CPU Buying Guide - bibanon/Coreboot-ThinkPads GitHub Wiki
CPUs
As long as the CPU has been kept cool throughout it's lifetime, it should be ok
- T5500/5600 with 2MB L2 cache
- T5600 costs $6 on average, and is the best low cost option. However, the T7200 adds 2MB of L2 cache, which seriously helps with performance. It's not worth penny pinching on.
- T7200/7400/7600 with 4MB L2 cache.
- T7200 costs $14 on average and is most cost effective.
- The performance difference between the T7200 and T7600 is marginal, yet the T7600 is rarer and costs $45 on average. Save that money for an SSD.