Thinkpads Forum

I'm upgrading the CPU and RAM in my T500 when I get the money. I currently have the Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26GHz and I'm going to the Core 2 Duo T9600, unless there is a Core 2 Quad that would work on this laptop that won't have too much of a heat issue. I'm also upgrading the RAM to 8GB. So now to the questions...

1) Is there a quad core CPU available that will work on the T500 that is reasonably priced? ($75 and under)
2) Does the T500 support 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM at full speeds, or is there a certain speed it can't go over?

Also, my ThinkPad doesn't have a webcam. If I bought a whole display assembly with a webcam built in, would it work on the ThinkPad? and if so, is there a way to make it cheaper than buying a whole new display assembly, like could I buy a bezel with it built in?

There are no quads available for the T500. Unless you've got a specific need to push the CPU all the time, bumping up to a faster dual core is unlikely to make a noticeable difference. If you want a performance boost, replacing the standard drive with a SSD is most like the best way to get it. You can toss the old drive in the modular caddy to replace the optical drive if you need more space.

The T500 uses PC8500 memory. Faster memory will downclock to that speed. I wouldn't pay extra for it.

This may be of interest.

A T9600 CPU will run MUCH hotter then a P8400 I do no recommend that upgrade unless you don't plan on pushing the ATi GPU.

A better option would be a P9500 or P9600, they do run hotter then a P8400, but it's not too bad.

I'll try the T9600 out, and if it runs too hot for me, then I'll get a different one and sell the T9600. I was looking around and it seems high demand.

HIMAN1998 wrote:I'll try the T9600 out, and if it runs too hot for me, then I'll get a different one and sell the T9600. I was looking around and it seems high demand.

No not the 35w T9600 the 25w P9600

I can't find a P9600 for the same price or less than I was gonna pay for the T9600. I can find the P9500 for about the same price, a little more than for the T9600. I'm mainly looking at price.

And I'll probably end up getting a smaller sized SSD (64GB) for the boot drive, and get the Ultrabay caddy for my current 320GB 7200RPM.

Well any of the P9x00 series Core 2's would be fine, the P9700 might be pushing the limits though, but undervolting would fix that.

You could also get a P8800 seems cheap enough, but it has less cache then the P9x00 series.

What are you doing with your T500 that you want to upgrade the CPU? Unless you're pushing the CPU at or near capacity all the time, a better CPU is unlikely to make of a much difference, particularly for low CPU utilization applications like Office, media or Internet.

I use Photoshop CS6, AutoCAD, and some gaming.

I'm using a T9800 2.93 on the t500, it does not over heat, i can take a measurement at the fan outlet with a laser temp measuring tool.. its fast, i upgraded from a p8400

rsutoratosu wrote:I'm using a T9800 2.93 on the t500, it does not over heat, i can take a measurement at the fan outlet with a laser temp measuring tool.. its fast, i upgraded from a p8400

The temp of the air that comes out the vent won't tell us much.

What you need is a piece of software that can read the internal sensors, like CPUID HWmonitor, TPFC or IBM_ECW.
Then get furmark install it and run it while you have a temp monitor running, wait for temps to stabilize and look at CPU and GPU temps, are they below 85C?
If they are, try running a single thread of prime95, while furmark is running and see how high the temps go.

As far as I remember, my T500 with a P9600 ended up at 86C max, can't recall if the CPU or GPU got hottest.
This tells me that this is where the cooling system has it's limit.

right, but just using it I can tell the exhaust barely gets warm.. on the other hand, my t61 with a t8300 was over 110 at the exhaust..

the whole keyboard on the t61 was hot while the t500 with a t9800 barely gets warm

My whole plan to upgrade this T500 ended abruptly when I found out someone at my church had a MacBook they wanted to trade for my ThinkPad. I need a Mac for school, so I said yes.

rsutoratosu wrote:right, but just using it I can tell the exhaust barely gets warm.. on the other hand, my t61 with a t8300 was over 110 at the exhaust..

the whole keyboard on the t61 was hot while the t500 with a t9800 barely gets warm

My W510's barely gets warm on the outside either, but that doesn't prevent the CPU from reaching 85C when running four heavy threads and 3D graphics.

If you start running demanding 3D graphics on your T500, the bottom of the unit will get quite hot after a while.

The only way to make sure, is to read the temp sensors inside the unit.


~HIMAN1998

I don't think you got the better end of that deal, but time will tell.