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How to craft a great X6x

X60/X61 and X60t/X61t Series
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risickwinters
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Joined: Wed Nov 07, 2018 12:37 am
Location: Fairfax, VA

How to craft a great X6x

#1 Post by risickwinters » Tue Nov 13, 2018 10:31 pm

Hey all, so I am really in love with my x61t but want to push it more. This is multifaceted, I am working towards getting my CompTIA Linux+ cert and I want to eventually start getting more involved in programming and want to do it on THIS device. What I want to do is listed below and all I am really looking for are possibly guides or resources that you may suggest. I appreciate any help!

- Upgrade the screen, not only the resolution but also make the screen brighter and/or more efficient.

- Better battery life. This would include ways to manipulate power consumption, I've heard of ways to turn off power to unused I/O. I also am interested in where to get quality batteries. Lastly concerning batteries, how to under volt, and what are advantages disadvantages here.

- I may come across as an idiot here but I have tried every guide I can find, and still cannot get the middleton bios to catch. Any ideas here? I am running ElemtaryOS at the moment, and have another HDD with windows 7 (64bit).

- After getting rid of the whitelist I have a new wireless card thatll be dropped in, hoping thatll help with the excess heat on the palm rest, but also, what else could I add to the additional slot that Ill have access too? I have heard of getting something to help with youtube videos? (Youtube and twitch are a little rough but honestly, this machine with linux handles both better than my fiancees macbook m5 2016!)

- As much as I find it charming to increase the longevity of the core 2 duo, its hard to deny that a newer processor would make my life easier, and battery life longer. With that being said I am open to the idea of installing a 51nb board, and or buying a prefab x62, how can I go about getting these and/or should I wait? I am seeing theres a small chance at 8th gen chips eventually which would cause me to lose my brain. This maybe a silly question but I have to ask, how hard is it to create your own to fit in here? Again I know that sounds silly but its wild how thin laptops are now, so I thought maybe we would have a good bit of room in this x61 chassis to frankenstien something together and plop a quad core 8th gen chip in here!

- Lastly, any extra thoughts or ideas for creating a great thinkpad? I am open to x62's like I said, and I do love the x61t but I am open to x61s's and x60s's as well, thoughts?

Thanks for spending the time to read this far.

axur-delmeria
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Re: How to craft a great X6x

#2 Post by axur-delmeria » Wed Nov 14, 2018 12:40 am

1. Screen upgrade: the X61T is available with the SXGA+ IPS/AFFS screen.
2. backlight: there's a thread about LED conversion here viewtopic.php?t=114881
3. power management: for Linux, there's TLP http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-lin ... ement.html.

4. I'd keep the other slot empty, otherwise the palmrest heat will only increase. About the video decoder card (Broadcom CrystalHD), unfortunately Linux support for it is deprecated (not maintained anymore) and can/will break anytime. Stick to 480p if you're watching on the browser, or use youtube-dl to download, then watch using a standalone media player like mpv.

5. I'm not 100% sure, but last I heard, the X62 board is not being manufactured any more. :(

6. The most powerful X61 you can get is the one with the Core 2 Duo T9300 (2.5 GHz 6MB L2 cache). IMO it still packs enough oomph. Someone in this thread managed to put a Core 2 Duo P8800 on it, but such a mod requires access to specialized soldering equipment.
Planned Purchase: T480s i5-8350 FHD Touch
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons :lol:
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E :cry:

RealBlackStuff
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Re: How to craft a great X6x

#3 Post by RealBlackStuff » Wed Nov 14, 2018 7:07 am

Middleton's BIOS update for the X61T must be installed in Windows 7 32-bit, does NOT work in 64-bit!

But in that download there's also an .ISO included to make a self-booting CD, using e.g. ImgBurn.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
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