Thinkpads Forum

I've looked at the pictures and they seem to be identical, but I've never had a 14" T60 in my hands before. Anyone have real world experience?

03/15/2010 Edit: Tried a 14" R60 mobo in a 14" T60 frame/base and it seem to fit. I don't have a palmrest or keyboard bezel right now. Will update when/if I acquired those.

Pictures: R60 motherboard on the left, T60 motherboard on the right. Last picture is of the the R60 motherboard inside the frame and base of a T60. These are high res.

Top of motherboards: http://tinypic.com/r/nlrkhd/5
Bottom of motherboards: http://tinypic.com/r/166yz3o/5
R60 motherboard installed in T60 frame and base. R60 frame on the right. Notice that the braces above and to the left of the fan have been snapped off. They were cracked anyway, and I needed to fit the R60 fan. http://tinypic.com/r/16j4rwi/5

I have not done the swap, but I think they can be swapped.

I am aware of a few differences; 1) the BIOS is different between series, 2) R60's use Broadcom Ethernet ports, T60's use Intel, and 3) Firewire ports are available on the R60 boards.

This may be of interest, particularly the last post.

Thanks Fred. That confirms that the 15" models cannot swap motherboards... it's still an open question as to the 14" models right? I can see that the firewire port might be an issue on the 14" model as well.

Do you have any experience with putting 14" R60 motherboards into 15" frames? That's an option I didn't think about.

14" into 15" won't work. The connectors for the optical drive won't bein the right place. I would also guess that there is no way to get the hard drive in..

Ok, so it looks like 14" and 15" motherboards are NOT interchangeable within the R60 series. Any comments as to motherboard compatibility between the 14" R60 and 14" T60?

I've never tried

Bumping this thread in hopes that someone out there has more info. Thanks for all the input so far.

I will try to locate some 14" base parts to try this out.

I have both 14" models at home, T60 & R60. As I said above, the swap looks possible. The only obvious difference without taking both machines apart, is the FireWire port to the left of the VGA port. On the R60, the left side fan exhaust area is slightly smaller to accomodate the FireWire port.

All other ports appear to align exactly - VGA, USB, PC Card, InfraRed, HDD cover, UltraBay, additional USB ports, battery, power connector and dock. As you know, the R60 will accept any T60 UltraBay drive (the UltraBay Slim models), so clearly the UltraBay ports align, too.

Some of the base screw holes differ, but the bases screw into the sub-chassis, not the motherboards. In the end, it might be a case that the motherboard holes do not align (or additional ones need to be drilled, if possible), but the mobos are similar and should fit into each other's bases.

It would be interesting to find out.

underclocker wrote:It would be interesting to find out.

It WILL be interesting! I'm surprised no one's tried it yet... Maybe its because these models are pretty reliable and there aren't as many parts machines?

I have a couple T60 bases on the way and should be able to confirm/deny soon.

Just wanted to post a followup:

A 14" R60 motherboard seems to fit into a T60 base/frame just fine. I don't have a palmrest or keyboard bezel at the moment, but I don't see any problems with those. The R60 fan will not fit and of course there's no room for the firewire. A couple screw holes under the battery needed to be punched through because they were covered in black tape. Other than that it drops right in. The operation seems to be a success!

virge - Would it be possible to post some pic's?

Peak2Peak wrote:virge - Would it be possible to post some pic's?

Sure, is there anything specific you want to see?

virge wrote:Sure, is there anything specific you want to see?

Mainly the R60 MB fitment into the T60's frame & base and the "couple screw holes under the battery needed to be punched through because they were covered in black tape" which you stated a few post back.

Original post updated with pictures. If you compare the pictures of the top and bottom views, you will see how the screw holes (top edge) are covered with black tape on the bottom.

virge - Thank you for posting the pic's - very much appreciated!