[ltp] T60 or T61?

[Paul Seelig]

A T60 usually offers the best screen options, thanks to in later 
Thinkpads unavailable IPS/Flexview display options. Unfortunately, T60's 
are hardware-capped to a maximum of 3GB of RAM, and 64bit-capable 
Core2Duo CPU's like the T7200 are therefore rather limited in the 
theoretically available memory space. Furthermore, the T60 varieties 
offering discrete video GPU's tend to run rather hot and become quite 
noisy due to permanently busy cooling fans. The Intel GPU equipped T60's 
are very cool running and quiet, but the graphic capabilities are a bit 
at the low end side, while still good enough for office stuff.

The T61 has a more modern chipset which allows for up to 8GB of RAM 
usage and some very nice CPU options. Unfortunately, there are only 
comparatively mediocre screen options available since this generation. 
Adding insult to injury, all T61(p)'s built before August 2008 with a 
nVIDIA GPU could possibly fail due to a production fault on nVIDIA's 
behalf (bad soldering matrials). One might be lucky, but the so called 
nVIDIA bug is one of the most common defects for these machines, and 
only a mainboard replacement can remedy this. The Intel GPU variants of 
the T61 don't show any issues and run quite nicely, offering much more 
performance than their T60 counterpart.

So you can see that each T6x encarnation has it's own weakness and 
strength. I'd choose a T61 just because of the better RAM and CPU 
options, but the IPS display of a T60 would be sorely missed.

My prefered machine is actually a 15.1" T60 with a new BOE Hydis UXGA 
IPS/Flexview screen from the outside, and with a 14.1" T61 mainboard 
equipped with a T9300 CPU and 8GB RAM inside. Of course I had to build 
that machine myself from parts which i bought via eBay and other 
sources, bcause Lenovo never offered such a gem. I usually refer to it 
as a T61+ as it is in first place a T61 with the added benefit of a BOE 
Hydis UXGA IPS/Flexview display within a 15.1" T60 chassis. Building it 
was not really cheap as both a T60 and a T61 donor machine are needed. 
But as the old T60 mainboard can be swapped into the T61 chassis, two 
perfectly working machines were the result.

There is plenty of good information available about how to assemble such 
a wonderful machine, and interested people should take a closer look at 
these resources for further details:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=68248

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=51632

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=74413

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?p=536550#p536550 says:
"The PC card connector on the T61 motherboard is female where the T60
motherboard it's male. Need the PC card cage from the T61."

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?p=616799#p616799

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?p=620807#p620807
(great description with fotos!)

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?p=555899#p555899

Some people even bother to add a SSD drive on top, but this was no 
option for me due to the still too high costs per GB of storage.

I am currently waiting for the arrival of some parts to assemble my 
third T61+ machine, which will eventually end up for sale at a premium 
price on eBay or similar channel.

Good luck
Paul

On 10/31/2011 12:50 PM, Timothy Murphy wrote:
> I have a Thinkpad T60 (with large screen) which I am very happy with.
> I am thinking of getting another (second-hand) T60 or T61,
> and am wondering which is better for the Linux user?
>
> I'd normally go for the T61, but I've seen a number of postings
> in various forums suggesting that it is likely to be more troublesome
> than a T60.
>
> Any advice or suggestions welcome.
>