R40 and R51 - many questions

[manfred]

Hello I'm very close to buy IBM R40, with Pentium M 1400 CPU. It's quite cheap so don't worry. Is it enough to browse the web? Or for youtube? IBM R30 wasn't enough

And my second question: What biggest CPU can I put in this machine? Can it be Dothan? What type should it be?
Sth like that?

http://allegro.pl/procesor-intel-pentiu ... 83452.html

[ajkula66]

R40 will not boot with a Dothan-core CPU. The fastest one you can install is PM 1.7 Banias.

[RealBlackStuff]

Skip the R40 altogether and look for a similarly cheap R52 with Intel graphics.
There are way too many broken R40s around...

[manfred]

but will it be a big speed difference in internet between r40 and for example t42 ? I m thinking about this 2 models. I' m not afraid about GPU. I have small amount of money and need laptop now

EDIT: I bought the R51 with Intel GPU and 1.6 Dothan ;D Only waiting for it, and to start fun ;D

[schen]

but will it be a big speed difference in internet between r40 and for example t42 ? I m thinking about this 2 models. I' m not afraid about GPU. I have small amount of money and need laptop now

EDIT: I bought the R51 with Intel GPU and 1.6 Dothan ;D Only waiting for it, and to start fun ;D

I've gone through quite a few of these "Rs" over the last few years and have found them to be very useful and reliable machines. I think you'll be very happy with it. If you are able to get 1.5-2Gb of RAM in it, along with a nice 5400rpm HDD, the machine should run very well for you for some time.

[manfred]

I bought it with Banias processor (1mb cache). whether it makes sense to change the CPU on Dothan? Is it possible? What processor can I put in this machine? Or it's better to buy 5400 disk (now it's slower).

Specification:

Mobile Intel Pentium M, 1600 MHz (16 x 100) 1mb cache
Intel Montara-GM+ i855GME
502 MB (PC2700 DDR SDRAM)

Could it be this processor? http://allegro.pl/procesor-intel-pentiu ... 58660.html

[ajkula66]

BIOS on R40 won't let you run a Dothan-core CPU, so stick with the Banias that you already have.

You can do that upgrade on R51, though, and add some RAM while you're at it.

A newer/faster HDD is always a good upgrade in my book.

Good luck.

[manfred]

Is it difficult to change the CPU? Will I see the difference between L2 Caches? I'm afraid of doing this. I don't know if it must be special thermal grease for laptops or normal? And how much to put in on a fan? Thanks.

[ajkula66]

Any good quality thermal grease will do.

Clean the CPU/heatsink with isopropyl (denatured) alcohol, put one small grain-of-rice size ball of thermal paste on the CPU, then spread it over the shiny square area with a credit card. Put everything back together. Done.

My experience is that a Dothan PM735 will run cooler, if not significantly faster than a Banias of a similar speed.

Good luck.

[manfred]

And when I will be buying hard drive.... Should I look for special models? Or everything should work? Of course on ATA. I've heard there were some problems. I'm looking for ATA disk with 7200 speed.

[RealBlackStuff]

Any PATA/ATA/IDE/EIDE (they are all the same) 2.5" 9mm high hard drive will do. Just do NOT buy a SATA drive.
Biggest PATA HD available is 320GB.
Modern 5400rpm HDs are practically as fast as older 7200rpm HDs.

[manfred]

I decided on a samsung 160GB, reportedly the fastest ATA drive currently.
Do you think it is worth investing in this computer? Processor, RAM, and HDD. I do not have too much money for new laptop.
It is a trap - to pay for the drive (about 160 PLN), or sell R51 and buy R60 or T60 (fear of failure higher models).

I would like to use for about 3 years of R51 - for work and the internet will be sufficient?

PS. Recently showed a blocked pixel, but I worked it programmatically. Has anyone had this contact at IBM?

[ZaZ]

Do you think it is worth investing in this computer? Processor, RAM, and HDD. I do not have too much money for new laptop.

If you don't have a lot of money, then no. With the R40 you're stuck with a single core CPU and you probably won't see much of a performance bump until you go to a dual core machine. Probably the best thing you can do performance wise is to upgrade to a 7200RPM drive, but the biggest PATA 7200RPM PATA drives were 100GB. PATA drives are more expensive as they don't make nearly as many of them these days. This is particularly true for 7200RPM drives, which haven't been being made for five years. Good Luck.

[manfred]

What RAM can I put in my R51? Could it be sth like that? And what number of chips should it be? 8 or 16?

http://tablica.pl/oferta/pamiec-to-lapt ... Dwm6x.html

http://tablica.pl/oferta/pamiec-do-lapt ... DmaD5.html (PC3200)

http://allegro.pl/1gb-ddr1-pc2700-333mh ... 65391.html

http://allegro.pl/samsung-ram-512mb-pc2 ... 17255.html

[RealBlackStuff]

The R51 needs 200-pin DDR PC2100 (266MHz) or PC2700 (333MHz) SODIMM, up to 2 x 1GB.
PC3200 (400MHz) might work as well, but is not guaranteed.
You can buy the cheapest (PC2700 is best) RAM, number of chips is not important.

[manfred]

And... I hope the last stupid question. :

I'm close to buy Pentium M Dothan but the guy who is selling this claims that 1.6 Dothan gets really more hot than 1.7 or 1.8 Dothan.

For R51 he tries to sell me Dothan 2.0, which is not supported?

[ajkula66]

I don't know who told you that PM755 (2.0) isn't supported...because it does work on R51, no issues.

I see no reason to go and upgrade that machine if you plan on moving on...

[manfred]

I decided not to sell R51. I think that it would be nice to use if I buy new HDD and some RAM. I need it to school (Excel, Internet, some Internet games, films, youtube), and I think it can be good.

But I won't be calm until there's Banias inside ;D I was reading some posts on this forum, that Dothan 2.0 will be getting so hot and 1.7, 1.8 is the best choice. And thinkwiki says that R51 can handle only up to 1.8 GHZ.

[ajkula66]

Forget what you read on Thinkwiki since many members here - myself included - have ran 2.0 and 2.1 CPUs in these machines.

That being said, 1.7 is probably the best value nowadays.

Good luck.

[manfred]

Price difference between 2.0 and 1.7 is about 6 dollars at this guy's shop