Thoughts on the T500?

[Neil]

Well...I'm using an old, nearly dead 6-cell in it right now, since the T500 is almost always used on a desk so I don't need much battery life, and I just don't like the bulk of the bigger battery. But, I also have a new 9-cell standing by should I need the extra run time.

[precip9]

Get a 9 cell eBay battery.

The projecting design of Thinkpad batteries is a plus. The more it projects, the more radiation area for the battery case, the more the entire battery case will behave as thermally isolated from the heat of the circuits. The airgap between the battery case and the laptop makes this possible, but the larger the projection out the back, the cooler it will stay.

That, and the lower current draw per cell of a 9 cell battery means that, all things equal, a 9 cell battery will last much longer than a 6 cell.

[Hans Gruber]

This T500 is a 2.8Ghz. CPU-Z shows it's maxed out at 1600mhz. I turned on high performance and it stayed at 1600mhz. Is speedstep enabled in the bios causing low power mode? I am doing updates on Windows 7 and installing all the Lenovo system updates right now.

[precip9]

I haven't tried CPU-Z, but I've never seen that behavior. Could it be a reporting error? What does Windows Task Manager show? (control-alt-del)

Speedstep should be enabled in the BIOS. The only reason to disable it would be for an incompatible OS, of which I do not think there are any remaining instances.

[RMSMajestic]

Could I put in my old Q6600 with a bios mod? It will run at 2.8ghz without adjusting the voltage. I could even undervolt it to run @2.4ghz which is the stock speed.

LGA 775 cpu in a PGA 478 socket *facepalm*
Great idea though.... I hope I can put i7 990x in my W701

[Hans Gruber]

The T500 with ATI graphics runs hot as blazes. I repasted the CPU, GPU and integrated graphics chip. Both the CPU and GPU are on the same heatsink with only one heat pipe going to the ATI GPU. Should I use the ATI graphics drivers from AMD or the Lenovo stuff?

[hhhd1]

I repasted the CPU, GPU and integrated graphics chip.

I think that maybe one of those 3 should not be repasted ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CSEbJb5FT8
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=107140

[Qing Dao]

You should use both. Install the switchable graphics from Lenovo, and then use the AMD graphics drivers update tool to install the latest graphics drivers for the system. Then you get the best of both worlds.

The computer does get hot, but even with overclocking the HD3650, undervolting my T9900 and running the fan at 100% keeps it from a nuclear meltdown.

[Hans Gruber]

You should use both. Install the switchable graphics from Lenovo, and then use the AMD graphics drivers update tool to install the latest graphics drivers for the system. Then you get the best of both worlds.

The computer does get hot, but even with overclocking the HD3650, undervolting my T9900 and running the fan at 100% keeps it from a nuclear meltdown.

It's not that bad, I was just being humorous. I did read that it does get quite hot on forum threads. Here is what I discovered regarding the T9600 throttling @ 1600mhz and not reaching it's full potential of 2.8ghz + whatever the turbo speed is.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads ... uo.477704/

I have to screw around in the bios to figure out how to disable the throttling. Intel had a power saving feature that locks the processor to the lowest multipler which halves the performance of the CPU essentially.

I am sorting out this T500, will enable switchable graphics and leave it on integrated until I get all the drivers setup.

[precip9]

Your temps, and the clock limitation, are unfamiliar to me. So I'm running tests with ATI graphics on a W500 which, if anything, runs hotter than a T500 because the graphics chip has more cores and ram. I have a jpg snip of the CPU ID utility "HWMonitor" while running Windows Update, and I'll have one shortly after some Youtube.

I think the snips are too big to post. Send PM if you want them.

[ajkula66]

I did read that it does get quite hot on forum threads. Here is what I discovered regarding the T9600 throttling @ 1600mhz and not reaching it's full potential of 2.8ghz + whatever the turbo speed is.

You're either doing something wrong or your battery is dead. Also, there's no turbo on these CPUs.

[precip9]

You're either doing something wrong or your battery is dead. Also, there's no turbo on these CPUs.

Correct, http://ark.intel.com/products/39312/Int ... 66-MHz-FSB
"Demand based switching" is absent.

I've just captured three snips of HWMonitor on a W500 with 3 usage scenarios. The temperatures Hans reports just don't seem right. Perhaps some of these laptops have defective heatsinks, in which the heatpipes were not properly filled with working fluid, or the fluid has leaked.

Anybody want my snips? Send PM.

[Hans Gruber]

You're either doing something wrong or your battery is dead. Also, there's no turbo on these CPUs.

Correct, http://ark.intel.com/products/39312/Int ... 66-MHz-FSB
"Demand based switching" is absent.

I've just captured three snips of HWMonitor on a W500 with 3 usage scenarios. The temperatures Hans reports just don't seem right. Perhaps some of these laptops have defective heatsinks, in which the heatpipes were not properly filled with working fluid, or the fluid has leaked.

Anybody want my snips? Send PM.

I did a clean Windows 7 64 bit install. I had to go out to the Lenovo website and download a few drivers. My CPU temps are now in the mid 50's and my CPU is running @ 2.8ghz. Without the drivers there was no temperature control. There is an Intel CPU driver that I downloaded.

[FryPpy]

Also, there's no turbo on these CPUs.

Yes there is no turbo boost for core 2, but from i965 (61 era) intel made IDAT (Intel Dynamic Acceleration Tecnology). This is like Turbo Boost v. 0.1

Correct, http://ark.intel.com/products/39312/Int ... 66-MHz-FSB
"Demand based switching" is absent.

"Demand based switching" this is like SpeedStep (saving energy) for server CPUs.

[Netscaler_]

How does the T500 compare to the T400?

[Neil]

Hey Netscaler_, welcome to the forum.

The T500 is the same class as the T400 only with a larger display.

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T500

[Temetka]

The T500/T400 are good laptops. That being said, I would recommend a T510/T410 to anyone looking at purchasing one of these. You can get better CPU's and GPU's.

Again, if $$$ is a huge concern, a T500 would make a good machine for Web/Office and light gaming. Just don't expect it to play the latest games.

[Hans Gruber]

The HD3650 outperforms the Nvidia NVS3100 in benchmarks. There really is no comparison between the i5 and the Core2Duo.

I have a T510 coming in the mail. I had to turn off the T500 HD3650 because it was throttling 100% which caused overheating. I went into bios and set it to integrated graphics only and the temps are fine now. I am still sorting out the drivers issue with the ATI graphics. I reinstalled the OS with a 750GB HDD.