Thinkpads Forum

Hello,

I recently bought here on the forum a really nice X61s w/ SXGA+ xiphmont LED lcd. It behaves pretty well with its stock L7500 mobo - but I want a bit more It has some driver problems, but this is nothing new that our beloved Lenovo throws rocks at us oldschoolers...

I came by a very cheap (the likes of $30) motherboards of X61s and X61, with L7700, T8300 and T9300 respectively. Having in mind just the rough power of the unit, T9300 would be the best choice with double the cache that T8300 has. As for the heat output and power consumption... Well, this is the place I'd like to ask you for your possible choice.

I have chosen a T8300 CPU motherboard. It is way more powerful than both L7500 and L7700, while being just a little less powerful than T9300. Being hotter than L-series (35W TDP to 17W TDP) makes me wonder, but on the other side it's a bit thicker X61 chassis that should handle the extra heat better. Not to mention that I will possibly use throttlestop to seriously undervolt the CPU.

Will have to find out. What are your thoughts?

wujstefan wrote: I have chosen a T8300 CPU motherboard. It is way more powerful than both L7500 and L7700, while being just a little less powerful than T9300. Being hotter than L-series (35W TDP to 17W TDP) makes me wonder, but on the other side it's a bit thicker X61 chassis that should handle the extra heat better. Not to mention that I will possibly use throttlestop to seriously undervolt the CPU.

Will have to find out. What are your thoughts?

I recently acquired a T8300 X61. I've been investigating how well it dissipates heat, however, I need to repaste the CPU and drill out the stripped screws of the WLAN and WWAN cards. I will report back in the next couple of days. Here's my thread on the topic:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=123432

Others have done what you're planning. While I don't recommend it myself (having owned an X61 T9300 and T7500), you can improve your chances of success by getting the right heatsink.

http://abload.de/img/fanpicture4jlfl.jpg

IIRC, the second one from the left is the best heatsink for the X61s, due to the larger heatpipe, copper CPU contact plate and cooling fins.

axur-delmeria wrote:IIRC, the second one from the left is the best heatsink for the X61s, due to the larger heatpipe, copper CPU contact plate and cooling fins.

I guess you mean X61 and not X61s? These two have different heatsinks.

What's your feeling about T9300 in X61?

^
It's an X61s heatsink. FRU 42X3804 corresponds to "Fan assembly, Low-Voltage".

The two heatsinks on the left are X61s/Tablet heatsinks, while the two at the right are for the X61, unfortunately sharing the same 42X3805 FRU number.

I've seen the rightmost one in X61 units with the fastest processors (T7500 and T9300), and the one next to it with X61 with T8100. I don't know if that holds true for all X61 units though.

axur-delmeria wrote:^
It's an X61s heatsink. FRU 42X3804 corresponds to "Fan assembly, Low-Voltage".

The two heatsinks on the left are X61s/Tablet heatsinks, while the two at the right are for the X61, unfortunately sharing the same 42X3805 FRU number.

I've seen the rightmost one in X61 units with the fastest processors (T7500 and T9300), and the one next to it with X61 with T8100. I don't know if that holds true for all X61 units though.

Isn't the second fastest X61 the T8300?
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X61

I should have been more specific: the T7500 is the fastest among the Merom-based Core 2 Duos; models with T8xxx CPUs were introduced later (early 2008 IIRC).
I've yet to encounter an X61 T8300, so I don't know if it has the rightmost heatsink or not.

axur-delmeria wrote:I should have been more specific: the T7500 is the fastest among the Merom-based Core 2 Duos; models with T8xxx CPUs were introduced later (early 2008 IIRC).
I've yet to encounter an X61 T8300, so I don't know if it has the rightmost heatsink or not.

I can confirm my T8300 has the rightmost heatsink, FRU 42X3805.

xsixt wrote:I can confirm my T8300 has the rightmost heatsink, FRU 42X3805.

I see.

Back to topic, the 2nd heatsink is what's needed for an X61/s conversion. The fan connector needs to be modified as well, as X61s fans have a 4-pin connector (but only 3 wires) while the normal X61 has a 3-pin connector.

Undervolting is a necessity, and you might end up limiting the max CPU clock to 2.0 or 2.2GHz as well.

Well that's pretty important. Maybe this .2 pounds and .2 inch isn't just worth it. X61 chassis is dirt cheap, so maybe I will just get the chassis, install the mobo and live in the joy of having.

T9300 has double the cache T8300 has, but is this that important? T9300 should definietely run hotter, and will consume a bit more power. I just have no idea what are the "bit"s

I will also hunt the mostright fan. Should be cheap as well.

There's hardly any difference between T9300 and T8300: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core2-Duo ... -Duo-T8300

Search for the heatsink tests by xiphmont, they methodically measured temperatures at 100% cpu usage on the x61.

I use the x61 base on my frankenpads.

There's hardly any difference between T9300 and T8300

The single thread performance is even more trival...but not for all applications. I'd guess, though I've never used the program, the larger L2 cache would be noticable in a cpu-intensive program like AutoCad.