IBM R50e

[duke_stix]

Hi all

I've just picked up an IBM R50e and at the moment it has a celeron M cpu inside it and 256mb of DDR RAM

I was wondering, what is the best/fastest CPU i can drop straight into this, the RAM has already been ordered (1gb stick of pc3200 DDR SODIMM), as has the 80gb 7200rpm HDD and the 3com x-jack wlan card and the new battery

this laptop is to be used as a 'mobile' workhorse, for word/excel etc,

any guidance from the thinkpad guru's would be much appreciated! my last TP was an x22!

[ZaZ]

What's the machine type? You should be able to do a Dothan Pentium M.

[duke_stix]

Hi

the model type is

1834-8SG

ive already had a little poke around inside it, looks like theres no mini pci slot but there are the solder pads so i've had to order one of those 3com xjack wifi cards with the springy antennae

with thanks

[eyestrain]

IMO for word and excel, a 1.5 Dothan would be fine. But you'll probably do internet too...
Even for internet 1.5 Dothan is ok, but you could spring for a 1.8 or faster. You might want to undervolt and/or change the fan, depending on what stock fan was in there and what CPU you go for. And how quiet you like it.

[duke_stix]

well i ended up springing for a 1.6 dothan, snagged it for a fiver, shouldn't require a fan upgrade should it? i'm coming from a 1.4 celeron

just waiting for battery to arrive so i can test its portability properly

is it possible to upgrade the screen in these to a higher resolution one? i'm used to a 15.4" 1920x1200 display in my vostro 1510 and this current screen in the ibm is weird!

[Neil]

IIRC the Intel Extreme graphics in your R50e only supports XGA panels.

[eyestrain]

If your fan looks like this:
(high res pic!) http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... s%3Disch:1
(smaller pic) http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... s%3Disch:1

then I believe you will be fine. I know some R50e's come with that fan. The similar R51 with the above fan can come stock with a 1.7, or even 1.8 Dothan.

Also, note the page http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:R50e which shows that R50e can come with a 1.7 Dothan, but I don't know which fan. (looks like you may have updated that wiki page yourself! )
If you're really concerned, you can check the Hardware Maintenance Manual, to see which fan was included for which chip. Might help to find a Product Id for a 1.6 Dothan R50E, maybe from an ebay search.

On upgrading the screen or lid to higher resolution: I also think I've seen posts with negatives for 14" screens and Intel graphics, for similar models to yours. Maybe it can be done, to SXGA+, with a modification of the cable? Until there's a more definitive reply, you could try a search. Can be tough to find things here, try using google, and site:thinkpads.com

edit-- added 1.8 dothan above. 2888-Y2D, R51 has that small fan with only one heat pipe, and a 1.8 Dothan. Unless it was modified after released from factory.