2009 T61p Upgrades

Who is thinking about upgrading their T61p's?


Love the T61p but all the new technology leaves me wanting a little more.


So rather than buying another notebook I'm thinking about upgrading a few things.

My 2009 Potential Upgrades

1. Intel P9600 or T9800
2. Windows 7 OS
3. SSD



Who else is going to do this or already has?

Any thoughts?

 

I hear ya. Personally I am seriously considering putting in one of those Intel X25-M drives (SSD) in my T60. I have a gift certificate at amazon so I could get it for about $420 which makes it tempting as fun upgrade to try.

Windows 7 would be fun too. Upgrading the CPU just doesn't seem worth it IMO.

 

lol, I was actually going to post a very similar question. I bought my T61 back in February 2008 (I managed to order one of the first ones with the T8300 Penryn chip) and was thinking about people's suggestions if it would be worth upgrading to a same/smaller laptop. The way I look at it is this T61 is perfect for my needs, has NO keyboard flex, built like a tank, fast, etc. So I will more then likely wait a few more years before I upgrade. Although I would love a brighter screen, and a web-cam though

 

Looks like T9800 and P9600 are not going to work since they require a a faster chipset than the 800mhz PM965 that the T61p has.

Not sure if upgrading the CPU is even worth it since I can only squeeze out little more speed in a [email protected] GHZ.

If I could OC the the T9300 I see no reason why I couldn't pump it up to around 2.8 GHZ.

 

I'm thinking of adding 8GB or ram and a 500GB HD. I am not too keen on a processor upgrade as the performance increases would be marginal. I wish someone releases a 7200 RPM drive soon, so I can do it once. I already have Win7,

 

A CPU upgrade would be worth looking into from a T7500 IMO.

Shouldn't be much longer and a 7200 RPM 500 GB 2.5" hdd should be available.



8GB of RAM is very pricey. If the prices come down I'll do that too. Havn't considered it because of the cost.

 

I'm sure LENOVO could pump up the FSB for the PM965 chipset in the T61p to go 1066 MHZ with a custom BIOS.

Please do it Lenovo.

 

Looks like the P9600 and the Q9000 series may be compatible with the PM965 chipset.

PM965 Chipset + T61p = Potential for 1066mhz FSB P socket CPU upgrades for T61p.


Review from Newegg with a P9500:

I'm seriously considering doing a P9600 or mobile quad cpu upgrade.

 

I'm considering a SSD upgrade. Figure you'll see the biggest bump in performance with that. Just waiting for prices to drop a bit first since my 7k320 HDD isn't a slouch by any means.

 

The chipset only supports 800MHz FSB, so what's the point?

 

My point is that there is at least 1 person who bought a P9500 from Newegg who claims he is running it at 1066mhz FSB.

Also there are a number of people who have different notebooks that have the PM965 chipset and are running 1066mhz FSB with the P9600.

So... It appears that there is potential for the T61p to run a 1066mhz P socket CPU.

 

Any news on this ? Is it possible ?

 

Nope, it's not possible. Even though they are socket-compatible, a 1066Mhz cpu will NOT work with a 800Mhz board. So, the maximum upgrade, us T61p owners can have, is a T9500 (Penryn, 2.5Ghz, 800Mhz FSB, 6MB L2 cache)

 

Since CPU upgrades void the warranty, would there be an argument supporting the 8GB ram upgrade instead. I recently went to a 500GB 7200 RPM drive as opposed to the SSD due to the limitations on our SATA II controllers. Just curious which way is the best to spend ~$300.

 

I got 8GB on my t61p, mainly because I deal with VMs from EMC, Microsoft and Oracle that top 4GB minimum ... love having the well to go to when showing off the t61p

The RAM upgrade from newegg only a few months back cost $275 total. Well worth it if you got $300.

 

BTW - Even with the limitations on the SATA controller, I'm still looking at a SSD upgrade for my boot drive (I have the ultrabay SATA that I use as my data drive)

I'm hoping when new SSDs come out they drop the first gen SSDs down enough that they're affordable.... been reading good things about Kingston's new V+ series, affordable and 2nd gen.

It does suck about the SATA limits, but I figure at a certain price point I'll jump onto the SSD wagon

 

The Windows 7 upgrade should be a given—XP really shows off its legacy status in comparison.

 

This thread says it all

I bought a top of the line drive, Patriot 128GB Torqx.

Max Read: 230 MB/sec
Write: 200MB/sec.

what a waste.

Lenovo capped the T61p.
I am waiting to drop the extra bucks on a MBP in the Fall or Spring if Intel can roll out a mobile i7.

 

I'm waiting for the T410 to upgrade...i7 and better GPU...