Thinkpads Forum

I have a 600e running 366mhz and (I think) 128mb ram. which will give me a greater immediate speed increase:

upgrading to a 500mhz processor or to 256mb ram?

More ram,ram,ram,ram........................

Ron

Well, I would say upgrading to the PIII 500 will give you more of a performance upgrade, but you will have to upgrade your RAM while you are at it since the PIII requires PC-100 (100MHz) RAM but your current 128MB module is PC-66 (running at 66MHz).

I've not done benchmark tests to evaluate the speed increase, but you when you upgrade your CPU, you will increase your FSB (your bus speed) from 66MHz to 100MHz as well as increasing your processor speed (from 366MHz to 500MHz) and moving to the next generation of CPU architecture (from PII to PIII). The combination of all those factors will be more significant than adding memory in most cases.

Upgrading just your memory may also produce significant performance increases, but it depends on what you are running. On Windows 98SE, the difference between 128MB and 256MB will not be as significant as it will be on a Windows XP machine.

You don't mention a hard drive upgrade in your list, but if you are currently running an original 4800rpm drive, then you may very well notice a greater performance increase by replacing it with a new 7200rpm drive, then you would notice by performing either of the other two upgrades you mention.

Phil.

Kinda depends on what operating system you are using and the type (and number) of applications you typically run.

(edit: Sorry, Phil... didn't see you seek in there!)

I'm running windows 2000 pro.

Phill,
if I upgrade the cpu I HAVE to upgrade the ram?

I'm not quite sure. The memory will definitely have to run at a higher speed than the ThinkPad intended, but some memory will do this without any trouble and some won't. And it is even possible that your current memory is already PC-100 and is just currently running at a slower speed (66MHz) than its max. I'm not clear on how to predict which memory will work or which memory came installed with which exact 600E model.

What's your exact model number?

Can you read any info off of your currently installed memory chip(s)?

With this information, someone with more experience than me specifically with the 600E PIII upgrades would know for sure. Anyone?

pkiff wrote:What's your exact model number?

Can you read any info off of your currently installed memory chip(s)?

the model is 2645-3au
I'm not sure where the ram is located on the machine. if someone could tell me, I can read it.

chrisvaughan02 wrote:

pkiff wrote:What's your exact model number?

Can you read any info off of your currently installed memory chip(s)?

the model is 2645-3au
I'm not sure where the ram is located on the machine. if someone could tell me, I can read it.

There are two places to look the first one is located at the bottom of the machine there is a cover that needs to be removed using a phillips screwdriver and the other is in the motherboard that one is soldered, if i am not wrong you will need to remove the palmrest and the keyboard.

For me The best upgrade wouls be replacing the cpu and install a 7200 drive you will not believe the difference it will make.

cmarti wrote:There are two places to look the first one is located at the bottom of the machine there is a cover that needs to be removed using a phillips screwdriver and the other is in the motherboard that one is soldered, if i am not wrong you will need to remove the palmrest and the keyboard.

For the 600 Series, both sticks of ram are located under the cover that is located on the bottom.

I would recommend reading through the Hardware Maintenance Manual, to help you through the process.

pkiff wrote:
Can you read any info off of your currently installed memory chip(s)?

Ok,

one has an fru of "42h2819
The other says "KTM-TP770/64-CE" "2027-005.ADO"

I had a bit of a scare. I took them out to see if I there was anything on the other side and when I put them back they both registered but only one was usable. Needless to say I had a bit of a cursing fit. but I got it working ok

Does a faster hard drive make a big difference? does this hold true on desktops as well?

chrisvaughan02 wrote:Does a faster hard drive make a big difference? does this hold true on desktops as well?

Yes, it does. The faster the rpm of the drive, the faster it can retrieve information stored on itself.

128MBs of memory is no way to run Win2000 or XP.

They both want at least 256MBs to run smoothly.

warwound

warwound wrote:128MBs of memory is no way to run Win2000 or XP.

They both want at least 256MBs to run smoothly.

warwound

A friend of mine got a really old compac as a gift and it has only 64mb of ram we install on it xp pro and it is running but very slowww.....

But it is running xp relatively well if you are slowww.... with computers.

cmarti wrote:

warwound wrote:128MBs of memory is no way to run Win2000 or XP.

They both want at least 256MBs to run smoothly.

warwound

A friend of mine got a really old compac as a gift and it has only 64mb of ram we install on it xp pro and it is running but very slowww.....

But it is running xp relatively well if you are slowww.... with computers.

Exactly - less then 256MBs of memory works but is far from optimal.

In such a situation i'd suggest all the tweaks to reduce OS overheads such as turning off all XP's eye-candy GUI features and pruning the services which run automatically.
Many services are not needed but run by default automatically wasting many MBs of memory.

warwound.