x60s Possible Upgrades?

I just purchased a x60s on ebay:

Windows 7 Premium installed
Processor Core Duo L2400 1.66 GHz
Memory 1.5 GB (DDR2 SDRAM)
Hard Drive 60GB SSD
Display 12.1 in XGA TFT LCD
Motherboard Chipset Intel 945GM Express
Video Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950

Seems to be basic set-up of the computer, except the seller installed a SSD (hope it is a decent one).

What are the upgrades that are possible with this machine? Here is what I am looking at when I get the computer:

Getting 2 x 1gb ram.
Going to Lenovo site and making sure I have all updated drivers and patches installed.

What else can/should I do to get the best performance out of this machine? After reading a few threads it appears the processor cannot be upgraded, so is there anything else possible?

Thanks for your help! If there is already some good threads out there, please just post the links so I can review. Since I am new, I am sorry if this is one of those questions that has been asked a million times.

 

Not really much you can/should do. I would advise against upgrading it unless it somehow does not meet your needs. But in that case, it may be more worth it saving some money for a brand new X200 (which can be found for very, very low prices now).

 

I was pretty low on funds, and ended up getting this one for around $425. Hopefully did not pay too much, heck, probably did. It included the UltraBase, normal and slim adapter, and the SSD. If I could have gotten the x2000 for around that price, then I guess I should just shoot myself, hehe.

Oh well, I did not think there was much I could do, but I thought this would be the best place to ask.

 

if the system is in good condition then it sounds like you got a great deal.

skip the 2x1GB and consider replacing the 512MB module with a 2GB instead if you feel the need.   that would net you 3GB total for the about the same amount of money.

 

+1 on this.

You may also want to get a new battery. Launch power manager when you get it and see what % of design capacity you have left. If it's below 70% I'd suggest purchasing a new one. I've had good luck with CalCellular for low cost ThinkPad batteries in the past ( 4 cell, 8 cell).

 

I thought i read that the x60s could only handle 2gb of ram? Is this wrong? If so, then thank you for letting me know because I was about ready to bid on 2 x 1gb ram chips.

 

the X60/X60s can handle 3GB max.   you could install 4GB but only 3GB of it will be addressable regardless of OS.   the L2400 can't handle a 64-bit OS anyway so it doesn't really matter.

 

Thank you guys for that info! 2gb chip will be on its way shortly ;-)

 

SSD and RAM upgrade is as far as you can go. Though you have a expresscard slot so could consider a DIY ViDock: external desktop video card. With a HD5750 (Green) you could do some decent gaming I'd expect 3dmark06 > 7000.

 

nando4- That ViDock looks VERY interesting. Do you know know if I can set-up the ViDock to be permanently set-up with my IBM UltraDock? I guess I can see having my office set-up with the UltraDock and a larger monitor. WIth the outboard video card, I can then do some gaming with my laptop while at home. Any ideas?

 

The DIY ViDock is designed to work independently of additional docking stations.

- when connected to the expressport slot (preferrable) it provides a x1 1.0 pci-express slot AND a single USB port.
- when connected to the mPCIe port it's only a x1 1.0 pci-express slot.

If your ultradock has an expresscard or mPCie slot, then yes, it could be attached permanently. If not, then would need to plug into your expresscard or mPCIe slot when wanting to use. The expresscard slot method is very easy.

The performance difference over your onboard GMA945 is definitely worth the investment AND the DIY VIDOCK hardware can be reused in future notebook acquisitions.

Worth noting too, I recall reading on here someone who hacked a Lenovo docking station that had a pci-express slot already by using a pci-e extender cable, so perhaps the DIY Vidock hardware is not even necessary?

 

incorrect.   the X60 and X61 have a cardbus slot, not expresscard.   the solution you're suggesting won't work unless there's a cardbus version.

 

Ok. Apologies. My X60 search that yielded 'expresscard slot' was incorrect then. In which case, could try the mPCIe DIY ViDock as I am using with my 2510P. Warning: I needed to overcome bios whitelisting which I believe Lenovo have implemented as well, otherwise I would have had to swap in/out the mPCIe wifi on every reboot. I believe there are two sorts of mPCIe whitelisting:

- bios halting the boot process if an unknown mPCIe/pcie card is detected. Version 1.10 of the PM3N (mPCIe card) has a jumperable 6.9s delay so that no pcie card is show to the system on bootup.

- bios disabling the PCI port if no whitelist compatible mPCIe card found -> I overcame that with the whitelst.bat file in the DIY ViDock - My Experiences so far thread.

I believe the X60 could be made to work using a desktop video card. The DV2000 I tested is a similar vintage which worked using the mPCIe DIY ViDock setup. It has a T2050-1.6 CPU, GMA945 graphics and ICH7M I/O chipset. Worked fine in XP with 3GB of RAM. Worked in Windows 7 with 2.5GB of RAM (unless I used the XP drivers instead).

Any volunteers?

 

the mPCIe slot on the X60 is not accessible through the bottom of the laptop, you have to actually take off the keyboard, so your DIY ViDock wouldn't work.

 

So, just to be clear, it does not appear that the DIY ViDock would work with a x60s? I saw in the prior threads about installing it thought the bottom of the laptop, but that is not accessible in a x60s? Just want to verify if this is a viable option or not.

I was really hoping to find a way to have it installed in the UltraDock, but that does not seem to work, right? Because it does not have the correct slot in the dock?

 

it won't work in X60s, due to the inaccessible nature of the mPCIe slot.

 

I haven't seen how accessible the X60 mini pci-e slot is. If it's not readily accessible, a DIY VIDock *might* still be possible. How? By using a flat mini HDMI cable to attach the PM3N to the PE4L. Would mean the cable would be left dangling when unused. Really depends on whether that is an acceptable solution or not.

As to the ultradock, if it has a mini pci-e, expresscard or pci-e slot, then either of them could be adapted to host a desktop pci-e video card.

 

how would the hdmi cable work in this case, and no the ultrabase has no additional expansion capability other than a ultrabay slim slot.

 

The suggestion being to have the PM3N + flat mini HDMI cable permanently attached, threaded out under keyboard or some other point. The outer end would be connected on-demand to the PE4L hosting the desktop video card.

There could be variations of the idea. Ideally want some way of extending the not-readily inaccessible mini pci-e slot such that is does become an accessible.

 

that would require the case to be modded, which is not a good idea in a X60 thinkpad.