Thinkpads Forum

What upgrades can be done to bring a W700 closer to current useability? The Core duo processor, what could that be upgraded to?
Also what is the max ram capacity on these machines? I like the idea of the 17" screen, and Wacom pad built in. I would want to do some simple
photo editing, and like the idea of 2 hard drives built in for backup. I am a cheapskate and would not want to just throw money at one, but they look
like an interesting machine to have. Any version thats better to look for? Thanks for your help.

I would suggest that you grab a copy of the "withdrawn" tabook that describes the various W700 model types that were offered. You can find it here:

http://www.lenovo.com/psref/pdf/ltwbook_2013.pdf

While it won't answer your question about upgrading the Core 2 Duo, you will see that the W700 was offered with at least 3 different CPUs (Duo, Quad, Extreme).

I got a QX9300 in my W700ds, I know that was the most sent from the factory, dunno if there's anything more powerful than that.
the max ram is 8GB, I forget the speed of the ram, and I don't thinkt he 8GB modules will work at all.
As for the graphics, I think the 3700M is the most you'll get, unless you are somehow able to do a bios flash because that GPU is whitelisted for the W700...

Thank you both for the links and the information. If I could find the DS version at an affordable price
I would be a very happy camper. It just looks too cool interesting to me.

JalopyBob wrote:Thank you both for the links and the information. If I could find the DS version at an affordable price
I would be a very happy camper. It just looks too cool interesting to me.

Well, before you define your own tag for "affordable" you may want to remember that these were $7K units, and that less than 100K of entire W70* series were sold worldwide...