What is upgradable inside a T61p with 3rd-party parts?

For a usual laptop, most things other than CPU and GPU are user-upgradable.

But I heard thinkpads' miniscie slots are proprietary or something.

Does that mean if I were to get 3rd-party brands, the only things I can upgrade in my T61p would be:

- harddrive
- RAM

i.e. I can't even get my own TurboCache card aftermarket to upgrade myself?
i.e. I can't even get my own WLAN card aftermarket to upgrade myself?

 

Hi,

The CPU, RAM, HDD and the Turbo Cache module are, as Ive upgraded these on my T61.

The WLAN and WWAN cards arent as the BIOS requires Lenovo FRU's to post.

 

From what i've heard turbocache is more trouble than its worth, and why wouldn't you want to get the N wireless option built in ?

 

- Because it's a draft N and it may change in the future.

- Because I don't need it right now and would rather buy one later at a cheaper price and upgrade it myself if and when I need it.

 

From what I've heard this draft = final specifications.

 

Apparently RAM has to be Lenovo-specific in latest BIOS.

 

Link to such blasphemy? My latest BIOS update was a couple of days ago for the X61 *bios 1.11* it didn't iterate anything about memory(RAM) specific.

 

sources???

 

not true.

as soon as I bought my T61 I removed the 1Gb RAM module and replaced this with 2 2Gb DDR2 667Mhz Kingston modules.

I have the latest v2.07 BIOS as well.

 

Save the trouble. It's not that expensive. If you can afford the laptop in the first place you should be able to afford a few bucks more.

I have a similar understanding. I believe it is draft N, but the hardware meets spec for final N. So a firmware/driver update should bring it up to final N.

:laugh: lol

 

That made me laugh. No this isn't true.
Tim

 

Ditto, no problems whatsoever with a 4GB Kingston upgrade. Of course, 3 GB recognized under 32 bit Vista...but still, no probs. Sounds like continuation of a bad rumor, as I have read the same elsewhere with no proof.

 

I read it in some other topic here on NBR, but if someone claims to have latest BIOS and RAMs still work, then I guess that disproves it.

 

I believe that the 'N' card requires a third antenna that won’t be installed unless you get that option. Seems like too much trouble to save a few bucks.

 

Well, initially I was gonna go with an Apple N card, which only requires 2 antennas (as mentioned before in eeeuser forums).

 

I've forgot to add bluetooth on the t61 that I've configured, could I add it later? I don't want USB version as I don't want anything sticking out of my laptop other than my power cord and extra battery...

 

As far as I know it's a pain in the butt to do so separately, if I was you I would cancel and re-order with BT.

 

so I don't want to reorder it because I got really good deal, and it's going to bring the price up by about $500 (I got 570M on t61)... Plus I've waited a month for the laptop, which is arriving in a month. I don't want to wait another month....

 

Try to call Lenovo and see if they are able to add it in without canceling your order...if not, then I guess you'll have to stick with an external USB adapter, there is one on the market that is like the VX Nano's receiver, so it shouldn't be intrusive.