R40 CPU upgrade - suggestions / advise needed

Message

r2d2 · #1 Post by **r2d2** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 1:44 pm

I have an R40 with Pentium 4 CPU. Can I replace this with a Pentium M 2.0Ghz? I see a lot of DOTHAN CPUs in eBay... are they compatible?

Thanks

#2 Post by **ZaZ** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 2:02 pm

They are not. You can only upgrade to another Pentium 4.

r2d2 · #3 Post by **r2d2** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 2:25 pm

OK thank you.

#4 Post by **ZaZ** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 7:08 am

If you are looking for a performance boost, a faster hard drive and more memory if you haven't done that already is a good place to start.

r2d2 · #5 Post by **r2d2** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:28 am

@FredGarvin... nope I have not done that yet but may be soon.

Also as per IBM website R40 comes in Pentium 4, Celeron and Pentium M. If I have a Celeron now, can I change it to a Pentium 4 or Pentium M?

kajencik · #6 Post by **kajencik** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:58 am

Take a look at this: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:R40
As you can see, the celeron in R40 is not derived from pentium M, but from pentium 4-M, which means, if you have the celeron, you can upgrade only to the pentium 4-M (which I would highly recommend if you have the celeron CPU, the perfomance boost is great, because of the double L2 cache of pentium 4-m (512 kb) compared to the celeron (256 kb), also the battery time will be longer, because of better power saving abilities of the pentium 4-m

ulrich.von.lich · #7 Post by **ulrich.von.lich** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:55 am

If you upgrade the CPU to a Pentium 4 Mobile 2.4 to 2.6Ghz, you won't miss much from a Pentium M Banias. If I remember right, the R40 can't take Dothans anyway due to BIOS limit.

kajencik · #8 Post by **kajencik** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:30 pm

ulrich.von.lich wrote:If you upgrade the CPU to a Pentium 4 Mobile 2.4 to 2.6Ghz, you won't miss much from a Pentium M Banias. If I remember right, the R40 can't take Dothans anyway due to BIOS limit.

Exactly, fastest pentium M available for R40 is 1,7 banias, which IMHO performs as a 2,6 pentium 4-M, but, just to say everything, celeron 2,4 derived from pentium 4-M performs for me worse than the 1,8 pentium 4-M

r2d2 · #9 Post by **r2d2** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 7:48 pm

Thank you for the replies...

If I understand it correctly; it is better to move to a 2+GHz Pentium 4M than staying on an Celeron but it is best to move to a 1.7GHz Pentium M (Banias).

What I have right now is I think the lowest Celeron there is for an R40. I have a Pentium 4M 2.0 GHz arriving soon but am quite unsure at first if it would really improve performance. At least now I know...

Again thank you for the advise.

ajkula66 · #10 Post by **ajkula66** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:36 pm

Pentium 4M 2.0 will improve the performance dramatically compared to what you're dealing with now.

For you to be able to put a 1.7 Banias in your machine you'd have to change the motherboard, which I honestly don't see as being a reasonable option.

I've recently sold a R40 with 2.4 P4M and all jokes aside, that thing has not lacked speed whatsoever. I have no idea what your normal daily use consist of, but P4M is still powerful enough for most "average" users. Take it from someone whose main machine is still an A31p with a 2.0 P4M, although I've maxed it out in all other respects...

Good luck.

r2d2 · #11 Post by **r2d2** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:52 pm

Thanks George...

You are definitely right.. changing mobo is unreasonable. All I want to do really is to max out the R40. You can say my usage is around a little above average but I really do not like how Windows XP utilizes resources (after some time and after installation of additional apps.

This is also why I love my X20 with linux

).

I guess that's all the information I need. Thank you so much.

ajkula66 · #12 Post by **ajkula66** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:59 pm

You should be able to run Linux on that R40 with no issues whatsoever...95% hardware will be recognized instantly by most distros that I've played with...as for XP, it can be tweaked to a reasonable amount by switching to "classic" mode and turning off all the unnecessary garbage...

BTW, I do have a set of XPP recovery disks for R40 series, so if you need a copy of these feel free to PM me.

#13 Post by **underclocker** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:59 pm

I agree, too. I have an A31 with 2GB of RAM, a 60GB 7200rpm drive and a 2.0GHz Pentium M CPU. It feels pretty [censored] modern. The only non-current feature is the 1.1 USB, but I added a 2 port 2.0 USB PC Card which does the trick.

I went from 1.6 to 2.0GHz and the difference is noticeable.

r2d2 · #14 Post by **r2d2** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:16 pm

I plan to run XP on this George... I will PM you re: your restore CD copies.

Ed, I would love to have a 2GB RAM and 7200rpm drive on this one - unfortunately although the spirit is willing, my pocket is weak

Not at this time though; but I sure need to save up for that.

I just noticed that I have a 2723. I cannot remember where but I have read that 2723 runs a Pentium M. Oh yeah; its from the IBM website. I did not even notice this in the BIOS setup that I have a 2723 until now. Obviously I even bought a Pentium 4M because in my mind I have a Celeron.

(what am I thinkin?

). I guess I just have to buy a 1.7Pentium M

I just hope it would boot using external optical drive connected via USB.

Terrahawk · #15 Post by **Terrahawk** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 12:27 am

The R40 runs very nicely with a 1.7 GHz Pentium-M. I have one and it handles my computing needs very well.

ajkula66 · #16 Post by **ajkula66** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 12:46 am

r2d2,

What is the full 7-character model number of your R40?

r2d2 · #17 Post by **r2d2** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:32 am

@George, it's a model 2723-EG1...

Funny thing is I have rebooted to BIOS so many times and yet I did not even notice that I have a 1.3GHz Pentium M ( I dont know if I am blind as a bat or just stupid as stupid gets

). To prove the latter, I even got a Pentium 4M processor which now I think would not fit without replacing the mobo.

@Geoff... this is out of topic but I need to know if you have tried booting using a USB optical drive. I ask because this cannot recognize the optical drive in the ultrabay (but it can recognize an FDD). If it can boot using USB connected optical drive, I can get one from the store and use it to install an operating system.

ajkula66 · #18 Post by **ajkula66** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:39 am

I'm sure that you'll find an owner of a T30 or A31/p looking to upgrade to that 2.0 ....

Now, get some more RAM and on the quest for the holy grail of PM1.7 CPU which is, thankfully, pretty cheap these days...

I hope that you're not running on original HDD, are you?

r2d2 · #19 Post by **r2d2** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:48 am

@George.. yup.. that is exactly what I am going to do or if time allows, I could use it on another 'rebuild project' in the near future. My RAM is 1GB now. And no I am not using original HDD.

I checked just now and I noticed that 1.7Pentium M is affordable. I found one which costs $15 (shipped) in eBay.

R40 CPU upgrade - suggestions / advise needed

R40 CPU upgrade - suggestions / advise needed

Who is online