Thinkpads Forum

Hi all:
Picked up a 600E the other day cheap. It has the stock p2 366mhz cpu in it. I have a spare p2 MMC-2 400mhz cpu from a bad 390X and wondering if this will work in it? thanks for any input...d

If you can find a repair manual for them, one could determine if one fits into another? They might be different chip types.

It should work if the 390X uses MMC2. I'm not totally sure but I think the 390X does.

When you replace the CPU's, you'll probably need to remove the heatsink or whatever else is on the 600E's cpu board and put it on the 400mhz board before installing it.

(400-366)/366 ~= 9%

You are looking at a maximum of a 9% speed improvement.

I'm not saying don't do it. Just weigh that in to the value equation, and have realistic expectations from your upgrade.

366=66MHz x 5.5
400=66MHz x 6 or 100Mhz x 4 (there were 2 versions)
but- your system won't do 100MHz-
so- if you install the 100MHz CPU it will run at 265MHz-- not an upgrade! But I doubt if any 390's had 100MHz FSB- or did they?

There were a few Pentium III models.

Althoug there may heve been two versions of the 400MHz PII MCC-2, the 600E uses a 66MHz bus (unless modified).

The 390X used a 100MHz bus PIII, just like the 600X, so I would think it would use the MMC-2 as well, but I haven't looked.

wogeboy wrote:Hi all:
Picked up a 600E the other day cheap. It has the stock p2 366mhz cpu in it. I have a spare p2 MMC-2 400mhz cpu from a bad 390X and wondering if this will work in it? thanks for any input...d

Yes.

It will most DEFINETLY work, go for it, anything that's MMC-2 will fit a 600E
When you get into other speeds some treaking kneeds to be done,
but that's beside the point

thanks for the input all...I figured if it will work, why not? the 400mhz mmc2 is just sitting here, so might as well put it to good use. even though it is a minimal upgrade.
Will this run at 400mhz on the 600E board? (66mhz bus) or does the 600e chipset automatically run at 100mhz with a 100mhz bus cpu?

The 600E does have an Intel 440BX chipset which is was originally designed to drive a 100mhz bus in desktop computers and the bus speed and multiplier for a CPU is determined by a chip on the MMC2 module so I don't see why it wouldn't work. Still, since I've never modified a 600 series computer before, I'd look around for other people who have changed the CPU in their 600E. On the 600 series forum, there is a sticky, rd from the top, that is exclusively for upgrading the 600. Check there.

I just bought a 600E but it has a pentium 3 at 550 MHZ, i think, because when i run the intel frecuency test is shows a pentium more than 500 MHZ.

i loaded the latest bios upgrade and now is running winxp without problems.

seinfeld, you likely have a 600X, or a 600E with a 600X bottom shell and main board. I'm not sure if the 600X mainboard will fit the 600E shell, but the top shell (keyboard etc.) is the same on both.

It is a 600E because the person who selled it, told me that it was upgraded. and the bios shows a pentium 2 at 300 MHZ, but it is runing too fast, because we were able to watch some dvd movies with a external usb dvd drive, so i used the intel frecuency test and is is a pentium 3 at more than 500 MHZ.
And the botom shel shows a 600E
2645- 55S

I had problems with some drivers with XP, like the com port and the sound card, but when i uploaded the latest firmware it was recognized without problems by the winXP.

Regards