T61 with Penryn - Got One

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gblittle · #1 Post by **gblittle** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:35 pm

Just received my T61 with Penryn (T9300/2.5GHz) with 4 gigs of ram and Business 64. As soon as I get it up and running with a few tweeks here and there and a comparison with my other ThinkPads I'll pass on the information.

Peak2Peak · #2 Post by **Peak2Peak** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:43 pm

Congratulations

Looking forward for your report - make it soon! - Subscribed!

iamdmc · #3 Post by **iamdmc** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 3:17 pm

I'm looking to buy one right now too!
Please post on any immediate impressions and problems.

Congrats on the laptop

Grench · #4 Post by **Grench** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:03 pm

Mine is a similar configuration and supposedly shipped yesterday. UPS only shows an Origin scan though.

t9300 CPU w/ 4GB factory

I also have a 320GB notebook drive on the way from NewEgg.

The request to MS for the $7 64bit upgrade anytime disk was sent Monday.

It is shipping with Vista Ultimate 32bit installed. My plan is to do a clean Vista Ultimate 64bit install to the 320 drive and then load XPpro32 to a VM inside it. The factory 80GB will then sit on the shelf until I'm happy with the install, then will reside in a UB carrier to swap in/out on a per project basis.

Big plans usually result in big headaches. This should be entertaining.

So, what benchmarks should I run on the factory VistaU 32 install and the clean VistaU 64 install and the factory 80 Vs the Samsung 320?

Fun stuff.

cmarti · #5 Post by **cmarti** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:14 pm

Any links to the IBM website where that configuration is available?

Never mind i found it...
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T9300 (2.5GHz 800MHz 6MBL2) [add $150.00 $85.00] Save $65 on this upgrade for a limited time.

iamdmc · #6 Post by **iamdmc** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:40 pm

Why virtual machine it?

I'd tri-partition (two system, one large data). Sure it's slower to switch from one to the other OS, but it's more stable, ImHo

Aroc · #7 Post by **Aroc** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:07 pm

I have a T61p with the T9300, Vista Business 64, and the 100GB 7200 rpm drive (a seagate 7200.2 or the hitachi 7k200?). My 4GiB SO-DIMM kit just arrived yesterday from new egg (too bad 4GiB sticks aren't available, or I'd try for 8GiB!).

My ship date is 2/28.

daba · #8 Post by **daba** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:37 pm

My T61 14'' WXGA+ is coming in as well with the 9300, we'll see how they fare

gblittle · #9 Post by **gblittle** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 1:49 pm

Well here's an update on my T61 with Penryn (T9300/2.5GHz).
First of all I placed the order 2/6 and received it on 2/14. Model is 6459CTO (ThinkPad T61 15 inch widescreen with discrete graphics). I immediately upgraded to 4 GB of ram (2x2) and a HITACHI Travelstar 7K200/160GB w/16MB Cache. I also installed Intel's TurboMemory which I had laying around. The OS is Vista Business 64.

My Windows Experience Scores are as follows:
Processor/5.4
Memory/5.1
Graphics/4.0
Gaming Graphics/4.7
Primary Harddrive/5.3

I do no gaming on my laptops so I have no comment in that area but I will make some overall general observations:

Overall my boot time to windows is much faster versus my other Lenovo laptops, even a very comparable T61 with a T7500 CPU. (The others run in 32 bit however so this I assume also plays a role in boot time)
My boot time versus my desktop, also 64 bit, is also slightly faster and was somewhat surprised.

Overall running various programs I've noticed that they respond much faster (Office, Adobe, etc). Converting a large Word document to a PDF or zipping files is also much faster than other laptops and somewhat faster than my desktop.

Overall I'm still exploring and making small adjustments in what this baby can do but I am very happy so far. I've always wanted a laptop that acts like a desktop and this my be it.

I have not run any third-party bench mark tools, but if I have time I'll post.

vlastagf · #10 Post by **vlastagf** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 4:28 am

What about battery life? Did you perform any test?

Crunch · #11 Post by **Crunch** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:06 am

gblittle wrote: My Windows Experience Scores are as follows:
Processor/5.4
Memory/5.1
Graphics/4.0
Gaming Graphics/4.7
Primary Harddrive/5.3

Interesting. Mine are 4.3, and 4.6, for the graphics scores. I see you got a 15" WS model. How much VRAM do you have? I would imagine you got nVidia w/256MB? I wonder why your gfx score for Aero is "only" 4.0? That's my lowest one, too, at 4.3, and don't get me wrong. Anything above 4 kicks butt.

Also, you have a T9300. WOW! My CPU subscore is 5.2 with the T7600, yours is obviously higher at 5.4. However, how come only by .2, with a smoking T9300???

I'm a numbers guy lol...and some say the whole scoring system is flawed. It just has been very consistent for me, which is why I find it a tad odd that you don't have an "all-5" system!??

Congrats on a killer machine!

Grench · #12 Post by **Grench** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:16 pm

I just got my machine yesterday. I ran a 'fresh out of the box' Vista benchmark.

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9300 @ 2.50GHz 5.4
Memory (RAM) 3.00 GB 5.0
Graphics NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M 5.9
Gaming graphics 1023 MB Total available graphics memory 5.4
Primary hard disk 49GB Free (68GB Total) 5.0
Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate

5.0 Determined by lowest subscore

I'm in the process of prepping it for a 320GB Samsung drive and clean X64 install. It will be a few days before I can bench that though.

Fun stuff

Trekk69 · #13 Post by **Trekk69** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:31 pm

Thanks!
Keep the updates coming!

knuckless69 · #14 Post by **knuckless69** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 2:09 pm

Can anyone with a penryn post the result of a wprime 32m test please?
Cheers

{ISV-K}SVX · #15 Post by **{ISV-K}SVX** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:29 pm

Grench wrote: Graphics NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M 5.9
Gaming graphics 1023 MB Total available graphics memory 5.4

Maybe I am missing something - 1GB of graphics memory??? Wha?? 256MB is the highest currently available.

Grench · #16 Post by **Grench** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:03 pm

{ISV-K}SVX wrote:
Grench wrote: Graphics NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M 5.9
Gaming graphics 1023 MB Total available graphics memory 5.4
Maybe I am missing something - 1GB of graphics memory??? Wha?? 256MB is the highest currently available.

You're not missing anything. The drivers for the 570M on the T61p augment the video memory with a block of system memory. Nice trick.

I put a 320GB Samsung HDD in my T61p and did a clean install of Vista X64 on it. My new benchmarks are:

Base score 5.1
Determined by lowest subscore

Component Details Subscore
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9300 @ 2.50GHz 5.4
Memory (RAM) 3.93 GB 5.1
Graphics NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M 5.9
Gaming graphics 1023 MB Total available graphics memory 5.4
Primary hard disk 212GB Free (298GB Total) 5.4
Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate

System
Manufacturer LENOVO
Model 6459CTO
Total amount of system memory 3.94 GB RAM
System type 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 2
Storage
Total size of hard disk(s) 298 GB
Disk partition (C:) 212 GB Free (298 GB Total)
Media drive (D:) CD/DVD
Graphics
Display adapter type NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M
Total available graphics memory 1023 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 256 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 767 MB
Display adapter driver version 7.15.11.145
Primary monitor resolution 1920x1200
DirectX version DirectX 9.0 or better
Network
Network Adapter Intel(R) 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection
Network Adapter Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)
Network Adapter Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
Network Adapter Microsoft Tun Miniport Adapter

newthuser · #17 Post by **newthuser** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:28 pm

"You're not missing anything. The drivers for the 570M on the T61p augment the video memory with a block of system memory. Nice trick."

Can you share how this is done.?

Grench · #18 Post by **Grench** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:41 pm

newthuser wrote:"You're not missing anything. The drivers for the 570M on the T61p augment the video memory with a block of system memory. Nice trick."

Can you share how this is done.?

I have no idea what it does behind the scenes. Both the 32bit and 64bit drivers seem to do it. The first set of scores are with the stock loaded drivers from Lenovo. The second set are the 64bit ones downloaded from their support site when I did the 64bit clean install.

I didn't change any settings on them, and haven't found a need to yet. They just seem to, 'do that'. Someone else might have an idea of what it is actually doing.

iamdmc · #19 Post by **iamdmc** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 5:41 pm

Does anyone know if you can buy T61P in Canada? What other benefits are there other than the 540M graphics card (taking into consideration that the T61 regular can be upgraded to a SXGA+ screen).

And yes, please share how you accomplished this magnificent feat!

Grench · #20 Post by **Grench** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 11:18 am

iamdmc wrote:Does anyone know if you can buy T61P in Canada? What other benefits are there other than the 540M graphics card (taking into consideration that the T61 regular can be upgraded to a SXGA+ screen).

And yes, please share how you accomplished this magnificent feat!

The US T61p is also available with the 15.4" 1920x1200 WUXGA screen and that changes the 570M from 128MB to 256MB of DDR3 in the config. No idea on the Canada bit though.

metro_88 · #21 Post by **metro_88** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:43 pm

knuckless69,
Wprime Results:
>st 6
Calculating sqrts of first 33554431 numbers.
Thread 1 calculating from 0 to 16777216 in THREAD#99C.
Thread 2 calculating from 16777216 to 33554431 in THREAD#938.
Thread 1 is 12% complete @ 6.674 seconds
Thread 2 is 13% complete @ 6.814 seconds
Thread 1 is 25% complete @ 13.195 seconds
Thread 2 is 25% complete @ 13.522 seconds
Thread 1 is 38% complete @ 19.684 seconds
Thread 2 is 38% complete @ 20.183 seconds
Thread 1 is 50% complete @ 26.174 seconds
Thread 2 is 50% complete @ 26.845 seconds
Thread 1 is 62% complete @ 32.695 seconds
Thread 2 is 63% complete @ 33.475 seconds
Thread 1 is 75% complete @ 39.184 seconds
Thread 2 is 75% complete @ 40.12 seconds
Thread 1 is 88% complete @ 45.674 seconds
Thread 2 is 88% complete @ 46.797 seconds
Thread 1 complete with 0 errors!
Time taken: 52.163 seconds
Thread 2 complete with 0 errors!
Time taken: 53.396 seconds
Process completed in 53.396 seconds.

Machine:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9300 @ 2.50GHz
Core: Penryn C0
Clock: 2495.1 MHz
Vcore: 1.138 V
FSB: 798.4 MHz
L2 Cache: 6144 KB

Memory: 3062 MB DDR2
Frequency: 332.7 MHz @ 4-4-4-12

Mainboard: LENOVO 8897CTO

akim · #22 Post by **akim** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 10:59 pm

metro_88 wrote :

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:43 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

knuckless69,
Wprime Results:
>st 6
Calculating sqrts of first 33554431 numbers.
Thread 1 calculating from 0 to 16777216 in THREAD#99C.
Thread 2 calculating from 16777216 to 33554431 in THREAD#938.
Thread 1 is 12% complete @ 6.674 seconds
Thread 2 is 13% complete @ 6.814 seconds
Thread 1 is 25% complete @ 13.195 seconds
Thread 2 is 25% complete @ 13.522 seconds
Thread 1 is 38% complete @ 19.684 seconds
Thread 2 is 38% complete @ 20.183 seconds
Thread 1 is 50% complete @ 26.174 seconds
Thread 2 is 50% complete @ 26.845 seconds
Thread 1 is 62% complete @ 32.695 seconds
Thread 2 is 63% complete @ 33.475 seconds
Thread 1 is 75% complete @ 39.184 seconds
Thread 2 is 75% complete @ 40.12 seconds
Thread 1 is 88% complete @ 45.674 seconds
Thread 2 is 88% complete @ 46.797 seconds
Thread 1 complete with 0 errors!
Time taken: 52.163 seconds
Thread 2 complete with 0 errors!
Time taken: 53.396 seconds
Process completed in 53.396 seconds.

Machine:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9300 @ 2.50GHz
Core: Penryn C0
Clock: 2495.1 MHz
Vcore: 1.138 V
FSB: 798.4 MHz
L2 Cache: 6144 KB

Memory: 3062 MB DDR2
Frequency: 332.7 MHz @ 4-4-4-12

I think but I may be mistaken that the results are not the one expected by this processor, you quoted about 53s on Wprime with two threads, normally you are expected to get about 30s not 53s.

On my T61P as described in signature I get 34s with 2 threads.

Are you sure about this test ?
If so, I can't believe T9300 being less powerfull than T7700

metro_88 · #23 Post by **metro_88** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 11:07 pm

Yeah, I've run it a few times and am seeing similar results. I've got my laptop HDD encrypted with Truecrypt, but Wprime doesn't seem to use the disk very much.

For testing, I ran this on my desktop, a 2.16GHz Core 2 running at 3.2GHz and got in the 45 second range.

This is running Wprime 1.60.

Maybe I'm missing something.

akim · #24 Post by **akim** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:27 am

I think that maybe your parameters in bios are not optimized, you should run cpuz and make sure that you run at 2500Mhz.

If it were not the case, disable cpu management ( not automatic) and set it at maximum performance, you should improve wprime and divide the result by half

akim · #25 Post by **akim** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:40 am

My mistake

The results are not the same between wprime 1.55 and 1.6.
I have just performed the tests on both versions.

on 1.55 version, I get 34s
on 1.6, I get 56s.

Which means your test is right metro_88, I apologize.

metro_88 · #26 Post by **metro_88** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:51 am

No problem, akim. I'm just glad I wasn't missing something obvious.

madflava54 · #27 Post by **madflava54** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:01 am

metro, do you have any kind of cpu whining?

metro_88 · #28 Post by **metro_88** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:03 am

Absolutely none. I've had it in a very quiet room and do not hear whining and have never heard my fans spin up. Maybe I should check that I do, in fact, have fans...

madflava54 · #29 Post by **madflava54** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:59 am

metro_88 wrote:Absolutely none. I've had it in a very quiet room and do not hear whining and have never heard my fans spin up. Maybe I should check that I do, in fact, have fans...

Wow, my fans are always on. At least I think they are my fans. My apt is pretty hot though. I guess I'm going to send this back as soon as I get my old laptop back from a friend. I'm pretty disappointed with their customer service compared to Dell's.

metro_88 · #30 Post by **metro_88** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:36 pm

For those interested in temps on the new Penryn T61s:

CPUCool and SpeedFan were unable to read any temps from the T61. I used Thinkpad Fancontrol (TPFC) V0.41 to give me some readings on temps during max load and during idle.

After running OCCT for 30 minutes (maxing out the CPU and RAM), temps from TPFC:
CPU: 74° C
APS: 44° C
CRD: 34° C
BAT: 32° C
BAT: 29° C
BUS: 47° C
PCI: 45° C
PWR: 52° C

After running idle (but with Windows power control still running in "High Performance" mode:
CPU: 40° C
APS: 37° C
CRD: 30° C
BAT: 32° C
BAT: 29° C
BUS: 34° C
PCI: 37° C
PWR: 35° C

Maybe what's most interesting is the fan. At no point during my 30 minutes of 100% CPU usage did the fan exceed 2991 RPM. While sitting at idle, it's currently at 2841 RPM. It's so nice to not have a fan that spins up... at all. I have at no point heard a fan spinning on this laptop. I put my ear next to it, and yes, I can hear a whooshing sound, but no mechanical fan noise.

The funniest things is when I switch Windows to "Power Saver", TPFC reports the fan speed as "off" and, to be honest, I can't even hear the "whooshing" of air anymore. Whether or not TPFC is reporting correctly or not, I can't be sure, but it's amazing.

To say the least, I'm very impressed with this T61 and the new Penryn processors.

T61 with Penryn - Got One

T61 with Penryn - Got One

Hmm... A different result.

Re: Hmm... A different result.

Re: Hmm... A different result.

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