Thinkpads Forum

Need to ask questions about merging and upgrading laptop parts.

I have a 600X 2645-4eu 450 mhz. From what I read here, it means an MMC2 Celeron processor. Is that correct? I know it doesn't have speed step.

I also have a dead 2645-9eu with the 650 Mhz Speed Step processor.

What will happen if I put the 9eu processor on the 4eu system board? Will I get an improvement in speed? What will the 650 run at without speed step? Would the change out be worth doing?

The RAM is already maxed out, and I would like to install a much larger HD, if possible. I would also like to use the DVD ROM drive instead of the CD ROM drive in the merged machine.

How many of the upgrades that I've mentioned can the 4eu system board handle? Would they be worth doing? What about the L2 cache disabling and enabling for the CPU switch?

Thanks for advice from 600X upgrade experts.

Couple of more questions and requests for step by step instructions on this--

What is the largest HD that the 4eu system board can tolerate, and where can I find step by step instructions for installing a large HD? I've read the forum posts here and am still confused.

What is the largest processor upgrade that will work with this system board? Step by step installations instructions again, please.

How would you set up the computer to dual boot to XP Pro and Linux? Again Step by step instructions would be handy.

If anyone wants to provide the requested step by step instructions, you can send them to me by PM.

vineyridge wrote:I have a 600X 2645-4eu 450 mhz. From what I read here, it means an MMC2 Celeron processor. Is that correct? I know it doesn't have speed step.

No. I don't think any 600X's used Celerons. You have an Intel Pentium III 450MHz. Pentium is not the same as Celeron.

vineyridge wrote:I also have a dead 2645-9eu with the 650 Mhz Speed Step processor. What will happen if I put the 9eu processor on the 4eu system board?

It should run at 150MHz slower than its max speed, so a PIII 650MHz will likely run at 500MHz in your machine. Some people have been able to get SpeedStep CPUs to run at max speed in previously non-SpeedStep machines.

vineyridge wrote:Would the change out be worth doing?

Not in my opinion.

vineyridge wrote:The RAM is already maxed out, and I would like to install a much larger HD, if possible. I would also like to use the DVD ROM drive instead of the CD ROM drive in the merged machine. How many of the upgrades that I've mentioned can the 4eu system board handle?

Both. You should be able to increase the hard drive up to something over 100GB and you can replace the CD-ROM with a DVD -- or a CD-RW or even a DVD-RW.

vineyridge wrote:Would they be worth doing?

Yes, probably.

vineyridge wrote:What about the L2 cache disabling and enabling for the CPU switch?

This is unrelated to your machine and should only be necessary on machines that started out life with PII CPUs. You are starting with a PIII machine that has 100MHz memory and 100MHz FSB.

vineyridge wrote:What is the largest HD that the 4eu system board can tolerate, and where can I find step by step instructions for installing a large HD?

Around 130GB. I don't have step by step instructions.

vineyridge wrote:What is the largest processor upgrade that will work with this system board?

You should be able to upgrade to PIII 850MHz, and it will run at PIII 700MHz. But I would double-check against some forum postings because I recall some people having issues with machines that started out as PIII 450MHz. Maybe do a search for "450MHz" or "450 MHz" in the forums.

vineyridge wrote:How would you set up the computer to dual boot to XP Pro and Linux? Again Step by step instructions would be handy.

Can't help you there.

vineyridge wrote:If anyone wants to provide the requested step by step instructions, you can send them to me by PM.

If someone has step-by-step instructions for any of the items you've listed, then I would ask that they post them here so that other people who come to the forum looking for the same information will be able to find the instructions.

Phil.

Thanks, Phil.

For now, I'll just stick with the 450 mhz. I was worried because I do want to run XP Pro on this machine, and didn't know if the processor could handle the bloat ware that is XP.

I've been living with 98SE on this machine, but most software upgrades like Firefox no longer support 98SE.

pkiff wrote:

vineyridge wrote:What is the largest HD that the 4eu system board can tolerate, and where can I find step by step instructions for installing a large HD?

Around 130GB. I don't have step by step instructions.

Samsung 160GB works fine with one 160GB partition (600x 2645-5FG with latest BIOS).

What du you mean with "step by step instructions"
... how to install physically a HD in TP 600x?
... how to install an OS?
... or how clone my old HD?

pkiff wrote:

vineyridge wrote:What is the largest processor upgrade that will work with this system board?

You should be able to upgrade to PIII 850MHz, and it will run at PIII 700MHz. But I would double-check against some forum postings because I recall some people having issues with machines that started out as PIII 450MHz. Maybe do a search for "450MHz" or "450 MHz" in the forums.

I had a 2645-4EG with P III 850mhz... same machine, but G=german keyboard - I think, the processor will also work with some US keyboard caps

Uwe.

I modified my 600E about 3 years ago and added MMC2 PIII 750 MHZ CPU. At first I settled with 600MHz, it worked on lower speed due to 600E not supporting SpeedStep but after few weeks I modded the CPU board to work on max speed. Instructions ere taken from Wim's BIOS forum. Worked like a charm, only Powerleap L2 enabling utility had to be used on startup.