wheter 'tis nobler to buy new or upgrade

I have a 3 year old T 60 that I find to be okay, but not great. Boot up times are long, the WIFI is iffy (though it usually works after a reboot), and I can't get more than about 90 minutes out of a new 6 cell battery. My plans were to try to squeeze another year out of it, but in response to some other posts several people recommended that I just upgrade it with an SSD and reload the OS (which is XP).

I have always thought of notebooks as a fairly limited life machine, but if I could upgrade and get, say, 2 years instead of 1 out of it, that might be worth it to me, depending on the costs.

3 questions: Is upgrading worth it generally for a 3 year old T 60, who should I have do it, and can the WIFI be upgraded as a practical matter? (I am a technical neanderthal).

Thanks. Great board.

 

I see no reason for the wifi to be iffy. Running the latest drivers? I have no issues with the intel 3945abg in my T60.

As far as boot times, what hard drive spindle speed are you running and how much junk do you have starting up with windows? Get into msconfig and clean up the startup files.

You can get 6 cell batteries from the Lenovo outlet for like $40 and 9 cells for about the same.

 

Given that i am using the T40 still, i am not sure why you can't really get more than 2 years out of your laptop.

If your laptop is slower than before, then usually that means you should reinstall the OS, which is quite easy if you got the recovery partition intact.

Just boot up your laptop and press the blue thinkvantage button your laptop, once you are into the Rescue and Recovery partition, then select recover to factory setting, and do a full recovery. You should save all the important files before you do this, as this will completely wipe the hdd and reinstall the OS/Drivers.

Which wireless card do you have? (maybe just post your full model/type number) Have you tried to go into your Control panel -> system -> Device manager, then select the property page of the wireless card. Make sure you select maximum power output and low roaming aggressiveness.

Battery life for a T60 with the X1300/X1400 GPU is low due to the power consumption, if you need more battery time, select maximum battery mode under Thinkvantage Power Manager.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Here is identifying info: 8744-5BU

I tried to follow your wireless card advice, got as far as Device Manager, but then could not reliably identify the wireless card...

 

Here is my advice. Do you have a good screen. My opinion of the latest round of Lenovo screens is they aren't great. I have a T61p with what I believe is the best screen of all time (1920 x 1200) and a T400 with the 1440x900. The T400 is very washed-out and has LOUSY contrast. I don't think the 410 got any better. Also, if your T60 has a 4x3 screen, you will never get that again. I would look to upgrade to a SSD and re-install the OS.

 

From a CPU performance perspective a new machine won't offer you much unless you run your CPU at high usage frequently. A Intel SSD is probably the best path to better performance. I bought a battery from the outlet for my R60. It looked and performed new.

 

buy a good SSD and reinstall your OS.   if that doesn't suit you then you can buy a new ThinkPad and put the SSD in it.

dilemma solved.

 

Clever idea.

 

I agree with erik.

 

I am in the same boat as you - bought a T61 back in summer of 2010. I always assumed I'd get 2 years or so out of the laptop and upgrade. So I was planning to upgrade to a T410s. The more I thought about it, however, the more I realized that my current machine still meets my needs. I'm going to upgrade to a 500GB 7200RPM this summer and install Windows 7 and keep the machine for another year or two before upgrading.

Note that even an "equivalent" hard drive today is faster than the same drive a few years ago. As platter density increases, so does transfer rates. For example, 7200 RPM drives back in 2004-2005 would get 30-40MB/s sustained. Today, a 7200 RPM drive can do closer to 100MB/s sustained. So, even if you got a "fast" 7200 RPM drive with your machine, you can increase the speed of your drive without going to SSD, simply by buying a higher-density drive.

 

T61 can be upgraded to 8 gigs and the T9xxx with 800 mhz FSB can be fitted.

 

So in theory I could find a T61p, drop in a T9800 chip, and have a nearly state of the art notebook with an SXGA+ 1400x1050 screen?

 

Heck, there's a guy selling new old stock 1600x1200 BOE Hydis 15" flexview screens, so you could really go nuts if you wanted to.

 

Why do you want to work so hard to find reasons not to buy a cool new toy?

 

i would not go for a T61p, instead i would go for a t61 with an integrated gpu and get an Vidock then slot in a ATI 4870x2 or a ATI 5850.

 

I almost agree with lead_org. Only issue is if you need workstation graphics without the dock. NOte the Lenovo outlet site has advanced docks right now (I have to mini-docks, almost bought an advanced). If you need high-resolution and workstaiton graphics on the move (as I do) you really want a T61p with the 1920x1200 screen. I was very lucky and got one during the short period that my company was supplying them (most of my co-workers ended up with a T500 a month or 2 later). Looking at what is offered now, they will not get mine back when lease is up unless they forcably come remove it from me.

 

T61p with the potentially faulty Nvidia GPU is not sort of laptop i would go for now, if you are going to do any graphic intensive tasks. Instead i would go for the W500 or W510.