Pentium Iii Upgrades

Lenovo's X120e and AMD's Brazos Platform

I bought my X120e back in March of 2011. That makes me what most people would probably call an early adopter. I saw the Brazos previews in November, and decided that I really couldn’t put up with my decrepit Pentium M based ultra-portable laptop any more. I wanted graphics; and a chip that would allow me to play Battlefield 2 seemed like the perfect upgrade from an Intel graphics chipset that didn’t have drivers for Windows 7. I wanted battery life; my five year old laptop lasted about three hours on a good day when I surfed the web in Chrome and took notes on lectures in OpenOffice. The battery just barely held in there long enough to make it though all of my classes, which is why a laptop with five plus hours of battery life seemed so attractive. I wanted a small form factor, my old laptop had a 10.1” screen, which made it a little bit smaller than my math text book. The X120 offers a 11.6” screen, which is still about the size of a text book. I also wanted the nicest keyboard I could get for the lowest price possible. My old ultra-portable had a less than usable keyboard, if it wasn’t me hitting two keys at once with my rather large fingers, it was the extremely sticky keys getting jammed into the keyboard. I couldn’t stand it.

As a college student price was a major concern. When the X120e had been initially announced at a price of $399 I was extremely pleased. Unfortunately, Lenovo plays the same game that all of the major laptop OEM’s do. So while I was expecting a X120e with 4GB of RAM, a 6-Cell battery, and an E-350 under the hood, what Lenovo was actually offering for $399 was a step down in all of those dimensions. Still an X120e with 2GB or RAM, a 3-Cell battery, and an E-240 is a more compelling platform that one of ASUS’s Atom and Ion based Eee PC’s. But at the time of my purchase I was heavily interested in HP’s version of AMD’s Brazos platform. The HP dm1z came with an E-350, 3GB of RAM, and an ever so slightly longer battery life than the X120e. But the X120e won out due to two major factors, the keyboard, and the build quality.

Lenovo’s Thinkpad line has always had well received keyboards with the exception of some reviewers disliking the landmark red Tracpoint joystick and touch-pad configuration. The X120e ‘s keyboard is particularly good. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it the best keyboard in the 11.6” class, but it’s without a doubt the best keyboard on any Brazos or Atom based system on the market. With generous keys that are about the width of a USB flash drive, dual shift and control, and a dedicated function key, the X120e’s keyboard has the kind of quality that all of it’s competitors should be trying to achieve.

cpu - Can I upgrade my Soltek sl-67a-c motherboard from Pentium II ...

I have a Pentium III processor and I thought I would replace the Pentium II on my Soltek SL-67A-C. The motherboard has Slot 1 so the PIII fits in fine, however, when I turn on the computer the bios does not come up.

Here's the link to some specs on the board: http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/F/FLASH-TECH-INC-Pentium-II-Deschutes-SL-67A-C.html

I know that I updated the bios at one time. I see references to a "67af3.zip" bios upgrade file out there but can't find any source to download it.

I am thinking I may have to adjust the jumpers on the motherboard to match the speed of the processor, but I am not sure how to go about that.

Any suggestions?

EDITED: I guess another name for the motherboard is Intel 82440LX

The Wikipedia article DOES mention the Pentium II and III options run at different FSBs. However, without the manual (or some very careful peering at the motherboard) it will be rather hard to tell what you can do about it.

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