What highest CPU that T42 can handle? Thinking about upgrade

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ludu35 · #1 Post by **ludu35** » Sat May 07, 2005 6:39 pm

hi guys
Anyone successfully upgrading CPU for T42? I am thinking about upgrading my T42 1.7Ghz to higher one like 2.0 or 2.1Ghz if possible.
Please advice. Thanks in advance
LD

GangBang · #2 Post by **GangBang** » Sat May 07, 2005 10:45 pm

Currently the max for your t42(t40,t41,t42 series only) availabe from Intel is Pentium M 765 2.1Ghz 2ML2.

vliou · #3 Post by **vliou** » Sun May 08, 2005 3:49 pm

How...where...can I buy the part? I am most interested...hehe

pphilipko · #4 Post by **pphilipko** » Sun May 08, 2005 5:20 pm

look on the thinkpads.com page or in tabook

I believe its currently listed for $3800 from Bill..

Steve007 · #5 Post by **Steve007** » Mon May 09, 2005 7:32 am

ludu35 wrote:hi guys
Anyone successfully upgrading CPU for T42? I am thinking about upgrading my T42 1.7Ghz to higher one like 2.0 or 2.1Ghz if possible.
Please advice. Thanks in advance
LD

CPU upgrades are pointless and you will hardly notice the difference. People need to understand a few extra 100MHz will not change a thing. More RAM will give you a performance boost and if you haven't already got it, the 60GB 7200RPM drive will give your system a performance boost like no other.

JHEM · #6 Post by **JHEM** » Mon May 09, 2005 7:54 am

Ditto what Steve said. The most noticeable performance enhancement you can install in your Thinkpad is a 7200RPM HD. The cheapest perfprmance boost is usually maxing the RAM.

Swapping the CPU is usually more an exercise in "how-to" than a true improvement in performance and, barring the rare instances where a particular resource hungry app is being used, will rarely be noticeable.

Regards,

James

jeeva · #7 Post by **jeeva** » Mon May 09, 2005 8:59 am

But what about a bigger jump, I have an 1.5 MHz Banias, upgrading to a 2 GHz Dothan?

Is that even possible?

Batuta · #8 Post by **Batuta** » Mon May 09, 2005 9:23 am

Steve007 · #9 Post by **Steve007** » Mon May 09, 2005 10:00 am

Batuta wrote:Steve007:
People need to understand a few extra 100MHz will not change a thing. More RAM will give you a performance boost
That is actually patently false in this generalized form.
It totally depends on the kinds of applications you are running.
If the msot you are doing is running MS Office apps or your occasional game, browse the net a bit and play an MP3 song, then yes, 1.5GHz will carry you just as far as 2.1GHz or for that matter even 1.4GHz.

The reason for this being that your CPU utilization is going to be way below 66% most of the time anyway, meaning your processor has already "time2spare".

BUT if you are running CPU intensive applications, like DVD ripping, complex 3D gaming, Virtual CPU emulations (VMWare, VirtualPC), database servers, compilations of huge code projects and/or Video Capturing/Editing projects, then every GHz counts.
Even more than that, CPU core specifics, like Cache size and cmd pipelining, front side bus speed are even more important.

Its really very simple, if you got RAM to spare (-> Free MBs), then increasing the RAM only adds "more hot air".

If your CPU utilization is currently below 66% most of the time, then adding more GHz or a better core design only adds that many more iddle cycles to your CPU "load".

So you really can't make such a blank statement, it all depends on what you use your system for and what the current performance analysis shows.

Having said that, let me tell you (as someone who did pay those extra $) that the price tag for the 2.1GHz 2MB cache CPU is huge and if you don't need that extra power then its hardly worth the added $.

So I was right then

Batuta · #10 Post by **Batuta** » Mon May 09, 2005 10:13 am

krcmd · #11 Post by **krcmd** » Mon May 09, 2005 10:59 am

In what situations will upgrading 5400 rpm to 7200 rpm make a difference?

Steve007 · #12 Post by **Steve007** » Mon May 09, 2005 11:03 am

krcmd wrote:In what situations will upgrading 5400 rpm to 7200 rpm make a difference?

Faster HDD = faster machine

I can't be arsed to explain in detail. Someone who has a lot of time on their hands can do the hard bit

brainpicker · #13 Post by **brainpicker** » Mon May 09, 2005 11:04 am

I have a friend that posed this same question to me over the weekend and I advised him not to bother for HIS needs, but I don't know if I'd always say it's not worth it for someone with HIS machine as there's a lot of factors to weigh out. He has a real old T40 with a Pentium M 1.3GHz and wanted to upgrade to at least 1.7GHz... maybe higher. Now I'm thinking it might actually be worthwhile to some in that position, again depending on cost and usage, since wouldn't they not only be gaining the faster processor and extra on-chip cache, but the ability to utilize the faster RAM (PC2700 instead of PC2100)..... or is there another limiting factor on the board that I'm overlooking which might prevent this RAM upgrade? I'm sure someone would buy their old processor and RAM for a few bucks to offset the cost a little (though with folks seemingly looking at anything with the box unsealed as "the plague" these days who knows!). Please let me know on the RAM upgrade part if I'm wrong. Thanks.

Yak

jeeva · #14 Post by **jeeva** » Mon May 09, 2005 2:21 pm

krcmd wrote:In what situations will upgrading 5400 rpm to 7200 rpm make a difference?

If you have many big files or edit videos, sounds or pictures, you may notice big advantages, but it may disturb you, that the 7200s are noisier than 5400s or 4200s.

Note your HDD-Led, if it lights up long time while you do your tasks you need a 7200s.

What highest CPU that T42 can handle? Thinking about upgrade

What highest CPU that T42 can handle? Thinking about upgrade

Re: What highest CPU that T42 can handle? Thinking about upg

But what about the really old T40's?

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