QUERY ON UPGRADING THINKPAD R51

[feejeean]

Hi Guys,

Appreciate if you could answer couple of queries regarding upgradeability of IBM Thinkpads (R51). Don't have much $$ to throw around so I want to see whether it would be worth it investing in one of these - Upgradeability wise - I know the HDD is upgradeable depending on what is in the market (So I know I can look at 7200s later on for upgrading); the R51s are also capable of memory upgrade up to 2GB.

1. Would anybody know whether Dothan Pentium-M CPUs are upgradeable in IBM Thinkpads? (R51)? (R51 8332ELU has Dothan 1.6)

2. If so - up to what speed? I noticed that R51 are customisable up to 2 GHz on the IBM website. (If it is upgradeable) Would I need to get the CPU specifically from IBM or can I use any off the shelf Dothan Pentium CPU?

3. Can bluetooth be installed later as in retrofit in IBM Thinkpads (R51)?

4. Can the screen be upgraded later to 15" (R51 8332ELU comes with 14" as standard)?

5. Can you upgrade standard CDRW/DVD drive to DVDRW drive later? If so does it have to be IBM or can you use any other OEM DVDRW?

6. Which is a better buy R50 or R51?

Regards

[gazingwa]

1. Yes up to a 2.1, but expensive
2. Any 400mhz bus Dothan will do (newer ones are 533)
3. As long as it has the antenna (or if you want to put one in)
4. not without a whole new case so.... no
5. Yes, right now the oem choices are the same as ibm and don't look as pretty, wait a year
6. Depends on the price, the r50 is banias (1mb cache), the r51 is dothan (2mb), you can upgrade the 50 to a dothan though.
If you can find a good deal on an r50p, that is an amazing machine.

[feejeean]

THANKS FOR THE REPLY AND INFO ...