Thinkpads Forum

I´ve been seen some T61 frankenpads with the X9000 which is 44w (9w over the stock processor wattage which is 35w), so I was wondering if the T420 would work with the i7-2860QM (which is 45w, 10w over the stock 35w processor) without sacrificing the motherboard power scheme too much. From the Intel ARK site I see that the T420 chipset accepts the i7-2860QM so I wonder if it will work without heating too much and not destorying the motherboard... The main features of this processor over the original one are 4 more processor cores and a full 8MB cache. Has anyone ever done this mod yet?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: It seems the T520 supported quad core i7s, so is the motherboard the same?

Vonfeffer wrote:I´ve been seen some T61 frankenpads with the X9000 which is 44w (9w over the stock processor wattage which is 35w), so I was wondering if the T420 would work with the i7-2860QM (which is 45w, 10w over the stock 35w processor) without sacrificing the motherboard power scheme too much.

I have never seen it done, but you could be a trailblazer and try it out. The X9000 is a dual core processor which probably makes the T61 swap a lot easier. Also, these wattage numbers are not the power consumed, but TDP.

Vonfeffer wrote:From the Intel ARK site I see that the T420 chipset accepts the i7-2860QM so I wonder if it will work without heating too much and not destorying the motherboard... The main features of this processor over the original one are 4 more processor cores and a full 8MB cache.

The i7-2860QM is a quad core vs. the i5 being a dual core. There is a big difference between threads and processor cores. Hyperthreading eliminates the memory bottleneck in some applications.

Vonfeffer wrote:Edit: It seems the T520 supported quad core i7s, so is the motherboard the same?

They are definitely not the same motherboard. Also the heatsink and fan are not the same.

There were some folks that tried this on another site (http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/ ... ad-30.html) with the Core i7-2720QM (2.2 ghz vs. the 2.5ghz you mentioned) quad core. There are a number of posts there as follow up, you just have to skim through the many responses that are about other topics.

Bottom line seems to be that the heat generated places you very, very close to red line for the chip. Other considerations mentioned are the power adapter (recommending a 90 watt vs. 65 watt) and whether or not you have discrete graphics might be a consideration as the cooling solution is shared.

That said, if you decide to do this I'd definitely be interested in your specific T420 specs as well as your experience and use cases you use the machine for. It'd be an interesting option for me to consider once my warranty has expired...

Well, I´ve been talking to a guy over the notebook review forum and he says it works but very hot when pushed to the edge, and because of the high temperature it begins to throttle down the clock, so I wont spend a fortune on such processor if I can´t use it to its full specs... But thanks for the reply!!!

@ jayton4

I knew about the HT tech but I didn´t knew the wattage posted there was about the TDP. Thanks!