Which one of these R500 keyboards is seen as better?

[glossywhite]

Here's the old, worn out and problematic keyboard I have just removed from my R500:

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5499/3060 ... aa2c_c.jpg


... and here is the replacement, straight from the eBay donor machine (mint condition!):

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5723/3069 ... 7dee_c.jpg


Which one of these is made by whom, and which is seen as a better board? I Google'd the part #s and FRUs, but I couldn't see any clear and decisive commentary on which was made by which mfr etc. I must confess that the new one is WORLDS apart from the old one, but then the old one was dirty, problematic and worn out.

Thanks my friends

[ajkula66]

Without looking at the FRUs, here's the bottom line:

The "upper" keyboard is from *00 series, and many of us refer to them as "Swiss Cheese". Numerous holes designed to lighten the keyboard return junky feel altogether in the opinion of vast majority of ThinkPad users.

The "lower" keyboard is from 60/61 series, and is viewed as superior regardless of the manufacturer.

[glossywhite]

Without looking at the FRUs, here's the bottom line:

The "upper" keyboard is from *00 series, and many of us refer to them as "Swiss Cheese". Numerous holes designed to lighten the keyboard return junky feel altogether in the opinion of vast majority of ThinkPad users.

The "lower" keyboard is from 60/61 series, and is viewed as superior regardless of the manufacturer.

Thank you. Yes, the non-cheesy one feels worlds better!

[excal32]

I didn't know you could swap the two, i'lll have to put a real 61 keyboard in my R500 then! My R500 might be my favorite thinkpad of all. Not really sure why though. However I am going to put a Core 2 Extreme in my R500, load it up with RAM and a SSD, a 1920x1200 panel...