T60p: T2500 to T7200 or T7600 for HD Video Rendering???

[Turboqueef]

Good day,

I have reviewed many posts regarding upgrading the T60p CPU. I understand it is possible to install the T7200 or T7600 as long as I have V3 mainboard (I do).

I am thinking about making the upgrade because I use the laptop to edit and render HD video (Vegas 7 & DVD Architect).

I currently have the T2500 processor and it can take mega time to render a HD video. I want to improve this condition by upgrading the processor.

My specific concern relates to overheating. Rendering video is very demanding on the CPU and GPU... currently, I have no trouble with overheating but I am concerned that I may if I upgrade the CPU

My specific question to the forum community:

1) I would like to hear from anyone who may have performed the upgrade AND has rendered video using the new CPU. I would like to know if you have experienced any problems associated with the upgraded CPU. If you could let me know your experience with it (including what CPU you went with) I would appreciate it.

Thanks a bunch

[sugo]

What do you mean by "taking mega time" to render HD video? What HD video formats/resolutions are you playing with what codec?

It boils down to whether the cpu is fast enough to play the video at real time speed without dropping frames. Of course, for encoding you want it go as fast as possible.

Without hardware acceleration, my T61 with 1.8GHz C2D can play H264 1080p at around 80% cpu utilitization without delayed or dropped frames. CPU requirements for playing 1080i/720p H264 or MPEG2 TS are even lower.

[Turboqueef]

Hi,

I can play any of them with no problem... but it takes time to render the video.... for example, it took 6 hours to render 48 minutes of HD video. I was using Windows Media Video V9 configured to produce 8Mbps HD 1080-30p.

What do you mean by "taking mega time" to render HD video? What HD video formats/resolutions are you playing with what codec?

It boils down to whether the cpu is fast enough to play the video at real time speed without dropping frames. Of course, for encoding you want it go as fast as possible.

Without hardware acceleration, my T61 with 1.8GHz C2D can play H264 1080p at around 80% cpu utilitization without delayed or dropped frames. CPU requirements for playing 1080i/720p H264 or MPEG2 TS are even lower.

[erik]

what speed is your hard drive?   how much available swap space do you have on the drive?   these can both have an overall impact on speed.   i don't see any reason why your T2600 would be the largest limiting factor.

[Turboqueef]

Hi Erik,

Hard drive has headroom (100G SATA @7200/ with 65G free)

My understanding is the rendering process is very CPU intensive, I heard the CPU upgrade can significantly reduce rendering time.

I worry about the heat ... FYI.. if I try to render the same video on my 3Ghz P4 desktop it overheats and shuts down after 12 hours

what speed is your hard drive?   how much available swap space do you have on the drive?   these can both have an overall impact on speed.   i don't see any reason why your T2600 would be the largest limiting factor.

[EOMtp]

FYI.. if I try to render the same video on my 3Ghz P4 desktop it overheats and shuts down after 12 hours

Please clarify something for me and then I can answer your question. Does the case of the desktop that overheats have a vent and air tunnel on top of the processor, and rear fan which blows out, as shown on pages 6 and 7 of the following?
http://cache-www.intel.com/cd/00/00/15/ ... 150510.pdf

[sugo]

if I try to render the same video on my 3Ghz P4 desktop it overheats and shuts down after 12 hours

I wonder if your desktop is a Dell optiplex 270 mini chassis ...

[Turboqueef]

Actually, my question pertains to the laptop but the desktop does not have the cooling air tunnel. But to be honest... the P4 takes way too long to render anyway so there would be no reason to spend any more money on it...

FYI.. if I try to render the same video on my 3Ghz P4 desktop it overheats and shuts down after 12 hours

Please clarify something for me and then I can answer your question. Does the case of the desktop that overheats have a vent and air tunnel on top of the processor, and rear fan which blows out, as shown on pages 6 and 7 of the following?
http://cache-www.intel.com/cd/00/00/15/ ... 150510.pdf

[Turboqueef]

Nope.. it is a home brew clunker with a mid case

if I try to render the same video on my 3Ghz P4 desktop it overheats and shuts down after 12 hours

I wonder if your desktop is a Dell optiplex 270 mini chassis ...

[EOMtp]

Actually, my question pertains to the laptop but the desktop does not have the cooling air tunnel.

Well, the reason I asked about the desktop is because I wanted to know if indeed you had a pathologically "hot-running" aberrant application which would overhead any machine, or if the problem with the desktop was one of ill-configured case/airflow. Your answer confirmed by suspicion that the overheating of the desktop computer is due to the inadequate case in which the Intel 3.0GHz processor is living.

The Thinkpads are designed to dissipate heat properly and efficiently from any of the processors that can be mounted in them. Consequently, because of proper case and fan design, any processor mounted in a Thinkpad will not suffer from the heat issues which bother your desktop.