Moving from Z61p 9450-3AU to Z61p 9450-GBU

[phrider]

My old, heavily travelled Z61p is coming unhinged. Fortunately, I've found a lightly used Z61p that is a very similar but slightly different model.

Being an engineer (or lazy), I'd like to move to the replacement machine with the least effort. Ideally, I'd just like to take the old harddrive from the failing Z61p type 9450-3AU (built 06/09) and put it in the replacement Z61p type 9450-GBU (built 06/12).

Any recommendations? Likely issues? Hopeless task?

(I have searched for the answers, but I haven't been able to separate the useful answers out.)

[underclocker]

Loyalty is something.

You won't have any problems at all, just move the drive to the newer machine. The wifi adapter isn't listed with the description, but even if it's the IBM/Atheros adapter (assuming one is installed), you only need to download new drivers for it (same is true for any other minor differences, but I don't see any others).

I will say that you found an amazing machine, the T7600 in the Z61p is quite rare. Enjoy it.

Product: ThinkPad Z61p 9450-3AU
Original description: T2500(2GHz), 1GB RAM, 100GB 7200rpm HD, 15.4in 1920x1200 LCD, 256MB ATI FireGL V5200, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11abg wireless, Bluetooth/Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, IEEE 1394, Fingerprint reader, 6c Li-Ion batt, WinXP Pro


Product: ThinkPad Z61p 9450-GBU
Original description: Customer configured(RAM, Hard drive, Ultrabay, Battery, Preload): T7600(2.33GHz), 15.4in 1920x1200 LCD, 256MB ATI FireGL V5200 Bluetooth/Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, IEEE 1394, Fingerprint reader

[phrider]

Thank you. I'll dive in. I'll probably be swapping memory from the old machine to the new one as well.

We'll see if any of my software licenses have a fit.

[schen]

Unless the new machine has a WiFi card that you particularly want, then you could just move that as well and not worry about the driver issue.

Have you considered replacing the hard drive with something bigger and new? It is one of the few things that do fail and you could just clone the one from your old machine.

I recently took a very low spec'd Z61m which was in excellent condition, and "pumped" it up a little bit for my wife. She loves it! Now, I'm looking for another to do as a rehab project for myself!

[phrider]

I have a collection of 500GB 7200rpm drives that get added to any machine that might need one... this new old z61p does. The WiFi card, based on the specs on the underside, is a "n" WiFi, so it may be better that the old one.

[AMATX]

Throw in a cheap, <$100 SSD and it'll be night & day diff.

I added SSDs to a couple of Z61p laptops and there's just no comparison...

[phrider]

I have too much archiving going onto the hard drive to do a 100 GB SSD, but I'm tempted by the 500 GB SSD/traditional disk hybrid by Seagate. I'm not sure how well it works with Win XP, however.

[AMATX]

I suspect hybrid would be transparent to XP. My Z61p's are both XP and there was nothing involved with installing or running SSD on them. No trim, but that hasn't been an issue yet, so I'm not particularly worried about SSD.

[phrider]

It's the "Advanced Format" hybrid that I'm worried about.

[underclocker]

The WiFi card, based on the specs on the underside, is a "n" WiFi, so it may be better that the old one.

Like I said, that's a nice Z61p, even more so if it has the IBM/Atheros N wifi adapter. That adapter is still about $50 on eBay.