Lenovo T61 2009 Upgrades

I am upgrading three components in my T61 this year. I want SSD, RAM and a newer/better less power usage processor.

For the processor, I currently have a T9300 which runs at 2.5GHZ. I want to upgrade it to a higher GHZ processor that uses less power (if possible). I know processor upgrades don't show that much of a difference, but 2.5GHZ is not enough for me.

For a SSD, I am looking into getting this one at NewEgg: Click Here

For RAM, I am looking into getting this on NewEgg: Click Here

I am also going to wait for Windows 7 to release and install it on my SSD. If I buy a new processor what type of thermal paste should I use?

I am not buying a new laptop, I really like my T61 and would not consider upgrading even at the same price as I have a warranty.

 

All your links are busted.

The SSD would probably be the only thing that really gives you a noticeable boost, unless your doing some seriously intense stuff on your computer or you have like 1gb of ram.

What do you use your laptop primarily for, that 2.5ghz isn't enough?

 

I re edited the links.

The SSD is the Kingston V-Series 128GB SSD.

I run multiple applications at once and my CPU is always at very high usage.

 

I wouldn't get the kingston unless you know what controller it uses. Maybe someone knows what it is, but I couldn't find anything. If its jmicron, I wouldn't waste my money.

If you want a good SSD for a lower price, look at the indilinx drives (Ocz vertex, gskill falcolns) or the samsung drives. Geeks.com was selling the 64gb samsung for like $135 US which is really cheap, but I think they are out of stock. Someone on NBR is also selling a 128gb samsung for a pretty good price. The older samsungs have lower max read/write than newer drives, but are still very fast and stutter-free.

Intels and mtrons are very good, but are probably more than you want to spend.

 

I doubt you can upgrade your processor, 25W Penryns do not work on T61 which is a shame.

 

He can upgrade it. The question is, will it be woth it? Although this wasn't on his list, I would consider the T-9600 because I like to go for the maximums of the series when the processot is involved.

 

Isn't T9600 only for T400? I have a T9400 and the max when I bought it was T9500?

 

changing your processor will void your warranty.

rather than agonizing over pointless mods like CL4 memory and faster processors that you'll never notice, why not just buy a high-quality SSD and be done with it?   for the money you'll throw away on these mods, you could have a great SSD and actually notice the difference, even if all you do is use microsoft office and surf the web.

 

When I send in my laptop, if I change back to my old processor, they are more then likely not to notice it.

 

That's called fraud

 

What are you talking about? Do you know what fraud means? It's not fraud if my laptop breaks and it has nothing to do with my CPU upgrade. Fraud is when you scam or take someone for something like money. I am not stealing anything from Lenovo. As long as my upgrade has nothing to do with the reason I am sending it in, then I am not taking anything of theirs.

 

No. They don't force you to tell them if it's voided, it's their responsibility to tell you. As long as you don't tell them you upgraded it or haven't, it's fine.

 

yeah what frauf would that be... as long as you don't damage anything it should be totally fine. i even think the cpu is a sru (customer replaceable unit). it should be totally fine with anything the bios supports even legally...

 

The real question is do you really need a better processor? Why waste your money if its not going to help? I mean, what do you use your laptop for that the processor is the bottleneck?

 

I guess you`re right.. What SSD should I get? I need like 120GB. I am also going to get 8GB of RAM.

 

If you want a good SSD for a lower price, look at the indilinx drives (Ocz vertex, gskill falcolns) or the samsung drives. Geeks.com was selling the 64gb samsung for like $135 US which is really cheap, but I think they are out of stock. Someone on NBR is also selling a 128gb samsung for a pretty good price. The older samsungs have lower max read/write than newer drives, but are still very fast and stutter-free.

Intels and mtrons are very good, but are probably more than you want to spend.

 

What applications/tasks are you doing on your notebook? What is your budget? Are you often on 100% load for CPU and memory? Unless you answer those, it's difficult to make a recommendation that would give you the best result.

 

Forget the SSD upgrade. Your T61 is limited to SATA 1.5 GB/s speeds so you will only be able to reach about 110-120 MB/s maximum even if the SSD is capable of 240+ MB/s.

 

It is, but the 110-120 is still faster than any mechanical drive, and your access times are 0.1ms compared to 15ms

 

Artic Silver 5.

 

aside from synthetic benchmarks, 110 MB/s is plenty.   like mullenburger said above, the low access times make the biggest difference.

the samsung SLC SSD in my X61s is limited to about 105 MB/s by the drive itself yet launches photoshop CS4 extended 64-bit in about 3 seconds.   it takes about 4 seconds to launch it on my thinkstation D10 with 15K RPM SAS hard drives and dual quad core xeons.   with a normal hard drive this would take 15~20 seconds to launch in comparison.

the biggest bottleneck by far in any system is the storage device, not the processor(s).   even at SATA 1.5Gb speeds, a good SSD is worth every penny.   older PATA systems absolutely fly with SSDs, too, and put rotating hard drive systems to shame.

this SATA 1.5Gb "limitation" really only matters to those running benchmarks.   i have yet to read where it affected real-world use.   if anyone knows of a case, please post a link.