Thinkpads Forum

I just built a T60/T61 hybrid with a UXGA Flexview screen. I'm very satisfied with it for the moment and will probably leave well enough alone for a while, unless somebody tells me where to find a QXGA panel for less than $400. It did get me thinking though.

Is there any possibility of connecting a new model Thinkpad motherboard to an older high-resolution 4:3 panel? It obviously wouldn't fit in to any existing chassis; I'm just asking about electrical compatibility and whether the BIOS would freak out.

The BIOS would not freak out although you'd likely have to build a custom cable for some of the latest machines...

With IPS laptop panels making a comeback over the past year or so, there will eventually (hopefully) be a screen that will be a good retro-fit for a W520 which is all I ask for...

Yes, I prefer the 4:3 format myself but it's not coming back anytime soon...

Making a cable doesn't sound any worse than making a chassis. I think I know what I'll be building at my local hackerspace in a couple years when I'm finally unable to get by with 8gb of memory.

I was kind of thinking along the same lines, Zak, but I don't have the resources or skill to make it happen . With recent advances in small-scale 3d printing it seems like it should be at least *plausible* to whip up a base for, say, a T400 in the old T60/T61 4:3 style. You'd have to spend a lot of time with a micrometer, but I'm sure it could be done. You might need to sacrifice the ultrabay if the newer motherboards are too wide, but that wouldn't be the end of the world.

Barring that, maybe milling one out of a chunk of acrylic with a CNC machine would be better.

I was thinking of something like a W530 motherboard in a custom aluminum chassis with a 15" QXGA panel. I'm imagining the base being made of of three pieces of thick sheet aluminum. The middle one would have a large area cut out for the motherboard. The top would have an area cut out for the keyboard. I wouldn't even try to retain the ultrabay, but I might try for two hard drive bays. Google image search comes up with this for a W530 motherboard. It's the full width of the base, which would make the resulting machine a bit bulky. It might be worthwhile for a full megapixel more resolution though.

Hmmm... I'm not familiar with those, but I'm wondering if it would be possible to cut off that section on the bottom right. Sure you'd lose a couple odds and ends, but nothing critical, and then you could make the form factor a bit closer to what it should be.

Cutting PCBs is usually bad. There are multiple layers of circuits running through them, and you might cut a circuit related to something other than the piece you're cutting off.

Agreed... would take some investigation. Sometimes you *can* get away with it, though.