Replacement parts for the R61

[EngineersCake]

Howdy fellow padders,

I'm looking to future-proof my R61 and I've got amateur questions.

First off my R61 is running on a 2.2GHz C2D (T7200). Is the 2.4 as fast as it'll ever get?

It's got the 15.4" WXGA display with the Nvidia Quadro 140 accelerator and I'd like to upgrade it to the WSXGA display but I'm concerned about the connector and comparability of the connectors and what not. What should I be looking for?

Last on the list is the max RAM. Is the ceiling really 3GB?

Well that's it thus far. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[Harryc]

A T7200 is a 2Ghz Core 2 Duo CPU, so I'm not sure what your question is? Here's the answer on the LCD upgrade - http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=88724
You should be able to run 8GB RAM in an R61, but you'll have to run a 64bit OS to utilize more than @ 3.5GB RAM.

[EngineersCake]

A T7200 is a 2Ghz Core 2 Duo CPU, so I'm not sure what your question is? Here's the answer on the LCD upgrade - http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=88724

My bad, it's a T7500. The question was: Is the 2.4GHz Core2Duo (T7700) the fastest processor the computer will handle?

[Harryc]

A T7500 is a 2.2Ghz Core 2 Duo CPU. The best you could upgrade to would be either a T7700 or T7800 (2.4 and 2.6 GHz respectively). As far as Penryn CPU's go(.e.g. T9500, 2.6Ghz), unless your machine came with a Penryn or the board was replaced with a Penryn-compatible MB, you're out-of-luck. Here's a good replacement guide for your machine.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... etooth+r61

[EngineersCake]

Thanks for the info Harry! I look forward to tackling these projects in the coming weeks.

[lead_org]

You can chuck in a T9xxx CPU with 800 mhz FSB, provided you have Middleton's modded bios installed. Provided that you have the 15.4 and 14.1 inch widescreen machines.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... ost6501443

[Tõnis]

Just curious ... what do you mean by future-proof? My R61 has 3GB of RAM, a 2.4 ghz Core 2 Duo processor, and a T8300 hard drive (I think that's a 7200 rpm disk, but I'm not sure). Does it mean my machine is obsolete? Is it running a bit lean on hardware?

[EngineersCake]

Just curious ... what do you mean by future-proof? My R61 has 3GB of RAM, a 2.4 ghz Core 2 Duo processor, and a T8300 hard drive (I think that's a 7200 rpm disk, but I'm not sure). Does it mean my machine is obsolete? Is it running a bit lean on hardware?

I don't know much but I do know this: The T8300 is an Intel processor (C2D 2.4 GHz Penryn), not a hard drive.
It would seem that you have a pretty maxed R61 which is awesome. I wouldn't say you're running lean on hardware at all, nor is your machine obsolete.

In my case I don't have much to spend so I'm trying to wring all the time I can out of my R61. (e.g. RAM, display, processor and hard drive) So if I can upgrade my T7500 (C2D 2.2GHz Memrom) to something slightly more current, max out the RAM and upgrade the display and the OS (to Win7), I'll be able to get maybe a year or two more out of it.

But let's be realistic. In most cases computers are out of date within months of the time that their purchased. Not necessarily obsolete, but out of date. I thank my lucky stars for forums like this to guide in upgrading and and appreciating the awesomeness of these fantastic machines.

[gbe]

Regarding the display... I did the same upgrade from WXGA (1280x800) to WSXGA+ (1680x1050) on my R61i. The important thing is to not only get the new display but also a WSXGA+ display connector cable (that's the part I neglected at first, I was quite surprised when my new display only displayed every second row of pixels ). Other than that, it's a no brainer. Old display and cable out, new display and cable in.

[Lockheed]

You should be able to run 8GB RAM in an R61

Can someone confirm that? I am currently running 4gb on my R61 but I run out of RAM at occasions and don't really want to use swap.

[RealBlackStuff]

Yes, the R61 and T61 all can run 2x4GB=8GB RAM (but AFAIK not the R61e).
You'd need a C2D CPU and a 64-bit OS to be able to use that much.
A 32-bit OS can only use ~3.3GB.

@EngineersCake:
it would be an utter waste of money to upgrade that CPU. You will NOT notice the difference.
For that money you can buy an SSD, then get a SATA-HD adapter for the ultrabay and put in your current HD or a new 500GB or 750GB HD.
Much more 'futureproof' than a CPU that runs ~0.2GHz faster than what you have now.

[Lockheed]

Thanks.
On a part-related note - would I be able to use PCMCIA card (Audigy) AND ExpressCard at the same time with my R61, provided ExpressCard does not stick out of the laptop case?