Thinkpads Forum

Hi there,

I'm planning to buy either a X61 (2.2 GHz) or X61s (1.8), however I'm still hesitating which one is right for me.

The reason: I currently have a 4 year old FSC Amilo A (1.6GHz, 266MHz fsb, 256KB level2 cache). I have problems with it when running software like Corel Draw or drunning multiple tasks. Even after upgrading from 256 to 768 mb RAM, it sometimes 'stalls', becomes very work-intensive, and needs a few minutes untill being usable again, so I think it's the cpu causing it...

I don't know whether the X61s (1.8) will be much better since the cpu speed only increases by about 0.2 GHz - or are other factors like fsb & cache also important in this regard? The fact that it's a dual core won't help as hardly any software supports dual core technology, or will it?

I would like to go for the 61s (1.8) for battery life reasons, but need a computer that is capable of performing tasks like photo-editing, etc without giving me a hard time.

Thanks for any help!
Chris

Thinkpad X61s uses LV (Low Voltage) processor as opposed to the traditional mobile chipset used in X61 counterpart, handling CAD tools can be too much for the former.

I don't think its your processor, more likely you puny ram (768 please).
I have the x61s and photoshop, avid, adobe master collection and it runs no problem.
Make sure you have 2gb ram for xp or 4gb for vista.
My processor benchmarked 50-100% faster than my old Pentium M which also ran everything with no problems.

Agree with the previous comment that the limited amount of RAM may be one culprit here.
Also, processor speed can be somewhat of a misleading index. Your 4-year old 1.6 Ghz CPU (Pentium 4?) compares in no way to any recent, even slower-clocked CPU.
My X60 with 1.83 Ghz Core duo is just way faster at number-crunching tasks than say, my Pentium 4 desktop (3 Ghz) was. This because of huge architecture improvements, faster FSB, newer instructions sets, and a bunch of other things I have no idea about.
Even between Core Duo and Core 2 Duo, improvements seem to be in the ~10% for similarly clocked machines.

So you really can't be wrong going with the 1.8 Ghz X61s. It will for sure be MUCH faster than your current machine, especially coupled with a decent hard drive and enough RAM as previously pointed out.

Ok. Thanks!