Thinkpads Forum

whats the fastest processor I can upgrade my 600e to? 600e is mm-2 right?

The fastest is the 850MHz MMC-2 cpu. However, I believe that you might have to mod the chip to get it to run at 850, instead of running at 700MHz (Speed Step).

tfflivemb2 wrote:The fastest is the 850MHz MMC-2 cpu. However, I believe that you might have to mod the chip to get it to run at 850, instead of running at 700MHz (Speed Step).

is this like ram where if I find a pIII 850 mmc-2 if may not work. or will any pIII mmc-2 work?

thanks for the quick reply

chrisvaughan02 wrote:

tfflivemb2 wrote:The fastest is the 850MHz MMC-2 cpu. However, I believe that you might have to mod the chip to get it to run at 850, instead of running at 700MHz (Speed Step).

is this like ram where if I find a pIII 850 mmc-2 if may not work. or will any pIII mmc-2 work?

thanks for the quick reply

Yes you can use any PIII MMC-2 processor.

But since your 600e is not capable to do the speedstep change on the cpu the processor will run at it lowest speed. ( But anyway you will notice a HUGE difference in performance.

Good luck!

cmarti wrote:Yes you can use any PIII MMC-2 processor.

But since your 600e is not capable to do the speedstep change on the cpu the processor will run at it lowest speed. ( But anyway you will notice a HUGE difference in performance.

Yes, any PIII MMC-2 cpu should work, just shy away from any Celerons, because sometimes there are mislabled by the seller as being a PIII.

To get the CPU to run at full speed there is a soldering modification that can be done to the CPU to get it to work. I haven't personally done this mod before, but was told that it can be done.

tfflivemb2 wrote:

cmarti wrote:Yes you can use any PIII MMC-2 processor.

But since your 600e is not capable to do the speedstep change on the cpu the processor will run at it lowest speed. ( But anyway you will notice a HUGE difference in performance.

Yes, any PIII MMC-2 cpu should work, just shy away from any Celerons, because sometimes there are mislabled by the seller as being a PIII.

To get the CPU to run at full speed there is a soldering modification that can be done to the CPU to get it to work. I haven't personally done this mod before, but was told that it can be done.

Do you know where are the instructions i would like to practice that in my 390X. Mmm....Running it at 650mhz with a 7K100 and 512 of ram that is something i would love to try.

tfflivemb2 wrote:The fastest is the 850MHz MMC-2 cpu. However, I believe that you might have to mod the chip to get it to run at 850, instead of running at 700MHz (Speed Step).

what about maximum ram I think I read that it was 288mb, but I dont remember. is that right?

Depending on the system, it can handle upto 544mb ram. (256 + 256 + 32onboard = 544mb)

You have to be careful with the ram. The 256mb sticks have to be Low Density PC100. Low density sticks have 16 chips, 8 on each side...whereas regular or high density have 8 total.

Some systems while they appear to be identical to the one next to it, might have a problem reading the entire amount of ram in the second slow. Not sure of the cause.

tfflivemb2 wrote:
You have to be careful with the ram. The 256mb sticks have to be Low Density PC100. Low density sticks have 16 chips, 8 on each side...whereas regular or high density have 8 total.

I went to crucial to check what kinda ram I should use and they it said:

SDRAM, PC133 • CL=2 • Non-parity • 133MHz • 3.3V • 16Meg x 64

but it only shows me a 128mb stick. where can I buy a 256mb stick? and if I buy from ebay how can I be sure that it will work?

I just upgraded my 600e with two 256 pc100 modules that I purchased from www.kahlon.com . I currently have the max 544Mb ram and a snappy 60GB 7200rpm HDD (from Brent) and I could not be happier.

Hope this helps,

Richard

Mr_Roboto wrote:I just upgraded my 600e with two 256 pc100 modules that I purchased from www.kahlon.com . I currently have the max 544Mb ram and a snappy 60GB 7200rpm HDD (from Brent) and I could not be happier.

Thanks richard that helps a lot. Just out of curiosity do you have dvd on your 600e? and if so, how well does it work?

thanks

Hi Chris.
That crucial chip says pc 133. May not work if it's not pc100 compatible.
Did they give you the whole model number.
I just happen to have one here that I can test on a pc100 system to see if it registers correctly under a pc100 system If it's the same number? It has the same specs.

PS: I have a link to a site that shows the mods for the 600e and processor
But it's quite long as it is from a search, so would have to send by reg email if interested.

Fran

I've got a 600e w/ a PIII 750 in it, running at 600 mhz. It's definately an improvement over stock!
The memory is Crucial and I put (2) 256 meg modules in it, but i disabled the base 32meg in bios. (found instructions on this forum) Also, i put the fastest dvd burner i could in it. Dvd playback still sucked for some reason. I bought the MagiDvd card and that seems to have improved it greatly.

Fran,

Nope no model number that I can see just the crucial produt number which is proprietary I believe. please do send me the link.

Ndogg,

I actually have a magidvd card that came with my TP. It seems like it should work fine after I update the cpu and add some ram. as it stands right now, it seems like its loading a portion of it in to memory then freezing for a second before loading again. I think that ram and cpu should fix that. I had that same problem on my pc before I upgraded ram.

thanks for the reply

Hey Chris.
Just sent email with info from bammbamm@ptd.net incase you are filtering.
Did it come through
I saw that chip CT32M64S4W7E.16F at crucial $82.. +
Fran

bammbammfran wrote:Hey Chris.
Just sent email with info from bammbamm@ptd.net incase you are filtering.
Did it come through

yeah I got it, thanks for the link. that will be very helpful when I upgrade. fyi, if you remove the search frame the url is just

http://www.katch.dsl.pipex.com/mtb/mods.htm

not quite as long

Hi Chris.
Good.
I tried shortening it once and it was sending me to an odd place.
Glad it's posted now, may help others.

PS: I have 800's and that chip FS. Out of 850's but have access.

Fran

chrisvaughan02 wrote:[...]thanks for the link. that will be very helpful when I upgrade. fyi, if you remove the search frame the url is just
http://www.katch.dsl.pipex.com/mtb/mods.htm

This is the "Mod the Pad" site from "katch", and it is a great resource. Note, however, that there has apparently been some additional progress over at Wim's BIOS Forum on how to get modified SpeedStep PIII CPU's to start up at max speed all the time without having to "hold your hand over the fan" while starting up. A user named wmarcusm has developed a utility called the "Deep Sleep Utility" which I think is supposed to allow startup at max speed every time. I cannot comment on whether this is effective or not, but it is useful additional information on the SpeedStep mods.

Phil.

Thanks Phil.
I didn't happen to catch that update.
Kind of like Gateways hibernate, I'm assuming?, So it doesn't have to go through the entire boot process on startup maybe?
I haven't tried the mod myself, so I don't know all the quirks either.
Fran

bammbammfran wrote:Kind of like Gateways hibernate, I'm assuming?, So it doesn't have to go through the entire boot process on startup maybe?

I think it is unrelated to Dell/Gateway or to hibernation/whatever. To get a PIII MMC-2 SpeedStep CPU module to run at maximum speed in a 600E, it seems that one method is to make a hardware modification to the MMC-2 module so that SpeedStep functions and/or communications are disabled on the module -- this is one of the methods pictured in the link to katch's site above. However, this method does not control whether the CPU will boot up with the CPU speed set at "high frequency" or at the lower, power-saving, SpeedStepped frequency. Until the DeepSleep utility was developed, there was no way to guarantee that the computer would start up (whether booting from cold, or rebooting from hibernation) at the high frequency. The DeepSleep utility supposedly solves this problem by forcing the CPU to start up always at the highest frequency speed. Note that this particular mod involves permanently altering the MMC-2 CPU module, so it is not for the faint of heart or the unsteady of hand -- and as I say, I personally have not tested it, and cannot say for sure whether it in fact works.

Phil.