keep x301 or buy x1 ?

Keep the X301, definitely!

 

A thread from the dead.

Yo Dondino, do you have a link to the X301 Ultrabay hard drive adapter that you are using?

I just bought another X301 and it will be here next week.

 

I keep looking at these on Ebay. I like the 16:10 aspect ratio, WXGA+ display and great keyboard.

 

Hi Thors!
just search "X301 caddy" on ebay, and it will open a world for you
there are a few different options... but they are all the same, just branded differently!

EDIT: it seems that actually there are no more available... of these caddys. Search for the auction # 170757537943, that is the one I bought in the past.
There it says the seller is away till the end of the month, I think that from February you can buy it again.

 

Every time discussion about the X301 comes up I start checking prices. X(

 

Thanks. I have it bookmarked. I just bought the X301 so I will wait for it's arrival before I start buying goodies to go with it.

 

Using the steps outlined here should get your X301 idling at 4.6-5.2W. That's what I get a L9600-2.13 2530P doing. A DC Optimized 2560P with Sandy Bridge cpu gets slightly more battery life for the same web surfing activities.

Suggest someone FSLx PLL pinmod their X301 from 200->266 MHZ (SU9400-1.4 to 1.86, SU9600-1.6 to 2.13) like shown in http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...verclocking-methods-examples.html#post4998927 .

If can disable EIST via a modded bios, then can run dual-IDA and gain another 200Mhz (or 266Mhz if PLL pinmod overclocked).

Word about the X301 caddy

A X300/X301 uses a PATA optical drive so the caddy too is PATA. Meaning there's a sata-to-pata bridge chip which will add an extra 0.7-1W overhead to your idle power consumption. If battery life is important to you then consider adding a power kill switch to the front of the caddy and only switch it on when needed.

Extreme modders might want to track down the pata-to-sata bridge chip Lenovo added and wire directly to the sata lines. Lenovo added such a chip so they could use the thin 7mm PATA optical drive in a ICH9M-equipped X301, an I/O chip that doesn't include a PATA interface.

 

Hey nando4, thanks for all these useful infos!
when are you going to buy one X301 and start "extreme" experimental modding?

 

Looking at the schematic snippet here tells us a X301 uses a ICS 9LPRS393AKLFT, a number not too far from the ICS 9LPRS397DKLF used in a 2530P so it would be feasible to TME-unlcok it and program the PLL using setPLL OR to hardwire it from 200 to 266Mhz operation. Ref: 2530P PLL pinmod here.

If Lenovo did a switcharoo and used a SLG PLL instead then it may be similar to the Dell E4300 pinmod I did here.

I'm a big fan of a similar gen HP 2530P (small, 16:10 LCD, great keyboard, awesome battery life) so I can see why X301 owners would want to extend their performance to keep their X301's relevant. Glad to accept a low grade X301 (scratched, etc) to do such mods on if someone is prepared to donate a shipped one to Australia.

 

Check out this X301. Metal-flake blue. See Lenovo ThinkPad X301 Ultraportable Laptop @LOOK@ (008843433528) | eBay