Lenovo T61 Core 2 Duo 1.8 (T7100) CPU upgrade path ??

I have a 2 month old Lenovo T61 Laptop Model #7659-11U running an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 (T7100) processor.

It was still dogging out after I bumped the RAM from 1GB to 2, so I downgraded from Vista (Yuk!!) back to old faithful XP Pro using the Lenovo factory downgrade disk set (8 in all).

The machine is still running pretty slow and I am considering upgrading the processor from the 1.8 to something faster like the T7800 with 2.6 GHz and 4MB L2 Cache. (http://tinyurl.com/3u7tzq )

My question is what compatibility factors do I need to consider when approaching this task? Is the T7800 2.6 a suitable replacement? Will I see an increase in performance?

I figure I call buy the proc for about $220 and might be able to sell my 1.8 for $80 - 100. If I can get improved performance will be worth not tearing my hair out.

Thanks

I just received my lenovo t500 with the p8600 cpu. it handles vista like a charm. i thought about reverting to xp too but the fact that MS already dropped its support for XP holds me back. what chipset is in your notebook? once you find out what chipset you have, you can go to intel.com and find out which cpu it supports.

ibm generally have pretty good cooling. Although you might consider staying within a 25w TDP cpu as it will use less battery juice and run a bit cooler.

So any Core 2 Duo with a 800mhz FSB should work. Lenovo only certifies up to 2.6 GHz (Which the T7800 is), though, so the best possible, procesor without going over spec is the T9500 (basically a 45nm T7800 with 2MB more cache, but costing about $200 more).

+2 Approval