So I sort of want to try swapping a T61p mobo into my T60p so that I can keep the beautiful IPS screen and 4:3 aspect ratio (I just hate wide screens!). If I am going to do it, I want to go all-out. From reading around, it looks like my best bet is FRU 42W7874 (14.1" T61p mobo with FX570M GPU) with a GPU dated after August 2008, an X9000 CPU, T500 heat sink the SSD that I currently have in my T60p and the Middleton BIOS so that I can take better advantage of the SSD. Does that all sound correct? Some statistic on here said that only 1% of the pre-08/08 nVidia GPUs were failing, but it sounds like a ton of people on here had failures. Also, it sounds like I need to purchase the T61p PC card housing too...any one in particular, or will any do?

I am not scared of making a few mods to the T60 chassis (sounds like you just need to grind down a screw post or two), and overall the swap is pretty easy. Anyone have special advice for me, or should I start making plans to do this? Anyone got a late-model 42W7874 motherboard for sale?

Thanks everyone!

First of all, good luck finding such a planar.

I have yet to see one with a 08/08 date code.

Do you mean that there were few or none produced after then? I don't need one produced ON 08/08, just AFTER then. I have seen a couple here and there, and can ask for seller for the date code that is etched on the GPU die, since that it what really matters.

You're wrong on both aspects.

08/08 is deemed safe.

The number etched on the GPU itself means nothing. The market has been saturated with counterfeit chips some time ago...

Hmm...

Yes, from reading around on here it does sound like there are tons of counterfeits floating around out there. Many people seem to indicate that if the date code is 2011 or later, then the chi is likely a forgery. I'd assume that the dishonest people doing it would have wised-up and started putting 08/08 codes on them? Or is an 08/08 dated one basically the only safe one out there? At this point, is it sort of assumed that all T61p motherboards with nVidia GPUs that are on the market are counterfeit "new" ones?

The only reason I am after this particular one is that it has native support of Penryn processors. It sounds like it is easy to make a Merom mobo FUNCTION with a Penrym CPU, and that the only draw-back is that the temperature sensor won't give proper readings. Is that correct?

I haven't toyed much with nVidia-based boards, but Merom-spec'd Intel boards seem to give pretty accurate temp readings once Middleton's BIOS is applied. I've ran T9x00 CPUs with no issues...YMMV.

Personally, if I were shopping for a nVidia board with a FrankenPad project in mind, I'd be buying an entire machine and burning the living daylight out of it prior to pulling the planar out. Buying just the board would not be my course of action...

Lastly, if you don't feel like putting a Penryn on a Merom board, X7900 is a Merom-based CPU and it's pretty darn wicked no matter where one went to school...

Happy hunting.

That's good to know, thank you. It is nice to know that I don't NEED a Penryn-specific mobo, because there is only one on eBay and for sale from Shenzhen. I go there regularly for business (am there right now actually) and yeah, I wouldn't trust a d**n thing out of this place. I purchased a re-pinned T7600 from some seller here years ago, and it died about 16 months later. The next one was a genuine one. Anyway, I will be on the look-out for FRU 42W7650, sold in North America and will need to confirm the date code on the GPU.

When you say, "burning the living daylight out of it" do you mean running CPU/CPU stress cycling on it to make sure that it isn't going to poop out? When they failed, was it a case of something breaking and the machine never working again, or would it heat up and cease to function until it was rebooted and cooled? I had a T61p at work with the NVS140 GPU, and it would cease outputting video signals when it got hot, but work fine once I let it cool down.

On a side note, I have access to all sorts of reflow equipment and stuff. I wonder if I could pop the GPU RAM chips from a widescreen T61p and put them on the 14.1" motherboard to get myself 256MB (or did the widescreen one have 2x the number of chips, as opposed to larger capacity ones?). Then again, maybe it is better to repeat the old adage of, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

There's a save alternative: contact forum member TuuS, he has tested T61 nVidia motherboards.
I would buy from him in a heartbeat.