My T60/T61 lego affaire

[Screamer]

ok , so after looking on the internet to a loooot of photos of T60 mobos I came upon this weirdo, by the looks is the thing that the guy in the video talks about
in his video he talks as if the T61 also would have one, but, mine did not have one, and I doubt the T60 will have one either, but I still didnt disassembled the T60 yet, so I cant tell for sure.

I believe that is an interposer card, that was used to extend the Ultrabay's connectors for the 15" 4:3 T60's motherboard (since its housing case was slightly bigger than its 14.1" variant). The other models, such as the 14.1" 4:3 and the 15.4" 16:10 T60, do not have this interposer installed.

As far as I know, the 4:3 and 16:10 T61 never had this interposer installed either.

question, I saw on a video on youtube that I need to detach a portion of it in order to attach a portion of the T60 mobo, the part towards he ultrabay
how da heck am I supposed to do that?\ without ruining the entire mobo?

He meant to detach the interposer from the 15" 4:3 T60's motherboard, and then attach it to the 14.1" 4:3 T61's motherboard.

Also, could you please convert these images into links? They are far too big, and they are also above the stated 50KB limit which the forum's rules had mentioned.

regarding the cooling for a t601 F, which of the cooling system works best?

FRU 42W2820, or 42X4685, or 42W2028, for the models that are equipped with a dedicated graphics chip. FRU 42W2823, or 42W2821, or 42W2029, for the models that are equipped with an integrated graphics chip.

I also heard some people use the cooling system from a T500, is that valid?

Yes, but I don't recommend it. The only advantage that you would get from using a T500's heatsink assembly, is a faster-spinning fan that is slightly quieter than the T61's fan.

The disadvantage however, is that the T500's heatsink assembly does not properly sit onto the T60's graphics chip. If I can recall, the T60 has a graphics chip that is slightly taller than the graphics chip used in the T500, which means an uneven or improper contact. The solution to this, would be to bend the T500's heatsink assembly till it makes proper contact with the graphics chip.

This is the reason why I do not recommend installing the T500's heatsink assembly.

also, the heat-pipes and fan must both come from the same system or can the heat-pipes come from T61 and the fan from T60?

I am asking all this because I cant find a step by step guide on how to create a frankenpad, despite many people having one, it seems everybody likes to post about their creation but not explain in detail on how to do it, so I am picking up bits and pieces everywhere

You cannot remove the heatpipes from the T61's heatsink assembly, unless you have a machine that can remove the adhesive used to glue the heatpipes and the heatsink together. This is also assuming that the machine does not damage the heatpipes, since they are likely to be very fragile.

If you were to utilize the T60's fan and combine it with the T61's heatsink assembly, I would guess that you would get a very undesirable heatsink. This is due to the T60's fan, which produces less airflow as compared to the T61's fan. The other thing to note is the T60's fan noise, that is also much louder than the T61's fan noise. In any case, don't do that.

darn, I am facing the same dilemma since I saw a lot of fans on ebay, all say they are for T61 , but they look different

Well, there are different T61 models that require a different heatsink assembly. That is the reason why they all look so different.

The most important thing that you should be aware of, is that any heatsink assembly that is meant for the 14.1" 16:10 T61, is incompatible with the 14.1" 4:3 or 15" 4:3 T60. The only heatsink assemblies that would fit in without an issue, are the heatsink assemblies meant for the 15.4" 16:10 T61 or the 14.1" 4:3 T61.

[TinkerMan]

thanks alot dude, all great tips, now I get a better understanding of the process. hat tip to you

[TinkerMan]

HE IS ALIVE, ALIVEEEEEEEEEE
my first Frankie is alive
I used an old cracked chassis T60 near the heat-sink, with the one T61 mobo which I wasnt sure it was working, see discussion above
since I have never attempted such a build before I thought that if I do something wrong at least it will be with subpar pieces, but even so I was successful.
I didnt even mod the chassis , i simply chose to not install the modem card, since the last time I used a wire to connect to internet more than a decade ago.
also, since the T61 heat-sink fan was dead I used the T60 one, so far so good ( I do have the X3100 , not the nVidia gpu )
right now when writing this I m installing win 7 , so far so good.

[TinkerMan]

[TinkerMan]

Today will do the Middleton bios update, it will be my first time.

any precautions that should I take?
anyone has some real life advice before proceeding with this?

is it better to do this procedure while on win 7 32 bit or win 764 bit?
can I use an USB to flash the bios, or do I really need a CD/DVD drive?

[karimtaabo]

Today will do the Middleton bios update, it will be my first time.

any precautions that should I take?
anyone has some real life advice before proceeding with this?

is it better to do this procedure while on win 7 32 bit or win 764 bit?
can I use an USB to flash the bios, or do I really need a CD/DVD drive?

does the T61 support PC2-6400 DDR2-800 200pin SODIMM or do I need precisely PC2 5300 ?

[Ken Edmonds]

See post #10

[Ken Edmonds]

I can't speak for frankenpads but the consensus seems to be that a T61 heatsink and fan is worth fitting to an ordinary T60 so I assume even more use in a frankenpad.
The problem is getting the right one. I've ordered one from two different places, admittedly both in Hong Kong and neither has been the part it was supposed to be.
I've now bought one for a T500 which does actually appear to be the correct part but I've not tried fitting it yet.

darn, I am facing the same dilemma since I saw a lot of fans on ebay, all say they are for T61 , but they look different

anyway, when do you think you will try to install the T500 one? I am anxious to see if thats the one to go with.

My mate who bought a T60 from the same place I did says he's fitted a T500/W500 heatsink and fan and although not perfect - a little high or tall - it fits and it's working.

[TinkerMan]

UPDATE
eureka
I did it, I finally did it, my first FULL frankenpad is done

those of you who followed this thread already know that I already made a frankenpad but the T60 had a broken chassis, so I didnt install a high end cpu or too much ram, I used that one as an experience gaining experiment of how to disassemble T61 and T60 and reassemble a franckie.

But now, I did the real thing, with an intact T60" 4:3, and a working T61 14" 4:3 which had the middleton bios updated before the procedure.
I also used a core 2 extreme cpu, the X9000, which I won on ebay at an auction for just 27 US bucks, and as a heat-sink I used a brand new one for W500, minimal mod required to equip a T60, the only thing to do to place it in a T60 is to squash 3 little flimsy fins that it has near the upper exhaust ( i think they were there for the cable management of the W500, but you dont need them on the T60, they are quite small and very very easy to bend flat. the reason is if you dont bend them you cant properly install the LCD panel left foot into its socket, but as I said its easy to do, it takes 10 seconds max. And its an upgrade worth doing, when I first started the machine I was a bit worried i might have not inserted the fan power line since it didnt spin at all. later when I stress tested it started, so I worried for nothing, but the idea is that the W500 heat-sink is soo good that at low cpu loads it can do the cooling job passively, even if the CPU is a core 2 xtreme.

NOTE: I made a frankenpad with an X3100 for better thermals, especially since I use an X9000, I am aiming for longevity with this machine.

after the successful boot I tested the windows performance index, before doing the build the results in the T61 were 5.1 for CPU, after the build with the X9000 in place it scored a 6.3.
on youtube I can watch 1080p, before it couldnt, and even the 720p was sometime struggling.
more tests to come
images will be posted after I upload them on imgur.
see ya later fellas.

[TinkerMan]

https://i.imgur.com/uQ9qIzq.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/7pOiVZ7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/NM7n6pj.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/oS0fZ0R.jpg

in the last image you can see the Frankie on the left, side by side with another project I finished 3 days ago, a 14" T60 (original T60 mobo ), upgraded to a T7600 cpu

[TinkerMan]

finally, fully restored the T601F
the outer shell was quite nasty, with lots of scratches and oily and all kind of small damage everywhere
this is the final result

https://i.imgur.com/AphJprv.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/g7RxvnT.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/8JIxjuO.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/6xsyuPv.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/AMS6M6d.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/OcHCZIM.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/mOOYJcJ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/W2VRi7L.jpg

it has a new 9 cell 41++ Sanyo battery at the back and a 3 cell new Sony 43 in the ultra bay
I will restrict this one at X9000 and X3100 with 8 gigs of Crucial ram and an 256 GB samsung 860 evo ssd.

the other Frankie will be reserved for further experimentation, like first installing a FSB 1066 X9100, and if that is successful, I will maybe, not sure yet, try a QX9300 mod. , but thats far into the future.

[TinkerMan]

had to reopen my working frankie in order to better align the keyboard bezel on the left side, and the palmrest on the right upper corner , so I took this opportunity to take a nice shot of the interior

https://i.imgur.com/yzB9BCN.jpg