Thinkpads Forum

1st batch is for sale right now. Check 51nb.com

andykrej wrote:1st batch is for sale right now. Check 51nb.com

Is it true or it is 1st april's joke???
And the main question - how to get it from outside of China???

andykrej wrote:1st batch is for sale right now. Check 51nb.com

I checked it out with translation, nothing specific, only that it's on sale now. I would be really interested, but it seems way to dodgy, nothing specific, no information who to contact and how, no info about shipping, no pictures, no video, nothing. It's almost like they don't want to sell their product. They sure need some training in marketing as this is not the way to sell your stuff.

I have been waiting for this for months now, but I just can't take the risk with this attitude they display. It's a real shame, and I don't think they realise just how much business they loose because of their lack of info and accessability.

And the main question - how to get it from outside of China???

I ordered the X62 last year, and it worked out pretty well. I used an agent called tiptrans. You pay to tiptrans, and they buy the goods for you and ship it.

I think you can expect some quirks. On the whole im very happy with mine.

Do you have more details on using tiptrans? Do I just purchase on wedian then have it shipped to the tiptrans address? Or is it easier to use the Assisted Purchase option?

e: I did it using the assisted purchase option. $658 USD before shipping is pretty steep, but I guess that is the price of an i7-7700 HQ processor on a custom motherboard. Supposedly only ~20 T70 have been purchased. HOPE needs my help! I'm so glad to be a part of this.

For more details:

I made a free account on tiptrans then went to the Assisted Purchase tab and clicked on e-shop order. That cost about $5 plus paypal fee if you use paypal. When you do the purchase they ask for a link to the item, how much it costs in CNY (chinese yuan), and a description of the item. I just went with "Green custom laptop motherboard compatible with Lenovo Thinkpad T60 and T61 laptops. It is called T70 and mass produced by 51nb.com, comes with i7-7700HQ processor, CM236 chipset, and T500 fan." And I titled it "T70".

They charge you a purchase fee of roughly 5%, so I had to pay $33 on top of the 4500 CNY ($653). I will probably also have to pay around $40 of DHL shipping to the US once the order is shipped to the tiptrans warehouse. So approximately $730 will be paid in the end. It is a steep price, and couldn't have come at a worse time for me financially. But I really love my T601F and I want to use it as long as I can.

Would you be able to provide a link to where the motherboard is sold on 51nb's website? I searched, but I can't find where this motherboard is being sold.

Link to the store: https://weidian.com/?userid=387855275&w ... itemdetail

First part sold

Google translate

T70 production of the first batch of shipping messages and the second batch of sale notice
Time: 2017-04-28 20:22:32 Source: 51nb Author:

As of this afternoon, T70 first batch of production motherboards all shipped to complete, including the T70 motherboard package (with deck heat sink), fan and optical drive to extend the small board.
At the same time, with the cooperation of producers to communicate, T70 second volume production board specifications and prices are also determined, scheduled for May 1 at 12 noon on sale. Relative to the first batch of production board improved as follows:
1, adjust the M.2 slot position to facilitate the installation of M.2.
2, replace the chip to restore the standby recovery speaker abnormal sound.
3, adjust the PL12 position, so do not trim the right USB cable frame.
4, some other fine tuning and optimization. The second batch of production motherboard prices are as follows:

I7-7700HQ: 3599 yuan (4 core 8 threads, 32K +32 K + 256K +6 MB), the number of 40.
I5-7300HQ: 3099 yuan (4 nuclear 4 threads, 32K +32 K + 256K +6 MB), the number of 45

i5 option is nice..

Does anyone know if a ultrabay battery will work properly with this motherboard?

Sorry for ignorance, I have been lurking for a while on this ; has anyone ever bought from 51nb? Is there still an order link for any of their laptop offerings, or is it in very short supply? I have been looking to upgrade for a while and it seems like the other retro thinkpad project is not going anywhere...

I wonder if this will help get the wheels rolling on Lenovo's ThinkPad retro project. I wonder if they will do a Cease & Desist form on Hope/51nb...

murak wrote: ↑

Tue May 16, 2017 6:19 am

i5 option is nice..

Does anyone know if a ultrabay battery will work properly with this motherboard?

Definitely not. Look at a T6x board and you will see three connectors directing to the ultrabay: Battery port (identical to the one for the primary battery), serial port (for the ultrabay serial adapter) and PATA. Now look at the picture of the T70 board: You will see a SATA slimline connector in place of the PATA connector and empty space where the others used to be.

sona1111 wrote: ↑

Sat May 27, 2017 5:30 pm

Sorry for ignorance, I have been lurking for a while on this ; has anyone ever bought from 51nb? Is there still an order link for any of their laptop offerings, or is it in very short supply? I have been looking to upgrade for a while and it seems like the other retro thinkpad project is not going anywhere...

the easiest way is to contact Jacky via the "lcdfans" facebook page, he can tell you whether there are still boards or barebones from the 4th batch available. They published an offer for a used complete laptop (2nd batch X62), too.

Saucey wrote: ↑

Sat May 27, 2017 5:51 pm

I wonder if this will help get the wheels rolling on Lenovo's ThinkPad retro project. I wonder if they will do a Cease & Desist form on Hope/51nb...

There are rumors that the retro thinkpad will be based on the T470, but the details are somewhat lost in translation. Maybe someone fluent in chinese can elaborate.

If that T25/Retro indeed is based on a T470 then Lenovo has botched the Retro (as expected ).
Nobody wants an effing 16:9 with a "classic" keyboard!

Basically a T470 with a retro keyboard offers speed, new ports, better battery, and less weight over T420s and T430s.

While this is insanely cool, I don't see the point in mid 2017.

I received the T70 motherboard today. I'll give a report once I've had a chance to assemble everything.

Seggybop wrote: ↑

Wed May 31, 2017 12:19 am

I received the T70 motherboard today. I'll give a report once I've had a chance to assemble everything.

Nice! Pictures?

Seggybop wrote: ↑

Wed May 31, 2017 12:19 am

I received the T70 motherboard today. I'll give a report once I've had a chance to assemble everything.

It was the first batch right? Could you find load temps after assembly?

Well, it took almost all day, but I successfully put the T70 together.

Here are some pictures with commentary.

This is from the first batch. I wanted to order one right away because it was uncertain if future runs would still use the CM236 chipset like the first one, or downgrade to HM170 with 4 fewer PCI-E lanes. The reduced lane count would mean either only 1 M.2 slot instead of 2, or 2 slots at x2 (half speed) instead of x4.
It turned out that not only is the second run still using CM236, but they also were able to offer some faster 7820HQ CPUs instead of only the 7700HQ. Kind of a bummer as I would have liked to get the best CPU possible, but in reality the differences between them are miniscule.

mochiman123 wrote: ↑

Wed May 31, 2017 11:41 am

It was the first batch right? Could you find load temps after assembly?

I haven't had any time to really test yet but I did run the OCCT stress test to check the temperature, and it was really good that I did. It almost instantaneously hit OCCT's default 85 degree safety limit and terminated the test, reporting it'd reached a max temperature of 95. To check the limit I changed the safety threshold to 100 and ran the test again, and this time the computer actually SHUT OFF after a few seconds. I haven't seen a computer actually shut itself down from overheating in years-- normally you expect them to throttle until they reach a safe level and keep going. This thing kept plowing, maintaining max turbo frequency, until it apparently hit the BIOS emergency temperature of 119. So, this is a problem.

This is exacerbated by the system being unable to report fan speed, like with X62. We do have one improvement, though. The BIOS seems to have the option to set 3 temperature/fan speed ratios, with the speed denoted in %. I haven't tested it yet so I'm not sure if it's actually working.

Very nice! Thank you for the pictures! Hope the rising temp issue will be solved (sounds like a software thing anyway) Cheers!

Seggybop wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 01, 2017 12:49 am

I haven't had any time to really test yet but I did run the OCCT stress test to check the temperature, and it was really good that I did. It almost instantaneously hit OCCT's default 85 degree safety limit and terminated the test, reporting it'd reached a max temperature of 95. To check the limit I changed the safety threshold to 100 and ran the test again, and this time the computer actually SHUT OFF after a few seconds. I haven't seen a computer actually shut itself down from overheating in years-- normally you expect them to throttle until they reach a safe level and keep going. This thing kept plowing, maintaining max turbo frequency, until it apparently hit the BIOS emergency temperature of 119. So, this is a problem.

This is exacerbated by the system being unable to report fan speed, like with X62. We do have one improvement, though. The BIOS seems to have the option to set 3 temperature/fan speed ratios, with the speed denoted in %. I haven't tested it yet so I'm not sure if it's actually working.

Thanks so much for the info! I have a 7820HQ motherboard ordered, hopefully going to ship early june. With temps like those, it may have been a better idea to stick with the 7700hq ;o; Was assembly difficult? Is there a guide for it?

official instructions from HOPE: https://forum.51nb.com/forum.php?mod=vi ... id=1740104
alternate instructions from user aq5200: https://forum.51nb.com/forum.php?mod=vi ... id=1748342

Main plan (15"): completely disassemble T60 to the point of removing the motherboard as per original Lenovo manual. Modify the frame (I mostly did what aq5200 showed, except I thinned the area with the inductors instead of cutting it out). I suggest seeing if you can get away with thinning instead of totally cutting as described. Attach board to frame (make sure to connect the ultrabay SATA extension first if applicable). Part of the plastic channel for the USB cable along the top needs to be cut as described by aq5200. CPU HSF backplate needs to have insulation added before attaching to the board. HOPE shows screwing on the heatsink before screwing the board to the frame, probably to account for imperfection in the screw hole layout. One boss on the plastic bottom cover closest to the audio jacks needs to be ground down so it doesn't touch the jack solder points on the board. Three of the screws that normally go in from the bottom of the case are no longer used, including the one that would have gone in that hole.

The T70 board only accepts full-length wifi cards, so I had to make an extension adapter to install a half-length one. Also, only one antenna cable could reach the new wifi card location (originally wwan). Some users spliced together ufl extension cables but my limited knowledge of RF design tells me that's not the best plan. So far the single antenna is fine.

Other than that, you should be able to follow the regular Lenovo HMM.

Nice to see a board in the wild. I'm still waiting for mine.

Seggybop wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 01, 2017 12:49 am

This is from the first batch. I wanted to order one right away because it was uncertain if future runs would still use the CM236 chipset like the first one, or downgrade to HM170 with 4 fewer PCI-E lanes. The reduced lane count would mean either only 1 M.2 slot instead of 2, or 2 slots at x2 (half speed) instead of x4.
It turned out that not only is the second run still using CM236, but they also were able to offer some faster 7820HQ CPUs instead of only the 7700HQ. Kind of a bummer as I would have liked to get the best CPU possible, but in reality the differences between them are miniscule.

Exactly my thoughts and exactly what I did. Concerning the temperature problems: I think, I read something about BIOS-updates on 51nb.com, I'd try those first.

Seggybop wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 01, 2017 6:18 am

official instructions from HOPE: https://forum.51nb.com/forum.php?mod=vi ... id=1740104
alternate instructions from user aq5200: https://forum.51nb.com/forum.php?mod=vi ... id=1748342

Main plan (15"): completely disassemble T60 to the point of removing the motherboard as per original Lenovo manual. Modify the frame (I mostly did what aq5200 showed, except I thinned the area with the inductors instead of cutting it out). I suggest seeing if you can get away with thinning instead of totally cutting as described. Attach board to frame (make sure to connect the ultrabay SATA extension first if applicable). Part of the plastic channel for the USB cable along the top needs to be cut as described by aq5200. CPU HSF backplate needs to have insulation added before attaching to the board. HOPE shows screwing on the heatsink before screwing the board to the frame, probably to account for imperfection in the screw hole layout. One boss on the plastic bottom cover closest to the audio jacks needs to be ground down so it doesn't touch the jack solder points on the board. Three of the screws that normally go in from the bottom of the case are no longer used, including the one that would have gone in that hole.

The T70 board only accepts full-length wifi cards, so I had to make an extension adapter to install a half-length one. Also, only one antenna cable could reach the new wifi card location (originally wwan). Some users spliced together ufl extension cables but my limited knowledge of RF design tells me that's not the best plan. So far the single antenna is fine.

Other than that, you should be able to follow the regular Lenovo HMM.

Look behind the display. On my 14" 4:3 T61, the WiFi antenna cables follow a curved path in the frame, changing that to a straight path could be sufficient to reach the new mPCIe slot (maybe even an M.2 slot for newer cards).

Unfortunately, you have to be logged in to see big pictures of the instructions. Thus, I haven't seen the 14" instructions in detail yet. You can see aq5200's 15" instructions with big pictures here: google translated
(someone else on the German forum found this link, I don't know how he did it)

I forgot you had to be logged in. Here are the posts exported as PDFs.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwrlfU ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwrlfU ... sp=sharing

I'll try your suggestion about the wifi cable. I have to take the LCD housing apart anyway to install a QXGA screen that should be coming soon.

Thanks for the PDFs! Would you mind to export the 14" instructions, too?

I'm still searching for an UXGA screen for mine but that seems to be pretty unobtainable these days.

This is all I could find for 14" specifically:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwrlfU ... sp=sharing

I got the QXGA display today, but I haven't been able to get it to work yet. It seems to be detected (observing from external monitor) and the backlight comes on, but the image stays black. Supposedly the EDID flash isn't necessary with T70, but I might try anyway. I also don't have a good way of verifying if the screen is working to begin with =/

Thank you! Good luck with your screen!

QXGA screen is working now. In case anyone needs a solution for this later, the EDID needs to be flashed the same as if you are using the display with a regular T60 (same procedure applies). I thought I had read somewhere on 51nb that it wasn't necessary, but I must have misunderstood.

Wow! 51nb is beyond overdoing it for IBM ThinkPads! I know that they are really passionate for IBM ThinkPads but for them to squeeze in an Intel Core i7 into a modified T60 motherboard is amazing... I mean that is just like saying putting a 1TB SSD in a ThinkPad T43!
Awesome!

ThinkDan2004 wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 05, 2017 3:14 pm

I mean that is just like saying putting a 1TB SSD in a ThinkPad T43!
Awesome!

You can put an SSD of *any* size into a SATA-modded T43/p...

With Lenovo sitting (as expected) on their billion-dollar-behind with the Retro project, I could see quite a few folks ponying up the cash for these boards...

ajkula66 wrote:

ThinkDan2004 wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 05, 2017 3:14 pm

I mean that is just like saying putting a 1TB SSD in a ThinkPad T43!
Awesome!

You can put an SSD of *any* size into a SATA-modded T43/p...

With Lenovo sitting (as expected) on their billion-dollar-behind with the Retro project, I could see quite a few folks ponying up the cash for these boards...

The retro project will be retro by the time it comes out. May as well go buy a Thinkpad 700c. Atleast it does ms word without the NSA figuring out what im doing.

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