15.0" T60 frankenpad with 15.4" T61p board possible

[mr.motoring]

I recently performed a Frankenpad conversion with a NOS T60p UXGA and a board from a T61 (4:3) NVS 140m. After finishing the assembly and firing it up, I glanced over at my spare 15.4" T61p on the desk, and noticed all the ports are exactly the same on the T60p. I made some quick measurements knowing that even if it fit, the drives would be sticking out. But I couldn't resist the urge, so I tore apart both machines to check fitment. Wouldn't you know, it fits pretty well.

The only parts on the frame that need to be ground down are the screw studs for the interposer card, about 3 of them. Also, the media card reader slightly interferes with the hard drive bay wall, and that wall would need to be cut out. You could even cut a hole into the front of the base, but that is not necessary (since it would look very ugly ). The firewire port could be kept, but the frame would have to be cut. Or the easy way out is just removing it (as it easily separates from the board). Finally, the metal bracket that pulls the optical drive out needs to be removed, but that is extremely simple to take off.

The best part is that the modem actually fits without interference from the metal frame. Plus the 2 frame studs below the card actually line up with the 15.4" board. Bonus! Ultimately, there are about 3 screws underneath (I think the keyboard screw and one of the middle palmrest screws and it's close neighbor) that have to be left out.

I was contemplating going ahead and doing this mod and maybe use a 1.8" SSD (smaller than a 2.5" but it needs the SATA adapter so that won't help shrink the length). Or even use an mSATA SSD. The optical drive could be removed since it is not always used.

The PROs of such a mod are a tasty 256MB FX 570m GPU power! WITH the possibility of a post 08/08 build systemboard. Plus you get an extra mini half-height PCI-express slot. And a functional modem! 56kbps speed

The biggest CON is the protruding drive bays. And a non-functional firewire port + media card reader unless one takes the time to mod them (or not).

Should someone really need a frankenpad with a modem AND the best T61p GPU setup, it can be done. But I put everything back together as this ended up just being a feasibility/curiosity study.

[RealBlackStuff]

Interesting!
Did you take any pictures, especially of the drives sticking out?

[mr.motoring]

No, I should have taken pics... but it looks like forum member Peak2Peak had to cut the same studs in his R61 Frankenpad project: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 26&start=0. Take a look at Part 1 and the pic titled [T60 Structure Frame Interposer screw posts]

But the drives stick out about an inch. Both bays are still usable, though care would need to be taken inserting/removing anything from the ultrabay since there are no screws securing that part of the motherboard to the frame.

As for the hard drive, interestingly there was enough space to fit a 1.8" SSD without it poking out. However I realized that those small SSDs use a different pin-count SATA interface, which would require the 2.5" adapter and hence making it stick out. This was the reason I stopped and put everything back together.

[Neil]

OK, I just gotta ask...why bother? I mean, if you want an 15.4" T61p, why not just buy one? They were offered from the factory with that configuration, without all the mods and trouble of trying to fit a planar into a chassis that wasn't designed for it.

[mr.motoring]

What configuration? A T61p with a UXGA screen? I have never seen one. There are those that are naturally curious and like to tinker with things. You do realize this is a Thinkpad enthusiast forum.

[Failure]

Is there enough room to mount the hard drive sideways in the Ultrabay? You can just cut a slit in the frame between them and stuff a standard SATA cable into it.

[Neil]

What configuration? A T61p with a UXGA screen? I have never seen one. There are those that are naturally curious and like to tinker with things. You do realize this is a Thinkpad enthusiast forum.

I do...just misread your original post. I was thinking you were working with a 15.4" WS T60 and T61p WS planar. Now I see my mistake. You had already done the T61 4X3 planar in a UXGA T60 (the usual Frankenpad), then thought about trying the WS T61 board in the UXGA T60, and found that, while it could be made to work, it just didn't fit well.
Are we on the same page now?

[mr.motoring]

Is there enough room to mount the hard drive sideways in the Ultrabay? You can just cut a slit in the frame between them and stuff a standard SATA cable into it.

Yep there is enough room. I was thinking about that too and it is entirely possible. When I made the measurements there was just enough room toward the left side considering that the right side (thin portion) of the ultrabay has the ejecter latch which uses up about an inch of space.

[mr.motoring]

I do...just misread your original post. I was thinking you were working with a 15.4" WS T60 and T61p WS planar. Now I see my mistake. You had already done the T61 4X3 planar in a UXGA T60 (the usual Frankenpad), then thought about trying the WS T61 board in the UXGA T60, and found that, while it could be made to work, it just didn't fit well.
Are we on the same page now?

Yea, I figured you thought I was transplanting a widescreen T61p board into the same size widescreen T60p. I might be nuts, but that would be really pointless.

I'm changing the title so there's less confusion.

[TkHk]

Unfortunately, the graphics card in my T60 (X1400) failed a few months ago and it appears to be beyond repair. I would however prefer not to buy a new laptop because I love my thinkpad and especially its 15" UXGA SXGA+ flexview screen. Something I have been missing in this laptop for a long time however is some decent GPU performance. I figured that the current state of my T60, in combination with the desire to keep the flexview screen and improve the performance, would make it a good candidate for an upgrade like the regular "Frankenpad" T61/T60 mod, which would, using a fx 570m based board, seriously boost GPU performance over my old X1400. Problem however is that the 14" T61P boards are extremely hard to find for good prices. For that reason, I am now considering performing the "15.4 T61P board in T60(p) chassis" mod discussed in this topic.

Before I purchase a 15.4" board however, I would like to make sure the mod will work without any problems. While the information from mr.motoring has already been of enormous help, there are still some things unclear to me. First, I would like to know if you (ts) have connected the screen of your T60P to the 15.4" T61P motherboard and tested if it worked without problems? I cant make up from your posts if you've already done that. Also, I would like to know if the T60 keyboard and trackpad are compatible with the T61 15.4" board. They most likely are but I want to be 100% sure. Also, did you use a 15" T60P or a 14" for the mod?

The downsides of this mod, like the drives sticking out, aren't a problem for me at all as I don't need the optical drive, and removing it will (hopefully) provide room for putting a 2,5" SSD in the ultrabay.

I hope mr.motoring or someone else can answer my questions. I am really looking forward to performing this mod. If I go ahead and do it, I will try to take some pictures during the process.

(also sorry for digging up a three month old topic, I just really need the info)

[RealBlackStuff]

All R6x and T6x use the same keyboards.
The touchpad connectors are also the same.
You can connect any R6x/T6x size/type screen to any T6x/R6x motherboard and v.v. using any of their LCD cables.
Whether all the locations/positions of screw holes, cable guides etc. match, is a different story though.
The experiment was done with a 15" T60 chassis.
14.1" don't have an interposer board.

One last remark: within the T60 4:3 group you can use any 4:3 motherboard, they are the same for 14.1" and 15".
Which bears the question: why not try a T60p mobo with ATI FireGL V5200 or V5250?
Be a lot cheaper and quicker!

[TkHk]

A bit late, but I still want to thank you for your reaction, RealBlackStuff. It has been of much help.

In the mean time I have been thinking about what to do with my T60 (see my previous post for more info). In the end I decided not to upgrade it with an nvidia based T61 board because in the end the risk of failure is too high for my liking. The only two other (seemingly) logical options would be to either use an intel based T61 board or a T60p board like RealBlack suggested. However, both of these do not quite meet my "requirements".. The T61 intel boards have too little GPU performance while the T60p boards are missing valuable features like 3+ GB ram support and SATA2, while GPU performance is also not good enough for some games I would like to play.

However, even after concluding that it looked like I was pretty much out of options if I wanted to find a solution that would completely satisfy me, I refused to give up. After some searching I found out that a T500/W500 motherboard would actually meet all my needs. Better still, when looking at some T500/W500 motherboards I noticed that the board layout looked very similar to that of the 15.4" T61 boards. This made me wonder: would it be possible to fit a T/W500 board in a 15" T60 chassis?

I have done some research and am aware that there are a lot of things that will not fit very well. Compared to the T60/T61 boards, the port layout is completely different, the LCD connector is offset to the right, and some other things vary as well. However, the main shape and screw-holes line up almost perfectly with a T60 chassis. As I am not afraid of cutting a few holes in my thinkpad (that would otherwise be written off anyways), I think I could manage to make it fit.

However, there is still one big uncertainty that keeps me from buying a T/W500 board and trying it out: LCD compatibility. I know that the LCD connector on the 500 series is different from the T6x series, but if you use a 500 series LCD cable, the 30 (?) pin connector on the LCD side appears to be the same as that on most of the T6x screens, which would mean you could actually connect a T60/T61 screen to a t/w500 motherboard. However, I am unsure if the T/W500 bios would actually accept my 15" SXGA+ flexview screen. Also, there might be other things I am overlooking that could keep me from succesfully performing this mod.

This is why I would like to ask if anyone can confirm if my flexview screen will work on a 500 series mobo, and if anyone has other advice/suggestions regarding this (dare I say) pretty radical mod.

[Binh]

Concerning T60 frankenpad with T500 motherboard, a guy from Chinese 51nb.com already had done it back in 2008 year. Search Google for the word T62p and you will find it, for example this link.

[QWERTY Andreas]

Concerning T60 frankenpad with T500 motherboard, a guy from Chinese 51nb.com already had done it back in 2008 year. Search Google for the word T62p and you will find it, for example this link.

Then we just need a Whitlist BIOS to support QC, some undervolting, a W500 Motherboard and wer are good to go

[TuuS]

In the end I decided not to upgrade it with an nvidia based T61 board because in the end the risk of failure is too high for my liking. The only two other (seemingly) logical options would be to either use an intel based T61 board or a T60p board

There is another option here. I have some NOS T61 boards in original sealed IBM box. These have nVidia GPU chips from 2010, long after the problems were solved.

These boards were originally manufactured for warranty service and the supply was exhausted years ago but a few turned up in a usa corporate liquidation. They are the only viable option for building a highly reliable T60/61 frankenpad with nVidia graphics.

New (nos) T61 board with nVidia graphics

[TkHk]

Concerning T60 frankenpad with T500 motherboard, a guy from Chinese 51nb.com already had done it back in 2008 year. Search Google for the word T62p and you will find it, for example this link.

Thanks for the interesting article. I am very happy to see that the T500/T60 mod is possible. I will probably be ordering a W500 motherboard soon to finally execute this mod.

However, the 2010 T61 nvidia board option suggested by TuuS could also be an option for me, and it would save me some hassle as well. I will send you (TuuS) a PM with some questions to see if this option is worthwile for me.

[Binh]

Thanks for the interesting article. I am very happy to see that the T500/T60 mod is possible. I will probably be ordering a W500 motherboard soon to finally execute this mod.

However, the 2010 T61 nvidia board option suggested by TuuS could also be an option for me, and it would save me some hassle as well. I will send you (TuuS) a PM with some questions to see if this option is worthwile for me.

Though it was done a long time ago, but still nobody (including me) repeated this mod. From the article it is clear that you have to remove a lot of parts from structure frame, that strongly affects the rigidity of the system, what may lead to motherboard flex.

IMO, the option for T61 mainboard proposed by TuuS is much better than fitting T500/W500 mobo into T60.

Just for info only: I recently bought a T500 that previous owner replace the LCD with ancient (manufactured in 2003) WUXGA made by Sharp and pulled from Dell Inspiron 8600 (or may be Dell Precision M60). Though I am a fan of Flexview LCD, I have to say that this Sharp's one is quite good, especially in vertical viewing angle.

[TuuS]

I replied to your PM about the NOS boards.

Regarding the T60/T500 hybrid, that is way more work then I'd consider doing to build a frankie. I think if I wanted an IPS T500 I'd look into doing some kind of screen conversion. HP WVA (wide viewing angle) screens are pretty nice, perhaps one could be modded to work.