Thinkpads Forum

Hi

I'm about to buy my first TP.......looking at X60s. Question is should I be overly concerned about the different processors i.e. Centrino Duo 1.66GHz/Core Duo 1.83GHz.



Biglittlebear

Only if you plan on doing CPU intensive tasks. Otherwise the hard drive will likely be the bottleneck performance wise.

Ok thanks......looking to probably replace HHD with a 7200 unit and max out the ram @ 3Gig.

BLB

I just got mine last week with the 1.66ghz Core Duo. Plenty fast enough for my uses, I actually scale it down when I'm off typing to conserve battery life.

As Fred said, its only really worth it if you know you'll need it.

PS If you plan on buying from ebay, 90% of the models I saw during my search had the 1.66.

Thanks Atreides,
Please explain wha you mean by "scale it down".
Also did yours come with an original Lenevo battery or an ebay special?
I've tried searching the forum re batteries but it ignores the word "battery"......basically wanted to know if these non Lenevo batteries are worth buying.

BLB

I dare say that this is one of those things where if you have to ask, the answer is probably no.

I've had two 1.66GHz X60ses, and a 1.83GHz X60t. Apart from the warm fuzzy feeling of knowing you have the fastest processor option, I was not able to tell a jot of difference from one to the other.

What I assume Atreides means by "scaling down" is to reduce the processor speed, with a tool such as Lenovo Power Manager, or Notebook Hardware Control.

Many members on the forum seem to be of the opinion that the non-genuine batteries aren't worth the risk, reports are that some have cells that deteriorate quickly/don't play nice with the power management sensors/etc. And then there are some others that have picked one up and found that they work AOK.

I've found that if you keep your ears to the ground and be patient in your search, it's usually possible to find a genuine battery that's on sale for not much more than the eBay knockoffs.

It's called SpeedStep. It downclocks the CPU to save on battery life. A Core 2 Duo CPU will downclock to 1GHz if you're doing stuff where you don't need to run it at full power like Office or Internet. Most general usage stuff isn't that CPU intensive so you'd never notice a difference between a 1.66GHz or 1.83GHz because they both downclock to 1GHz when doing Office or Internet.

Thanks for all the replies people.......much appreciated.

Looking forward to the Thinkpad experience.

Biglittlebear wrote:Thanks Atreides,
Please explain wha you mean by "scale it down".
Also did yours come with an original Lenevo battery or an ebay special?
I've tried searching the forum re batteries but it ignores the word "battery"......basically wanted to know if these non Lenevo batteries are worth buying.

BLB

I think other people have answered the scaling question for me, but if you're curious I just use the Thinkpad power manager to drop it down.

I was quite surprised with my battery as a matter of fact. When I saw it was the original IBM battery I was happy, but assumed it to be almost out of juice. I don't know who owned this laptop before me, but they must have never used the battery as it holds a charge like new. I was most likely just lucky in this however :S

I don't know specifically about non Lenovo thinkpad batteries, but I have bought Chinese batteries for other devices in the past and have been generally satisfied. Again, maybe I was just lucky, but I don't know if they completely deserve the bad rap they get.

Edit: I'm sure you'll be happy with your thinkpad, my "used" X60s blew me away.

I've used a few of the chinese batteries and they seem OK, but the AC adapters are a disaster! They put out enough RFI to upset your computer as well as your radio and TV.

I picked up a genuine lenova extended life battery for the T60 in the "Marketplace" and it's very good.

Biglittlebear wrote:Ok thanks......looking to probably replace HHD with a 7200 unit and max out the ram @ 3Gig.

BLB

Is there a heat issue putting in a 7200 rpm HD.

Thinner machines like the X series it tends to be more noticeable than something like the R series, which are much thicker, though I personally personally didn't find it to be bad at all. If you haven't bought yet I'd point out if you're concerned about heat, the X60 generally runs cooler than the X61.

Is there a heat issue putting in a 7200 rpm HD

.

Not really i'm running a 100G 7200. The only noticeable heat comes from the wireless under the palm rest. But it's not uncomfortable.