T4x board spec differences

[poshgeordie]

I've been trying to find out what's the specification differences between the "100's" of T40/1/2 &p FRU planar boards.

There are obvious differences with the Video chipsets across the ranges:

* 32MB ATI Mobility RADEON 7500
* 32MB ATI Mobility RADEON 9000
* 64MB ATI Mobility RADEON 9600
* 128MB ATI Mobility FIREGL T2

The FSB speed appears to be the same 400MHz and will take the Intel Pentium M CPU's from 1.5GHz to 2.1GHz

I've downloaded the T40/p T41/p T42/p Lenovo data sheets, and there doesn't seem to be that many differences.

Are there actually any other electronic or mechanical (contruction) differences?

I'm not including the T43/p since that's an entirely different board and specs.

I would like to try and put a list together with the FRU planar numbers and to document the differences between them.

[sktn77a]

Aside from the GPUs they were pretty much the same. The T41-on had the hard drive motion sensor and the later T42s has the fingerprint ssensor chip. Dothan compatibility with the T40 and T41 was handled by a BIOS update. There may have been some other changes - I'm sure others will chip in.

[RealBlackStuff]

Out of curiosity:
Do any of those boards support FSB 533MHz CPUs?
Are there any with integrated Intel graphics?

[underclocker]

Your list should also include the T40p motherboard;

* 64MB ATI Mobility FIREGL

(I've also seen reference to a 16MB version of the ATI Mobility 7500 board, but I'm not sure where it was sold - I do not think it was sold in the U.S.)

All the T40 & T40p mobos did not have the motion sensor as mentioned above. Additionally, they only supported PC2100 memory speeds (although they accepted memory certified to faster speeds) and their security chip was on a small daughter card (security chips for T41 and up were soldered to the mobos). T41's and up supported PC2700 memory speeds.

You can also add several of the R50/R51 board variants. The big difference there was that some had Firewire support.

All ATI-based T40/T41/T42/R50/R51 boards take the same BIOS and EC images.

From my conversations with Superior Reball, it seems that GPU's can actually be switched between boards. For instance, you could solder a 9600 GPU to a board that started as a 7500 GPU board. Something to think about if you wind up with a 7500 board with a loose GPU and a 9600 board with some other ailment, like burned resistors from a liquid spill or bad USB ports. You could upgrade the 7500 board by reballing it with the spare 9600 GPU.

Why so many part numbers? I suppose in addition to all the permutations of GPU's and changes from on board security chip/no security chip to memory bus speed to Firewire or not, there could be different manufacturers/different countries of manufacture and incremental design changes along the product life cycle.

[poshgeordie]

Good points there UC, and adds hugely to the permutations too.

@RBS - I've not the faintest idea on either!

I think I'll start a spreadsheet off with some FRU's down and see where it goes. Part of me wonders why I'm doing it, but then I like lists and statistics and the like...

If anyone's interested could they PM me the motherboard FRU (under the bottom memory slot) together with the TP type and model (2373-1AB), the graphics chip type, security chip fitted or on a daughter board, If they know an HDD sensor's fitted.

I'll add a link here when I've done something, and I'll change it's layout, columns etc etc as people suggest.

[sjthinkpader]

Gigabit ethernet started from T41.

[SaberX]

I belive the T40 rund the DDR ram at 400 bus.
Where as the T41/42 run's the DDR ram at 533 buss.

Even on system's useing 400fsb P-M's , the ram on T41/42's ran at 533.

[sktn77a]

Gigabit ethernet started from T41.

T40s were available with Gigabit ethernet but some models were available without it.

[poshgeordie]

I belive the T40 rund the DDR ram at 400 bus.
Where as the T41/42 run's the DDR ram at 533 buss.

Even on system's useing 400fsb P-M's , the ram on T41/42's ran at 533.

That's great - but I've not been able to find 'official' documentation to support this (I'm not doubting you for a second BTW!) but I'd like to see something from IBM Lenovo to back this up.

Are you thinking about the unofficial board mod which upped the fsb speed as in this post ?
Not sure if it counts here but it's an interesting idea and shows what can be done.

Thanks too for the gigabit ethernet SJ- This is an odd one coz according to the official specs, it's listed as an option for T40's (or is that T40p?) as well.

Network
10/100 Ethernet or 1Gb Ethernet installed on systems via the system board

Ah beaten to it!!

I can see this becoming complicated

[SaberX]

That's great - but I've not been able to find 'official' documentation to support this (I'm not doubting you for a second BTW!) but I'd like to see something from IBM Lenovo to back this up.

I may have been mistaken in my last post..Been awhile since i have my hands on a T41.
The T40 uses---PC2100 (DDR266)
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T40
The T41/42 uses ---PC2700 (DDR333)
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T41

So the ram in the T41/42 run's just a little faster.Even tho the T40 , T41 , T42's use the Banians P-M's at 400Mhz bus.And some with the Dothan P-M's.
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Intel_Pentium_M_(Banias)

[Paul Pennington]

Just wanted to make sure you were aware of this matrix on the Lenovo support site:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 46474.html

Scroll down to item #15 for the various flavors of system boards.

--Paul

[poshgeordie]

Paul

Now that looks very interesting indeed.

That list makes anything I want to do unnecessary, so maybe it's job done!




<EDIT> altered most of the text