T60 online for order, 195144U is up

[Guest]

On the ibm website it appears they have price and you can order this one t60 model...

[AssPenny]

Yep, 2049 bucks for the first release. I want one, but i want a few more options.

[Guest]

The options I'd change inlclude the SXGA+ and the ATI Radeon Video Card.

[kidtriton]

am i reading this correctly?

Memory (RAM) std/max[8] 512MB / 2GB

also, on one page it says "none" for optical drive, and on the details page it lists a combo drive.

[christopher_wolf]

The maximum it can support is 4GB; maybe 512MB and 2GB are what it ships with? And it *does* have an optical drive.

[onix]

I'm equally confused about the maximum capacity. Because the IBM order website states 2GB and non-IBM sources report 4GB, I am tempted to side with the IBM site.

Are there any single-slot 2GB DIMM's out? Maybe it's not even practically possible.

The maximum it can support is 4GB; maybe 512MB and 2GB are what it ships with? And it *does* have an optical drive.

[christopher_wolf]

4GB Capable; they may say 2GB because, if you put Windows XP on there, it can only use 2GB. Should you put an OS that is capable of using 4GB, then it is supported by the Hardware. In the T4X Series Forum, doa search for posts by mattengland; he stated a desire/need for a 4GB capable system, he then called up IBM and got to talk to a rep who stated that there would indeed be 4GB support for it. To my understanding, there are also 2GB DIMMs available

See; http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getp ... id=2503570

Others exist too with various differences.

And from Anadtech...

There are four new mobile chipsets for the new Yonah based Pentium M CPUs. The two high performance chipsets are the 945PM and the 945GM, the difference being that the 945GM adds the Intel's GMA 950 (Graphic Media Accelerator). These two chipsets have a PCIe x16 connection, and support an FSB of 533/667MHz and up to 4GB of 533/667 dual channel DDR2 RAM. These chipsets will be released in January 2006.

See; http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh ... spx?i=2554

HTH

[flake]

Uhm, 32-bit Win XP supports up to 4GB
http://www.support.microsoft.com/defaul ... -us;555223

Most people would probably want to look at using the /3GB boot.ini switch if using that configuration. Otherwise, only 2GB is available to applications and the other 2GB will be reserved for the kernel.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... 0121120120

offhand, I can't think of a common workstation situation that would use that much memory but I'm sure one exists if you multitask enough big programs or let mozilla.org apps leak enough memory ;)

[christopher_wolf]

Then where and why does IBM/Lenovo say only "2GB" ?

[flake]

Probably because that's all that they've validated, which has only a little to do with what microsoft supports.

I'm pretty sure that I recall previous generations of T-series thinkpads that "supported" just 512MB but you could put in 1GB. IIRC, this was because the 512MB SO-DIMMs were not available at time of validation.

[BrianR]

Uhm, 32-bit Win XP supports up to 4GB
http://www.support.microsoft.com/defaul ... -us;555223

Most people would probably want to look at using the /3GB boot.ini switch if using that configuration. Otherwise, only 2GB is available to applications and the other 2GB will be reserved for the kernel.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... 0121120120

offhand, I can't think of a common workstation situation that would use that much memory but I'm sure one exists if you multitask enough big programs or let mozilla.org apps leak enough memory

Yes 32-bit XP supports 4 GB of RAM.

The /3GB switch is a red herring.

Read this blog post [0] for details. Also Raymond Chen has some great posts on the /3GB switch for developers.

Bottom line, it's a chipset issue, not an OS issue. I ran into the problem on a DELL Desktop. It "sees" 4GB but I only get 3GB in Windows 32-bit AND Windows 64-bit (a Server OS even). And no, running Linux doesn't help.

And I would love 4 GB of RAM for running virtual machines (VMWare/Virtual PC).

Cheers,

Brian

[0] http://www.interact-sw.co.uk/iangblog/2 ... s3gbenough

[flake]

And I would love 4 GB of RAM for running virtual machines (VMWare/Virtual PC).

Spot on :)

[0] http://www.interact-sw.co.uk/iangblog/2 ... s3gbenough

That's an extremely interesting article. Reminds me of my assembler class last spring. :) Of course we still won't know if the t60/x60 will have this problem until someone tries it and checks for that issue. It also makes me wonder if the 3-4Gig mapping to the 5-6GB range is done via the bios, chipset register(s) setting, or actual physical circuitry.

[donking!]

If you look at the Lenovo web page for the one T60 model currently listed, it now says that 3GB of memory is the max.

http://www-131.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/store ... 8425142449

Following the Ian Griffiths blog post, that would seem to indicate that, at least this model, of the T60 has the problem Griffiths describes and cannot address more than 3GB of physical memory.

That aside, I only see one company (Smart Modular Technologies) selling a 2GB sodimm ($370). It's marketed as for iMac G5s. But I assume it would work in the new Thinkpads also.

[donking!]

It looks like at least the first model of the T60 definitely has the issue of being able to address only 3GB of physcial memory.

"Memory: The ThinkPad T60 systems have 512 MB SDRAM 667 MHz SO DIMM memory standard, expandable to 3 GB. These systems can be configured for up to 3 GB of addressable memory. Memory options up to 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM 667 MHz SO DIMM and one 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 533 MHz SO DIMM can be added in the two slots for memory expansion.

To achieve the maximum 3 GB to which memory can be expanded, you need to replace the 256 MB or 512 MB card with a 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM 667 MHz SO DIMM card and add a 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 533 MHz SO DIMM card in the extra slot.

On the ThinkPad T60 systems, even though it is possible to physically install memory size to 4 GB, actual usable memory size is limited to 3 GB. This limitation comes from the current 32-bit PC architecture.

Recommended for memory expansion are 2 GB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM 533 MHz SO DIMM or 256 MB, 512 MB, and 1 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667 MHz SO DIMM.

If PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM 533 MHz SO DIMM and PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667 MHz SO DIMM are used at the same time, actual memory access speed is aligned to 533 MHz. "

From:

http://www-306.ibm.com/common/ssi/fcgi- ... NUS106-012

[jeremivw]

Thought this was an interesting find from Intel.

This details the dimms used for testing the 945 chipset...

http://www.intel.com/technology/memory/ ... esults.htm

Now we've just got to find someone who sells Hynix 2GB SO-DIMMS!

Also see:

http://www.intel-inside.ch/technology/m ... esults.htm

[donking!]

On Infineon's web site (also one of the module companies Intel lists) they say they have a 2Gb PC2-5300 Sodimm. But it doesn't seem to be available yet.

In fact, even the Smart Modular, Edge, and Kingston 2Gb sodims that show up on Froogle aren't really available yet. Wonder when we will be able to get these from someone?

[fullauto]

Update....I got an email from Lenovo Direct Sales yesterday saying that part of my order was shipping.

Well, it turns out if was the extra memory I had ordered for a T60. It showed today in fact...

It is 512MB PC2-5300 CL5 DDR2 SDRAM SoDimm P/N 40Y7733.

The sucka is in sight as I type.