Thinkpads Forum

See title.

570M 14.1" model please.

AFAIK, no Aug 08 14.1" T61 exist because they were simply not made after I believe early 2008. So, unfortunately, you may be asking to purchase a Unicorn.

You'll probably end up talking to TuuS or RBS with a request like this. If by 14.1", you mean a 4:3 T61 board, then you are really in for a hunting game, especially if you're after a Quadro FX 570M. As Cigarguy said- there aren't any all-original 4:3 T61s with a "good" NVIDIA chip.

When I talked to TuuS- he said he can definitely help, but for a FX 570M 4:3 T61 board, the best he can do is a well-tested pre-08/08 board. I don't know if he still has any NOS boards with the slightly less powerful, but still discrete, NVS 140M, but if he does, I would HIGHLY recommend this. It may not be a FX 570M, but it's still discrete graphics, and it will never roast itself to it's own demise.

There's also the dependable Intel-graphics boards, but I take it you're after discrete graphics.

Cigarguy wrote:AFAIK, no Aug 08 14.1" T61 exist because they were simply not made after I believe early 2008. So, unfortunately, you may be asking to purchase a Unicorn.

Agreed.

If one actually owned a *verifiable* Unicorn, the sky would be the limit price-wise.

The 'newest' 14.1" FX570M I converted into a FrankenPad, dated from 2008/07.
The 'newest' 14.1" NVS140M I have dates from 2010/11 (already reserved for a Frankie).
And nearly a dozen of 14.1" Intels, all dated 2008/08, fell into my hands. Most were turned into Frankies (only a few left, but all reserved as well).
Unless I get a cancellation, I'm afraid I have no such boards available.

Wow... really?

I knew these boards were incredibly sought after, but are they really that rare?

I guess I'm happy to have the boards I got from TuuS then... but geez. Not surprised.

I have spent years looking for these and came to the same conclusion as everyone else, they just don't exist. Lenovo did make some new replacement boards back in the 2009 era, but the supply was quickly exhausted and after years of checking every 4:3 unit that came into liquidation from corporations (literally thousands of laptops), I found only a couple that had one of these unicorn boards installed and only one of them was an FX570m, but I did hit the jackpot when finding a small quantity of the nvs140m boards in sealed original IBM boxes but they are nearly all gone but I did offer one of the remaining boards to the OP here. I believe these boards were supplied to a corporation by IBM in order to maintain a fleet of T61 models but many were not used. IBM/Lenovo repair had to switch to refurbished boards years ago because the supply of new boards was exhausted. You can still buy these boards from IBM, but they will be refurbished, not new. The refurbished boards can be recognised by a rectangle box (same as used on widescreen boards) and the new 4:3 boards had a square box, and the refurbished board will have an orange sticker that says "serviceable used part", but be careful as these can be removed.

Here are a couple photos of the NOS board in original IBM box.

http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/6181/11446686.jpg

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/5371/74708383.jpg

Note in the second photo that the end of the manual needs to be folded to fit in the NOS box, the refurb box doesn't need to be folded like this. The inside dimensions are about 10"x10" for NOS and 10"x12" for refurb boards.

All of the NOS boards I got have GPU chips from 2010 and most of the refurb boards have chips from 2007 or early 2008, but some rare ones have a 2011 date indicating the chip had been replaced.

I had another photo I took of one of the first boards I sold here in the forum that had a close up of the GPU chip on it and the image quickly became the #1 hit on google images when you search for one of these boards or even just an nVidia GPU, so imageshack deleted the file (excessive bandwidth). I guess this is a testimony to how rare these boards are.

I also have a few well tested nVidia boards both Merom and the rare Penryn models, all of which have undergone extensive stress testing as part of a seven day burn-in process while temps are monitored. If there are any signs of instability or temperature spikes the unit is rejected and sent back to liquidation. Naturally I can't be certain that a gpu will never fail, but I am reasonably confident that none of the boards I've sourced have had any repairs attempted on them or have any signs of impending failure.

I also have well tested boards with Intel Graphics including the much sought after 42w7872 with native penryn support. The reason these are so rare is that production of the 4:3 units had nearly come to an end when the Penryn cpu chip was released in January 2008 and of the models that were produced in 2008, few got Penryn cpu chips and of the ones that did, nearly all had nVidia graphics.

I recently got a couple rarities/oddities in regards to T61 4:3 models. One is an original Penryn machine with 2.4ghz and SXGA+. I'm considering rebuilding it since it's a rare combination, but the real oddity I came across was an 8895-2FU, a common model that usually has a merom board but I found one that the sticker indicated it was a 42w7873 (nVidia graphics), however it was really a 42w7872 (intel graphics). At first I thought someone swapped in a discrete board, but when I investigated closer I realized it was Intel and every sign indicated it was the original factory installed board, original tape used in routing the wires, original thermal paste type, matching serial numbers in bios and bottom label, and microscopic inspection of the screws indicated they hadn't been removed. I think it was just a case of someone at the factory sticking the wrong sticker on the board.

Happy Frankenpadding Everyone

TuuS wrote:I had another photo I took of one of the first boards I sold here in the forum that had a close up of the GPU chip on it and the image quickly became the #1 hit on google images when you search for one of these boards or even just an nVidia GPU, so imageshack deleted the file (excessive bandwidth).

Are you telling me that popular files vanish from Internet?

I have a copy saved in my computer. I uploaded it here:
http://i.imgur.com/blOlRN3.jpg

You can update the post with the planar photo using the link above.

Thanks PowerPC, that's great. I was looking for the original and not sure where I put it.

Yes, most file host sites will delete the photos that use most of their bandwidth and it seems that picture got lots of views.

So what's the status?

I have a client who *might* be retiring a couple of later-models T61p (4:3) units reasonably soon...

I have a machine for sale, with the 15.4" WS mobo. It sits in a modified T60P 14.1" body. You can send me a PM if you want to buy it, or want to do the modification yourself. Then i can assist you