T61 build suggestions

[blank001]

Hi everyone,

I'm planning a T61 build and I'm looking for input. Right now I have some of the parts together to put something together that looks like

T61p chassis, lcd housing, etc
Intel graphics mainboard: 42W7875
T7700
LG WUXGA 1920x1200 LP154WU1
Middleton bios
Wifi? I have 4965AG, 5350, and a Atheros AR5BXB72 on hand. Any suggestions?
Ultrabay travel cover (blank plastic for ultrabay)
4Gb Micron PC6400
60GB SSD (don't need space).

Any other suggestions?

[Temetka]

You could try upgrading the CPU to a T9500 or T8300.

The T8300 would be the one I would go for. It will run slightly cooler than the T7700. But to be honest, you won't see much if any performance upgrade unless you move the a T9500 or better which is a waste of money.

[Qing Dao]

Does the computer come withe the T7700 or are you planning on adding that yourself? If you are adding it separately, definitely go for Penryn. It uses less power and does more work per clock cycle. If you don't want to modify anything and battery runtime is a big concern, a T6900 or T6970 would be pretty good, as they are 2.5Ghz and are the newer R0 stepping, which can use quite a bit less power than earlier M0/C0 stepping Penryns.

[axur-delmeria]

T6900 or T6970 would be pretty good, as they are 2.5Ghz and are the newer R0 stepping, which can use quite a bit less power than earlier M0/C0 stepping Penryns

I'm not sure those CPUs would work on a T61 without modifying the BIOS.

[RealBlackStuff]

Dumping the Merom T7700 for a Penryn definitely makes sense.
P - T9x00 has 6MB L2-cache.
M - T7700 has 4MB L2-cache.
P - T8x00 has 3MB L2-cache.
P - T6xx0 has 2MB L2-cache.
(P=Penryn, M=Merom)
All have the same TDP of 35W.
The T7700, T8100/T8300 and T9300/T9500 use virtualization technology and IDA, the T6900/T6970 do not.
The T7x00, T8x00 and T9x00 also have more L2-cache than the T6x00.
So where is the advantage of these T6x00?
They are not even available in the USA!

[blank001]

Yeah I realize the T7700 is a weak spot. I have it around which is why I was going to use it. But honestly I would definitely use the computer more if it had better battery. So I'll look into a new chip...

Does anyone have an idea of how much of a battery gain I'd get? I think performance is very similar right?

Would a P8700 work? I have one around too I believe.

[Qing Dao]

Dumping the Merom T7700 for a Penryn definitely makes sense.
P - T9x00 has 6MB L2-cache.
M - T7700 has 4MB L2-cache.
P - T8x00 has 3MB L2-cache.
P - T6xx0 has 2MB L2-cache.
(P=Penryn, M=Merom)
All have the same TDP of 35W.
The T7700, T8100/T8300 and T9300/T9500 use virtualization technology and IDA, the T6900/T6970 do not.
The T7x00, T8x00 and T9x00 also have more L2-cache than the T6x00.
So where is the advantage of these T6x00?
They are not even available in the USA!

The advantage of a T6900 or T6970 is that they are R0 stepping processors. Whether you run them at stock voltages or undervolt them, they (along with E0 steppings) use less power and run cooler than M0 or C0 stepping Penryns.

IDA looks cute on paper, but doesn't really do anything in practice. It requires one core to be asleep for the other to increase its multiplier by .5 or 1. Even when I shut everything else down and run something to max out a single core, results are mixed. Under those conditions, at best I have seen the processor run at the higher speed 50% of the time, at worst almost never. While using your computer, maxing out one core while the other is sleeping will pretty much never happen. It also doesn't affect max performance, ie, using both cores at 100%. A problem I have had with IDA is when undervolting. I can undervolt a processor 2-3 steps lower with IDA disabled. The only real use is if you want to use Throttlestop to overclock your processor by 100 or 200Mhz, although success may vary.

As for the cache difference between those processors, it doesn't amount to much performance difference. Gaming showed the biggest difference between Core 2 Duo cache sizes. Increasing from 512KB of L2 to 6MB of L2 cache showed a 40% increase in performance. However, even in games, where the difference was most prominent, the performance difference between 2MB and 6MB of L2 was pretty small.

VT-x isn't necessary for anything, although in some cases can help virtualization. The main performance difference between these penryn processors is just going to be their clockspeed.

[blank001]

You could try upgrading the CPU to a T9500 or T8300.

The T8300 would be the one I would go for. It will run slightly cooler than the T7700. But to be honest, you won't see much if any performance upgrade unless you move the a T9500 or better which is a waste of money.

I grabbed the T8300 off ebay for $18. T9300 chips are about double.

The LG screen is really fantastic by the way. I measured it at about 170nits and ~60% sRGB. The picture makes images look like slide film. I don't know how to describe it. Maybe I'm just not used to CCFL laptops?