Benefit of upgrading T40p to Dothan 755?

[atanasoff]

I am curious if this will yield a noticeable improvement in performance in common tasks.

Purpose:
To extend the useful life of this antique

Typical conditions where the machine seems slow and does not appear to be disk-bound
i) Web browsing with multiple tabs. Browsers do not seem to be very efficient code, (perhaps the browser specs assume people still throw machines out every 3 years).
ii) Flash. Hard to avoid, same with MS Silverlight (watched the Olympics with it).
iii) With "fast user switching" enabled there are slowdowns when 2 users are logged in locally. (Only one "user" is active at any given time). There must be a better way to have multiple desktops.
iv) Operations such as registry edits and software installs could be faster

These are not true computation intensive tasks like Mathematica or video editing, it seems to be an issue of keeping up with software generations. I'm not really interested in benchmarks but in the net improvement seen by the user. I doubt I'd notice 10%, but 30% would be significant, 25% worthwhile.

I'm pretty amazed at how much use I've wrung out of this machine and would like to keep it until it becomes unreliable.

How much more heat, if any, will the 755 put out compared to the standard chip.

[netzspannung]

I'd say fuggetaboutit. 755 is very expensive, rare, and runs pretty hot - not fun to use if your fan is running on full blast. Get a T60 in the same form factor and be amazed at the difference in power, RAM price, general sturdiness of construction. T60 is very underestimated and cheap nowadays - while still the last of the genuine IBM laptops, IMHO.

[sojourner]

Didn't see the current CPU clock speed or amount of RAM in your system. Might be able to help you out if we knew!

[ajkula66]

CPU upgrade would be my last move on the T40p...

If you don't have a 7200rpm HDD already, get one.

If you don't have 2GB RAM, get some more.

Now, if your machine already has all of the above, PM 755 might be a worthy upgrade at today's prices, and it won't run that much hotter than your 1.6 or 1.7 Banias.

Having said all of that, your GPU and not your CPU remains the system's bottleneck that can't be upgraded.

My $0.02 only...

[atanasoff]

Didn't see the current CPU clock speed or amount of RAM in your system. Might be able to help you out if we knew!

Currently:
Factory standard 1.6ghz cpu
1.5 G ram.
Older 7200rpm drive
The fan is attached to a 4.5" copper plate w heat pipes.

No overclocking and would rather not, but I'd like to have the ability to downshift the speed more precisely than the ibm power manager allows. Anyone know the difference in heat? Would that be at all times or only under high loads?
The intel page shows the 2.0 chip as having a 'thermal design power' of 21watts. The original chip appears to have a 'thermal design power' of 24.5. I have no idea what that means in practice.
ebay shows recent SL7EM sales at $40-60, if that is the correct part.


How much is a T60 with high-res screen?

- tx

[ajkula66]

SL7EM is the correct part.

T60 with a 14" SXGA+ LCD can be found for $300 or so.

As for downshifting, NHC might be the way to go...

[atanasoff]

Hm.
How much difference would it make vs the 1.6 1mb cache I have now? And ... what does the intel 'thermal design power' spec mean?

[netzspannung]

The cache, speed and all _will_ make a noticeable difference. Once you notice that difference, you _might_ want to install a new OS - e.g. Windows 7. Then you'd wish you bought a dual-core in the first place.

My theory goes that a t4x machine is only worth upgrading if it is a Flexview. Anything else and you are sinking perfectly good money into mostly obsolete tech. Better spend same $ on the t6x, which has SATA and dual-core. More futureproof.

TDP is a rough measure of how much heat your processor dissipates. More watts - more heat. It is not necessarily a true measure, mostly marketing. Individual units vary.