Thinkpads Forum

Hello

I've acquired a refurbished X61 tablet (L7500 1.6ghz, 1024x768XGA multi/finger touch, 4gb ram) and very pleased with.
Though I plan some upgrades:

i) replace hdd with an SSD
ii) install Win 7 64-bit on SSD via usb stick (currently runs Vista business 32-bit)

Any recommendations for a SSD?
Are there any guides for doing these upgrades? E.g. How would I know which drivers to install for X61?

thanks for any advice
nomad11

Welcome to the forum!

As a rule of thumb, you need SSD with TRIM support. Most SSDs on the market will fit this requirement. I don't know which is currently the best for your money, but I think with an Intel or a Kingston branded one you'll be satisfied. Personally I use in my T60 an Intel X25-M 80 GB, which seems to be fast as lightning, with an average boot time below 20 sec.

If you have an external optical drive with DVD reading capability and an installation disc of Windows 7, you don't need to use a pendrive for the OS installation. X61 tablets (as other Thinkpad X models) can boot from external optical drives just fine.

For the drivers I recommend to visit http://support.lenovo.com, choose "Download Drivers & Software", type your X61 tablet's type number (you can see it on the base cover in a vignette, or in the BIOS - it's a four digit number and after that three letters or numbers - for example something like this: 7762-95G) and then you can download the System Update utility. Running this utility will take care the rest of the drivers.

I personally would go for Intel 320 series SSD as they seem to be more reliable than other brands. But this is just a personal opinion.

The drivers can be downloaded from Lenovo web-site and in fact W7 requires fewer drivers for x61 than previous operating systems. This is just to say that you don’t need to panic when you see that there are drivers for XP and Vista but none for W7.

New drivers are being released everyday so it's kind of pointless to ask which driver to install.

My 2 cents: Use Windows Update to install the Intel display driver, and then use Lenovo System Update (SU) to install the rest.

Not every Lenovo utilities are needed, but it varies from person to person.

SU doesn't recommend the latest Intel wireless driver (v14) though, I had to download it manually.

And there's a Wacom update from Windows Update, I don't know what's changed. I've installed it and there doesn't seem to be any problem thus far.

Cheers.

P.S. I haven't been following the SSD closely, but the Intel one is good in reputation as far as I know, maybe a little bit more expensive though...?