for the fan to be plugged in. Most of the X6* boards - standard and tablet alike - do not sport such a socket.

Hi ajkula66,

thanks for the information, makes it easier for me to keep the T8300. The extra processing power will be useful. I am planning my "Uberportable" notebook as a Kali Linux laptop as my base. I should have an incredible laptop for under $150.00 - 200.00. I know that I can get a low end i3 for a little more but it would be a low end rig that probably would not last that long or have as good of a display, (planning to upgrade the screen to 1400 x 1050). Besides, it more fun to rips something apart and make it your own!

BTW, I noticed that you have an X200 in your list of machines, is that a laptop or tablet? And do you know how the X200 laptop compares to the X61 laptop. I have Googled the specs, but I prefer to talk to people who have the actual hardware. I do prefer the wide-aspect display, (sorry if I am committing heresy here!).

I got the X61 for $20.00, so it's a fun little project for now!

I own both X61 and X200 non-tablets, along with X60 tablet.

I prefer X61 due to its form factor, but X200 is a more modern machine. If I were interested in keeping one ThinkPad for the purpose of owning an example with an outstanding battery life, that would be X200.

My $0.02 only...

The X200 has the advantage in expandability, with DDR3 RAM being cheaper, and an Expresscard slot opening the way for a USB 3.0 upgrade.
Also, since the X200 uses 25w-TDP P8xxx Core 2 Duo CPUs and the newer GM45 chipset, battery life will be better compared to the X61-- take note that ajkula66 describes the X200's battery life as terrific.

~~
Also, he' is right about the X61 T8300 being a rare board, since it's the second-fastest CPU available on the X61 series, so I agree with his advice to keep it.

Our computing needs change over time, and that usually means needing more CPU power. Sooner or later the 1.6 GHz L7500 won't be enough for you, but the 2.4 GHz T8300 will last a while longer.

~~

I have an X61 Tablet with L7700 (1.8GHz) an a non-tablet X61 with T8100.

Battery life for my X61 T8100 is around 2 hours of light use (with wifi on) with a new 4-cell battery. I think your T8300 will be similar.

I haven't properly clocked the X61T L7700's battery life, but I'm sure I went past 4 hours with a slightly-used 8-cell. Since the X61s L7500 doesn't have the power-hungry digitizer and IPS screen, it will run longer.