Cedar234

update in case anyone cares, had successfully hackintoshed this machine. now it can play youtube with no issues, the subwoofer isn't supported via macOS so found a 3watt 2.1 miniamp on eBay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-5V-5W-Bass-2-1CH-3D-Surround-3W-2-Dual-Stereo-Power-Amplifier-Board-Mini-AMP/172837484141?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649 wired and soldered it all in there. the laptop sounds clearer, louder, runs way faster on macOS, sierra. and runs even cooler!

Well I couldn't get it to post. I removed the BSEL1 pin to make the mobo think its 800MHz but it didn't work. Oh well. The cooler is better by the way. Only by about 5°C so I won't really be over locking more than I have already. The plastic on this laptop isn't how I remembered either. I guess being 10? 11? Years old, it really made the plastic brittle. Lots of the screw mounting points and bushings are broken. Computer is falling apart. From sitting on a shelf for most of its life, not being used. Oh well. It was fun to tinker. Back to my i7 3615mq MacBook now.

Accidentally burned a hole in my bed haha but I think it looks good for my first time modding a cooling system like this. BTW dead mobo. Wouldn't do this on my working mobo

Time to have some fun before my Q9100 comes in the mail. My x9100 is here. Going to solder on a second heat pipe for better cooling and going to overclock it as much as I can. And don't worry about the crimps on the pipe. I heated it up so the pressure pushed the crimps out mostly. Pipe fully works still.

I went ahead and bought a Q9100 and a X9100 just to see what i can get working in this laptop. will post updates! (items in the mail now, china post)

I may just buy a quad core and slap it in and see if it just plain old works. cause i know with this toshiba, it definitely can power it because my x9000 cpu is running 24/7 at 3.8GHz 1.5v highest temp i ever see is 85C

Hi, I would like to ask for a little help as modifying this laptop is getting a little beyond me at this point. I have done countless hours of research into this laptop in trying to build it into my perfect computer. I know there's other options out there, but cost isn't an issue, time, or even cooling in the laptop. What I'd like to do is modify the motherboard/BIOS to support the Q9000 cpu. I've found that intel shows the pm965 chipset does not support anything further than the X9000 cpu, nor more than 4GB of ram. People online have reported that they were able to get 6gb and 8gb of ram to work without any modification. I have found this: https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=110620 and see how they have soldered a few wires here and there, insulated a few cpu pins, use throttlestop to get the second 2 cores at stock frequency. I do have the soldering skills needed, and am able to insulate pins needed but I really have no idea where or what to solder to since this is a toshiba, not a lenovo. So according to them, and quite a few success stories there, the pm965 chipset can support 1066MHz FSB and also 4 cores. So if I could get a little expert advice or maybe a bit of help on how to go about this, it would all be greatly appreciated. Also, power draw is not an issue. I am not interested in running or installing the SLI graphics cards in this laptop, I only have the 8700m 512mb. Cooling is not an issue as i've had the X7900 in this computer before and it did just fine. no alarming temperatures. I know I may need to add the Q9000 microcode into the bios, and I know that intel's specifications list that the pm965 only supports dual cores, but in the forum i linked to, displays that it very well could have been a limitation intel put into place for whatever reason. Also again, it's not about the money, I know I can just go out there and buy a better computer for less than I'm going to put into this laptop. But it's not about that. It's just a project I created for myself. I own much faster, newer, computers. I just want to see how much I can get out of this, hopefully very potential machine. Any comments telling me just "do not do it", will be ignored. I've already swapped out the LCD also, from a 1440x900 panel to a 1920x1200 panel. works flawlessly.

The thing that I liked most about this review is not only that Linus is being very honest with his reviews. (seriously, love it!) The fact that he doesn't miss any detail. The track pad, two handed thing is very important to me. Sometimes I like to use two hands on mine. I was curious about the added on subwoofer because I saw one at best buy and the reps there wouldn't let me try out the sound for whatever reason. Also love that Linus pointed out the brush aluminum back of the display, and palm-rest. Love that he pointed out the cooling performance about the computer also. See I use a macbook pro 15" mid 2010. I had to install this graphics switcher program because when I use the Nvidia graphics, rather than the Intel graphics, the computer gets too hot and uncomfortable for me to use. Let alone when the nvidia graphics are in use, I can get roughly one hour of battery life by just watching youtube videos. Where as using the intel graphics, the cooling is near silent. I get about 6 hours of battery life and I experience the same performance from youtube using either graphics. All in all, Great job Linus! You're doing grade A work in my opinion!