Z61p with Win7 32-Bit - works great!

[underclocker]

Maybe it's because I waited a while before installing Win7 on my Z61p, but I just installed Win7 Ultimate 32-bit and it went very well. The machine runs beautifully. Start up and performance are quite fast. It certainly feels as quick as XP Pro. I wouldn't hesitate to use it on similarly equipped T60p's.

Currently, my Z61p has a 2.0GHz C2D T7200, 15.4" WUXGA LCD, 3GB RAM, ATI FireGL V5200 256MB GPU, 250GB 5400rpm drive, Bluetooth and Intel abg.

Here's a breakdown of the installation steps;
-Disable the HD protected partition in the BIOS, since it gets blown away anyway by a Win7 install
-Intall Win7 Ultimate from DVD (use the installation partition utility to delete all existing partitions)
-Run Windows Update (this installs the ATI video driver that seems to work very well, Aero features work well, too); install all updates
-Download, install and run the Lenovo System Update utility; install all updates
-Manually download and install the Texas Instruments (TI) flash media driver from Lenovo.com (found with Z61 drivers, this is the only device shown as not installed in the Win7 device manager after running Windows and Lenovo updates)
-Manually download and install the Bluetooth Enhanced Data Rate Software II software from Lenovo.com (found with T60 drivers, this updates the Bluetooth drivers which work much better than the Win7 driver)
-Windows update found a Win7 printer driver for my older Dell 1600n multifunction printer - it works well.

I must say that one of the best things about loading Win7 versus WinXP is that there are only a few dozen updates that are quick to apply, not hundreds that take hours to complete.

So far I like it, it looks more like Vista than XP, but runs much, much quicker (than Vista).

Component Details Subscore Base score

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7200 @ 2.00GHz 5.1
Memory (RAM) 3.00 GB 5.1
Graphics ATI MOBILITY FireGL V5200 4.2
Gaming graphics 1535 MB Total available graphics memory 4.3
Primary hard disk 214GB Free (233GB Total) 5.3
Windows 7 Ultimate