Strange speedstep problem with X61s

[awolfe63]

I just got an X61s - 1.8GHz L7700 CPU

Either speedstep is not working right - or I am having trouble measuring it.

I pick max battery life.

MOBmeter still only shows 1.8GHz (using actual)
CPU load shows 2%
CPU-Z shows either 8x (1.6GHz) or 9x (1.8GHz) - but never 6X as expected. It also thinks I have a T7100 instead of an L7700.
Sandra also shows 8X under battery power even though it says the minimum is 6X.


Any ideas? Other tools?

[erik]

the L7700 is a new processor so CPU-Z may not fully support it yet.   try pcwizard 2008 under the 'processor' section and see what it says your current speed is in MHz.

btw, did you get a deal on this X61s or did you end up paying retail?   my latest one is still in the works with a shipping date of 10/24, pushed back from the original date of 10/8.   i'm crossing my fingers this time.

[awolfe63]

Retail - but good price.

$1450 with:

L7700
XP pro
160GB 7200 RPM
2GB RAM
FP reader
LED backlight
Slim 4-cell
BT
Wifi AGN
3-year warranty

[awolfe63]

Interesting. PCwizard shows a speed of 800MHz. That is an 8x multiplier with a half-speed bus. Is this what the Santa Rosa platform is supposed to do? I wonder why not 6X? Maybe Intel or Lenovo thought that is too slow.

Anyone else? What do other 800MHz FSB chips do?

[awolfe63]

Aha - that is the problem. See this thread.


http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... +speedstep

My bad. I assumed this was an X61 issue and I only searched the X6x forum.

[erik]

great price.

i didn't think about the FSB speed causing the unexpected idle speed display.   that makes sense.

[rokahn]

Did you order this customized from Lenovo? If so, would you pass us your cust svc rep details (he'd probably appreciate the extra commissions)? Does moving to the 200GB drive with HW encryption help performance (I assume the other drives would require software encryption and bog down disc access)?

awolfe63 wrote:

Retail - but good price.
$1450 with:
L7700 ...

[awolfe63]

I did buy CTO from Lenovo. The CS rep was very helpful and understood quickly that I wanted to customize everything just like on the web site.

Sales Representative Chris Hazell
Sales Direct 800 # 1.877.338.4465

(I don't think this is against the rules - I just reread them - if I'm wrong, I apologize in advance)

My price was based on the sale at the time plus a coupon that I found via Google. Same price as I would have gotten on the web - but I was allowed to order the L7700.

[rokahn]

Would you mind commenting on XP vs Vista for this machine? I'm currently running XPpro on an X60s (Core Duo L2400 1.66GHz, 1GB ram) and I'm upgrading partially because the machine bogs down on some of my apps...also because my girlfriend wants my laptop . If I understand correctly, XP is less of a memory hog but I don't know if it's also faster (I'll upgrade to 2GB in any case). Turbo Memory requires Vista but provides only a marginal (5-10%?) improvement. What steered you to XP and how do you feel about that choice now that you have the machine?

[awolfe63]

I tested Vista on a Toshiba Satellite U205-S5057.

Link

I tested both with 1GB and 2GB. Pretty similar to an X61s in performance - but only has the GMA950 graphics instead of the GMA3100.

It was very slow. It was also very annoying - just like the commercial. "Do you really want to open that window?"

I found it unusable and can't find any reason to switch.

MOD EDIT: Link modified for better scrolling.