Some T60 Upgrade questions

[spork981]

Hello,

I have a 14.1" T60 with a T2500, 2GB RAM, and an X1400 graphics card. There has been a few heat issues, but most of them are solved by using thin copper sheets over the GPU/Northbridge (although it will still freeze/shutdown if I play newer games for an extended period of time).
Now, I am looking to get a T60p (with a V5200) motherboard and put it in my chassis - after reading a few threads here, this seems feasible. Would I need a new fan/heatsink/PC Card slot as well, or can I use what T60 components I have right now?

Also: What battery life do you guys get with your T60/p's and a 6-cell? I'm currently getting about 3 hours now, so how much would I lose if I were to get the t60p motherboard?

[sarbin]

welcome to the forum.

the discrete gpu planar will take a different fan/heatsink assembly, iirc. can't comment on the pc slot assembly, sorry. re: the battery, i'd presume the discrete gpu will chew up power faster. how fast? i don't know, but i get about 3hrs run-time on the t60p in my sig equipped with the 9-cell. same gpu, top c2d and ips 15" panel, so comparison might be complex.

good luck with your upgrade.

[spork981]

Thank you!

I've found this image on this forum (don't quite remember which thread) which shows both "models" of fans, with different FRU's for the T60 and T60p: http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/4723 ... 1w6407.png

Besides the larger CPU heatpipe (which would only help me a little bit, as my CPU has no heat issues) and the end on the GPU/Northbridge heatpipe, there aren't a lot of differences. My current board is already an ATI (discrete) board, but if the T60p needed a slight HSF redesign to keep it cool, I'll get the 41W6407 instead of reusing my old one.

From what you have with your T60p, I'd guess only an hour would be lost - slower 2ghz core duo, 14" lcd, and a 6-cell battery.

[spork981]

I've finally gotten the board, and there was no problems in putting it in (the old fan fit nicely, the PCMCIA slots were the same, etc.). It's actually running about 5°C cooler now, though the fan seems to be running full speed most of the time. The battery life is still pretty good, as the V5200 eats only about 45 more minutes or so.

I am impressed with the performance increase, however. I did not get another CPU or additional RAM, but Portal 2 (and other Source-based games) can now run on medium-high settings comfortably, rather than scraping by on low settings. Nothing in XP needed to be changed, either - the catalyst 9.3 drivers worked out of the box with this board, and WGA didn't complain at all to having the motherboard switched.

[sarbin]

glad to hear things are working nicely for you.