Thinkpads Forum

I've looked through over 20 topics and am not quite sure about upgrading cpu. I am looking to upgrade a 500mhz cpu in an IBM thinkpad 600x, what is the maximum that I can upgrade to? I was reading about speedstep, what exactly is that and how/why is it important? Another question: I have a 933mhz PIII in a machine at home, would I be able to use that in this laptop? Last question: what is the maximum fsb allowed by the motherboards? 100mhz? 133mhz?

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions,
Zozio.

An 850 mhz MMC-2 CPU s the highest speed CPU you can put into a 600x..

Unless your 600x is a 5FU or a 9FU,which yours PROBABLY isn;t because it has a 500 mhz CPU in it, it will NOT be a true speedstep machine..

Speedstep steps down computer CPU speed 150 mhz when it runs on it's battery(to save power),then speeds up to full CPU speed when on AC power..It's up to you on how important that is..

Now since your machine is NOT a speedstep machine will a speedstep CPU(any 600 to 850 MMC-2 CPU) work in your machine? Yes,kind of,maybe,probably......

All speedstep CPU's will work at least at 150 Mhz slower then the CPU is rated..Ex.- A 800 mhz MMC-2 CPU will run at 650 Mhz on your NON speedstep machine.... Thats always true... But will it run 800 Mhz? Thats open for deabte..

I have got non speedstep 600x's to run speedstep CPU's at top speed.. But not without quirks and problems.. If you're still interested I'm sure others will post here and give you more info and if you're really interested I will post some of those quirks and problems.. Ask away!!!

BillD wrote:An 850 mhz MMC-2 CPU s the highest speed CPU you can put into a 600x..

Unless your 600x is a 5FU or a 9FU,which yours PROBABLY isn;t because it has a 500 mhz CPU in it, it will NOT be a true speedstep machine..

Speedstep steps down computer CPU speed 150 mhz when it runs on it's battery(to save power),then speeds up to full CPU speed when on AC power..It's up to you on how important that is..

Now since your machine is NOT a speedstep machine will a speedstep CPU(any 600 to 850 MMC-2 CPU) work in your machine? Yes,kind of,maybe,probably......

All speedstep CPU's will work at least at 150 Mhz slower then the CPU is rated..Ex.- A 800 mhz MMC-2 CPU will run at 650 Mhz on your NON speedstep machine.... Thats always true... But will it run 800 Mhz? Thats open for deabte..

I have got non speedstep 600x's to run speedstep CPU's at top speed.. But not without quirks and problems.. If you're still interested I'm sure others will post here and give you more info and if you're really interested I will post some of those quirks and problems.. Ask away!!!

How were you able to get it to run at full speed? I'm very interested . Also is there a easy~ish way to overclock the cpus?

EDIT: does this mean you can get the 500mhz cpus that come with the laptop to run at 650mhz?

How?? ..I downloaded the Intel Speedstep utility from the net..Here:

http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.ws ... IGR-4HLVUP

This will take to you to IBM's web site...


And that forced the CPU to run,in my case 650mhz.. But like I said it was not without it's quirks..

It would NOT switch back and forth like a true SS machine should,it would either start up(according to the SS utility settings) at 650mhz or 500 mhz...Also when it was running at 650 it won't come out of standby..And when it was forced to start at 650 Mhz it hangs at boot-up,so I would have to push the Fn key and the F2 key to continue booting...

Now I have read here that some people can get it to switch back and forth on the fly like a SS machine suppose to..But when it would switch the computer froze,and certain keys had to be pressed to get the machine un-froze..I haven't done that so again I'm sure others here can give you more info...

Can these MMC-2 be overclocked? Yes,It involves soldering a resistor onto the MMC-2 board,I have that link on my other laptop..I will post that later,or tomorrow...

EDIT: does this mean you can get the 500mhz cpus that come with the laptop to run at 650mhz?

No,if you want 650Mhz in your NON speedstep machine you either have to:


1) buy a 800mhz(MMC-2) CPU and run it non speedstepped,which means it will always run minus 150 mhz..= 650..

2) buy a 650 mhz,and try to use the Intel SS applet and put up with the quirks I posted above...

If I remember correctly if you overclock any of these CPU's(soldering the resistor)you get an 8% increase in speed...

For what it may be worth, I've run the SpeedStep app successfully on my ThinkPad 600E with Windows 2000 Professional and a Pentium III 750. You may want to try giving that a shot before trying anything that involves the hardware.

Another quick question, would this ram work in the laptop?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820172003

BTW, thank you all: you've been so helpful.

I read that ram causes problems. Would this ram work since its pc100 and cas2?

http://www.oempcworld.com/Merchant2/mer ... =C8090x018

Zozio wrote:I read that ram causes problems. Would this ram work since its pc100 and cas2?

Have you read this Sticky Thread?

Regards,

James

JHEM wrote:

Zozio wrote:I read that ram causes problems. Would this ram work since its pc100 and cas2?

Have you read this Sticky Thread?

Regards,

James

I have read that, but IMO that stuff is rediculously overpriced. For $15 more you could get 1gb of ddr .

Anyways I found some cheap 128mb sticks which are supposed to work on thinkpad 600x if anyone is interested. They are $18 incl shipping. It has a "100% Compatibility Guarantee".

http://www.kahlon.com/itemdetailpg.asp?itemid=362747

Zozio wrote:I have read that, but IMO that stuff is rediculously overpriced. For $15 more you could get 1gb of ddr

Well OF COURSE it's expensive compared to current memory offerings!

PC100 and PC133 SO-DIMMs are positively ancient in computer years and there are only a few manufacturers still making them. Scarcity = high prices.

~$93 for two sticks of 256MB PC133 from Crucial is a [censored] sight cheaper than paying $70 to $80 for a single stick of lo-density PC100 256MB on eBay!

The Kahlon 128MB sticks are back up to $20 each and at that point I'd rather buy ONE 256MB stick from Crucial for ~$43.

Regards,

James

JHEM wrote:

Zozio wrote:I have read that, but IMO that stuff is rediculously overpriced. For $15 more you could get 1gb of ddr

Well OF COURSE it's expensive compared to current memory offerings!

PC100 and PC133 SO-DIMMs are positively ancient in computer years and there are only a few manufacturers still making them. Scarcity = high prices.

~$93 for two sticks of 256MB PC133 from Crucial is a [censored] sight cheaper than paying $70 to $80 for a single stick of lo-density PC100 256MB on eBay!

The Kahlon 128MB sticks are back up to $20 each and at that point I'd rather buy ONE 256MB stick from Crucial for ~$43.

Regards,

James

I completely understand your stance and you have made some good points, however I think I will still go with the Kahlon one. I bought this laptop for $70 + tax + shipping (comes to $90 total). I don't have tons of money and am trying to get the best value i can out of this situation. I feel for the usage I will be using this lappy for the extra money is not justified by the increased performance.

On a slightly different note: what would be my best bet if I wanted to get a wifi card?

On a slightly different note: what would be my best bet if I wanted to get a wifi card?

I've been getting NETGEAR WG511 cards off of Ebay for all these 600's I've been fixing up... $25 including shipping... And they work fine...

I won't post the Ebay'er I've been buying them from,I'm not sure about this forum policy regarding that.. But let me know if you're interested...

Zozio wrote:I read that ram causes problems. Would this ram work since its pc100 and cas2?

http://www.oempcworld.com/Merchant2/mer ... =C8090x018

No, that ram will not work. The ram has to be LOW DENSITY PC100 ram. You can tell by sight, because Low Density 256mb sticks have 16 black chips on them, 8 on each side.

128mb PC133 sticks might work, but 256mb pc133 sticks will not work, unless they are the ones that JHEM referenced, because apparently Crucial has figured out how to make them Low Density sticks AND work with the TP requirements.

The prices listed in JHEM's sticky is a little higher priced than waiting on eBay for 256mb low density PC100 sticks for less than $45 (including shipping). They can be found that cheap, but since everyone is looking for them, they are a rare find at a decent price, much less available for long.

In fact, I have an automatic search set up in eBay to notify me if anyone lists these sticks with a Buy-it-now price of $40 or less. Then I just have to weed out the ones with the ridiculous shipping fees.

Zozio wrote:I completely understand your stance and you have made some good points, however I think I will still go with the Kahlon one. I bought this laptop for $70 + tax + shipping (comes to $90 total). I don't have tons of money and am trying to get the best value i can out of this situation. I feel for the usage I will be using this lappy for the extra money is not justified by the increased performance.

But, given the fact that you probably hope to use this laptop for a while, you'd still be better off financially buying ONE 256MB stick from Crucial for ~$43 if you ever plan on maxing out the RAM to 576MB. Otherwise you'll wind up with a stick of useless 128MB if and when you upgrade.

Zozio wrote:On a slightly different note: what would be my best bet if I wanted to get a wifi card?

I prefer the 3COM X-Jack WiFi cards for the 600 series, Transnote, etc. A little more expensive, but the ability to turn the card off by simply retracting the antenna is great for extending batttery life and there's nothing (or very little) protruding from the laptop when you want to put it in a case, backpack, etc.

Regards,

James

JHEM wrote:

Zozio wrote:I completely understand your stance and you have made some good points, however I think I will still go with the Kahlon one. I bought this laptop for $70 + tax + shipping (comes to $90 total). I don't have tons of money and am trying to get the best value i can out of this situation. I feel for the usage I will be using this lappy for the extra money is not justified by the increased performance.

But, given the fact that you probably hope to use this laptop for a while, you'd still be better off financially buying ONE 256MB stick from Crucial for ~$43 if you ever plan on maxing out the RAM to 576MB. Otherwise you'll wind up with a stick of useless 128MB if and when you upgrade.

The point that I should have made earlier is that I'm not planning to keep this laptop for an extremely long time, maybe two years max. I just want enough to get by semi comfortably.

JHEM wrote:

Zozio wrote:On a slightly different note: what would be my best bet if I wanted to get a wifi card?

I prefer the 3COM X-Jack WiFi cards for the 600 series, Transnote, etc. A little more expensive, but the ability to turn the card off by simply retracting the antenna is great for extending batttery life and there's nothing (or very little) protruding from the laptop when you want to put it in a case, backpack, etc.

Regards,

James

I'll keep my eyes open on ebay for those. Thanks.

Another quick question: are these laptops able to play basic games like cs 1.5 semi-ok? If not what would be my best bet towards upgrading video card?

Thanks for your help,
Zozio.

are these laptops able to play basic games like cs 1.5 semi-ok? If not what would be my best bet towards upgrading video card?

You cannot upgrade the video card that is installed in your ThinkPad right now. If you wanted to invest more money in additional hardware that would become useless to you in 2 years, or whenever you upgrade again, you can check out the options provided in this thread:
Video Card Upgrade

For more info about games on the 600 series, check out:
Games on 600e
Games that run well on the thinkpad 600X (without the dock)
600X and games.

For additional introductory info about your ThinkPad, I would recommend trying to do a search in the ThinkPad forums, and narrowing your search to just look in the ThinkPad 770, 600 Series & Transnote Forum. You'll be surprised how much info is already there waiting to be found!

Phil.

I've been thinking of putting linux on this puppy, what would be the best distro in terms of speed, user interface, memory usage, and wireless network easiness (i really need this one)? I heard the PCLinuxOS is really good for wireless networking.

Thanks once again,
Zozio.

Zozio wrote:I've been thinking of putting linux on this puppy, what would be the best distro in terms of speed, user interface, memory usage, and wireless network easiness (i really need this one)? I heard the PCLinuxOS is really good for wireless networking.

Thanks once again,
Zozio.

You might have to do a bit of customizing; look over some of the install pages on Thinkwiki.

I would go for a minimalist GUI on a small distro, perhaps a rework of Ubuntu to start with if you don't want to get too complex.

christopher_wolf wrote:

Zozio wrote:I've been thinking of putting linux on this puppy, what would be the best distro in terms of speed, user interface, memory usage, and wireless network easiness (i really need this one)? I heard the PCLinuxOS is really good for wireless networking.

Thanks once again,
Zozio.

You might have to do a bit of customizing; look over some of the install pages on Thinkwiki.

I would go for a minimalist GUI on a small distro, perhaps a rework of Ubuntu to start with if you don't want to get too complex.

Any suggestions on a particular rework of Ubuntu, and what version of it? Also is Ubuntu good with wireless aka not like trying to make out with an angry porcupine.

Thank you for your time,
Zozio.