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T61P 14" From Scratch
Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 2:52 pm
by Springdale
My serach for a T61p 14" 1400x1050 with top specs is becoming a stresfull task then I thought, so I thought of just getting the parts together and building a T61p that supports the Penry Processors with a Nvidia FX video card.
Would anybody know the exact part number for a T61p motherboard that supports a Penry T9xxx processor natively with a Geforce Quadro FX gpu?
Hopefully my idea is not to out of reach. I'll purchase a cheap T61 14" and gut the parts with better ones. Anybody know I can use the bottom of a T60P, or are the screw holes placed diffrently?
Any help would be great and thanks in advance. Hope to hear back soon

Re: T61P 14" From Scratch
Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 3:01 pm
by sysiphus
This may not be what you want to hear, but I'd skip any T61 with Nvidia graphics, period. They're part of the group of GPUs that were improperly made, and as such, are ticking time bombs. The only question is when they'll fail. Heck, I was all set to buy a T61 until I discovered this, then I picked up a clean T60 instead.
Re: T61P 14" From Scratch
Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 4:26 pm
by Springdale
I heard of a bad batch of Nvidia FX notebook video cards, but I have a T61 Widescreen with a T9XXX cpu and a Nvidia Quadro GPU for over a year and everything runs perfectly fine.
So your telling me to skimp away from the Nvidia GPUs and go for a cripled Intel? =(
So far I had good luck with my computer hardware, so I'll take my chances =p
Re: T61P 14" From Scratch
Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 4:40 pm
by RealBlackStuff
Those nVidia GPUs seem to fail after about two years or more.
If you underclock/undervolt them, you may be able to extend their expected life.
See this:
http://reflowrepairs.co.uk/news
Personally I too would give the T61 a miss unless it's a model with Intel GPU.
Re: T61P 14" From Scratch
Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 6:29 pm
by Springdale
RealBlackStuff wrote:Personally I too would give the T61 a miss unless it's a model with Intel GPU.
But I'll be skimping out on GPU performance and intel chokes on games.. Ahhh, such a hard decision.
Just to get back on top, would anybody the correct part number for a T61p mobo with Nvidia and T9xxx capbility?
Thanks

Re: T61P 14" From Scratch
Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 9:57 pm
by GrandMasterKhan
T61 with the NV140 here. Logged about 9,000 hours and about 1,500 power ons on my machine using CrystalDisk as a guage and its still going strong. No problems whatsoever and this is an a hot humid environment (although the AC is on all the time). I think if you don't game, you don't torch your video card despite inherit defects that everyone talks about. My card runs anwhere from 58 to 61C at idle. 58 seems to be the norm except on hot weather days. Will the card fail? Who knows. So far no signs it will. Also, I dont see why anyone would buy any notebook without an adequate warranty as the machine is not really sold state and anything can happen despite manufacturer's reputation either good or bad.
Re: T61P 14" From Scratch
Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 6:25 pm
by Springdale
As long if I treat my custom T61p with care I shouldn't have any problems with the geforce fx gpu. I'm a heavy user to my t61 and it still works like a charm.
Fellow thinkpad users, what is the part number for a 14 inch base motherboard that has the nvidia fx gpu and supports a intel penry T9xxx natively? Please help me out <3
Re: T61P 14" From Scratch
Posted: Wed May 12, 2010 6:34 pm
by Springdale
Doing some research on service manuals, it seems that I found the exact board! Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's the 42W7874 that supports the Core 2 T9xxx series of processors? I compared it with part numbers that would have a T9500 Processor and lists under 88890-CTO under AKx, ALx, AMx, ARx, ASx, ATx where the 42w7874 supports the 8889-CTO Alx, AMx, ASx, and ATx. Would that be a fair judgment that ordering a 42W7874 would support the Penry processor?
Re: T61P 14" From Scratch
Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 6:11 pm
by richk
That looks right. I will say that I have seen at least one case where the type of thermal sensor didn't match the FRU number. In my case, I found a board with an FRU that was not supposed to support a Penryn, but did. You might also need to flash the BIOS to the latest to get the CPU recognized.