Upgrading x60 for fun. Have a few questions.

[Whheat]

I got an excellent condition x60 for <$10 at a thrift store. I wanna upgrade a lot of the internals, I currently have a small list.

8gb ddr2 ram
Led IPS Display
Done-USB C
Wifi card/bluetooth Intel 6205 and Atheros 9380
Ptm 7950
C2D P9700 2.8 ghz upgrade
New Battery
128gb sata ssd

I will be BGA soldering the P9700 onto an x61 board so that I’ll have the highest possible performance without using an X62 or X63 while maintaining cooler thermals because of the 25w tdp, aided by the PTM 7950 thermal pad. I’m aware of all the bios editing, I actually find it enjoyable. I have a usb-C charge port on the way and will be installing it soon. The Ram I’ll be on the lookout for a good deal for. Which WiFi card would be best? I’m aware of how hot the original gets. I wanna install Arch with XFCE on this machine and use it for writing/coding for school and work with some light media playing and web browsing mixed in. I’m in love with the form factor and it’s from my all time favorite era of tech. So is there any other upgrades I may wanna make? Any tips? Anyone have a good source for a display upgrade? I currently have a TFT. I recognize that this will run me a decent chunk of change and a fairly large amount of time. The only other option was an x62 mobo but at that point I’m better off buying a new laptop. I would love to have one, and it’ll always be something I look for, but unless I can get an outstanding deal or get lucky somewhere I probably won’t be getting one as their rarity and price makes them difficult to obtain. Thanks for reading my ramblings, just wanted to seek help from the professionals.

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the forum.

Best/fastest wifi/BT card would probably be the AX200 in mini-PCIe format, such as this AX3000

Add to your wishlist: Middleton's BIOS.

[mikemex]

Best/fastest wifi/BT card would probably be the AX200 in mini-PCIe format, such as this AX3000

Keep in mind that older machines such as the X60 run on PCI Express 1.0/1.1 and will not have enough bus bandwidth to properly operate at the card's intended speed.

[axur-delmeria]

Keep in mind that older machines such as the X60 run on PCI Express 1.0/1.1 and will not have enough bus bandwidth to properly operate at the card's intended speed.

PCI Express 1.0/1.1 x1 maxes out at 250 megabytes/sec, around 2.5 gigabit LAN speed. With most WiFi 6E cards having 2 antennas (2T2R), the max theoretical bandwidth is around 2.4 gigabits/sec. Actual network throughput will be much lower though.

[TPFanatic]

Kevin trade shop on aliexpress sells led converted sxga lcds. I’m not affiliated and haven’t bought from them.

DIY for IBM X60T X61T X61 X60 X61S 12.1" AFFS wide-angle high resolution LCD screen HV121P01 1400*1050 SXGA+ CCFL or Upgrade LED
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mMmo3DY

[Hifumin]

I bought this RAM sticks and they work fine. I was very surprised at the price because I was looking for 4gb sticks some years ago and they were like $50 each, but now I got both for almost half that.

[stanleylieber]

Kevin trade shop on aliexpress sells led converted sxga lcds. I’m not affiliated and haven’t bought from them.

DIY for IBM X60T X61T X61 X60 X61S 12.1" AFFS wide-angle high resolution LCD screen HV121P01 1400*1050 SXGA+ CCFL or Upgrade LED
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mMmo3DY

i bought one of these for my x61 tablet and they sent me a screen with the non-tablet inverter board, so i haven't been able to try it out. so far no response from my query on aliexpress.

[Gonzaleitor]

I bought this RAM sticks and they work fine. I was very surprised at the price because I was looking for 4gb sticks some years ago and they were like $50 each, but now I got both for almost half that.

They are pretty cheap! I don't know if the upgrade of my T61 with T9300 would be worth it.

[ankurvdesai]

Curious where you came upon this one? Was the thrift store in the Birmingham area? I have been checking around in the New York and DC areas without luck so far.