My T50 review with MANY LARGE pictures

[ajkula66]

Yes, the machine that we've all been waiting for is FINALLY here, and by unbelievable kindness of a fellow forum member ended up in the hands of silly old me....





the basics:

Think about this laptop as a 15" T43 with the - somewhat crippled - guts of a T410. That's the closest comparison I've been able to come up with.



The CPU is a first-generation Core i5 (560M), running at 2.6GHz. 8GB of DDR3 RAM. Intel 520 SSD, all placed in an *extremely* pretty (as in unused) 15" T43 shell with a 15" SXGA+ IPS LCD. I was afraid to breathe on - let alone touch - this thing of beauty.


Are you salivating yet? I know I was...

What I did:

1) Tested real-life performance of the machine as well as performed some minor benchmarking

2) Opened it up to see how on Earth the guys from 51nb did what they did

3) Looked for any imperfections and glitches

4) Enjoyed myself thoroughly while doing all of the above




What I didn't do:

1) Swapped the parts around. The system was used and tested strictly as received from its owner.

2) Tweaked the OS. There are just too many variables and caveats involved in doing so when one is testing a laptop that belongs to someone else.


Initial impressions:

The machine feels very fast. Boots to choice of operating system screen (both Vista and W7 are installed on it) in about 12 seconds, and takes another 10-12 to the login screen. In a different setup, with a single OS boot, you'd likely be looking at 15-17 seconds from the moment the "power" button is pressed to desktop. Shutdown takes about 18 seconds on most occasions.

The fan is on most of the time, and it's not blowing out hot air so it's not a question of the machine getting hot, but of the embedded controller settings. If you're looking for a quiet laptop, this is not the one.


ThinkPad that is not a ThinkPad:

It's incredibly easy to forget that we're not looking at a genuine IBM/Lenovo product. However, the reality sets in *really* fast once the laptop is in use.

There is no splash screen, no F1 or F12 options that most of us have gotten used to over the past two decades. One has to press "Esc" to enter the temporary boot section, and enter BIOS - which doesn't even remotely resemble the Thinkpad ones based on Phoenix - from there.





Not surprisingly, none of the Lenovo-specific software such as Hotkeys, Access Connections or Power Manager can be installed. The only thing that does work is the fingerprint reader. ThinkPad fan control (TPFC) also does absolutely nothing and doesn't even recognize the majority of the sensors.

The docking station port has also been neatly covered, so there is no docking capability as such.



Crafstmanship:

The fit and finish of this machine is exceptional. Without knowing that I were looking at a custom build, it would be reasonably difficult to detect that fact.



Performance:

If you've ever handled an Intel-based T410, this machine comes pretty close. Not a stunning performer by today's standards, but an incredibly usable one, especially if one's work is mostly office and web-related.

Benchmarks:

3D mark puts this laptop at 3098. A FrankenPad with NVS140M GPU and a X9000 CPU scored 2524.



Graphics are the machine's weak point.

Freestone - which I've been using for years in a variety of testing setups - rates T50 at measly 78. That, of course, is much better than what a real T43p will score - anywhere between 46 and 48 depending on the graphics driver and settings - but a far cry from a nVidia-based T61/p units which will run anywhere between 120 and 150.



WEI rating - for those who actually pay mind to it - comes at 4.7 which is not bad for a machine with integrated graphics.




Glitches, imperfections and pet peeves:

Since nothing created by a hand of imperfect humans can ever be perfect, T50 is no exception. Deficiencies - at least what I deem them to be - are listed in order from minor to major:

1) The machine still uses the original T4x media drive and UltraBay, limiting transfer speeds to PATA standards. Hardly acceptable in A.D. 2014, although the reasons behind such a design are rather obvious.

2) Lack of ports. With no docking station connector, the expansion options of T50 are very slim, and I'm being kind here.

3) Pressing Fn + F3 combo which would simply turn the screen off on a "standard" ThinkPad from almost any era sends the T50 into a comatose state: nothing is displayed on the LCD but the machine becomes completely unresponsive and a hard shutdown is required. No idea on what all of this is about, but let's just say that I wasn't happy about it to begin with, and became even less happy when I found out that I could replicate this behaviour every single time.

4) From time to time, the machine refuses to recognize a perfectly healthy battery and states that "no battery is detected". Removal of the battery and a shutdown/restart are required. I've also encountered numerous occasions where the system would not turn on without the AC adapter being plugged in, although a fully charged battery was present.

5) My final - and BY FAR the biggest - gripe is the fact that the LCD is only usable at full brightness AND that the problem does not reside within the screen itself. Once the brightness is lowered, the severe flickering starts rendering the use of this machine extremely unpleasant. If I were a betting man, my bet would be on improperly regulated voltages between the planar and inverter being the culprit for this behaviour. Since I wasn't about to start ripping someone else's unique laptop apart and troubleshoot the way I'd do if it were mine, my word to the wise who are interested in obtaining a T50 planar is to count on *always* running the machine with the screen at full brightness.


T50 vs. T601 FrankenPad:

This should be a no-brainer, but it's really not.

While T50 feels faster than a T601 with somewhat equivalent configuration (8GB RAM, SSD) a real-life comparison would entail several other considerations:

a) If one relies heavily on Lenovo software such as Power Manager or Access Connections, they might find T50 less fitting for use than a T601.

b) Those who maintain even the slightest interest in gaming and/or remotely intense graphic applications will be better served by a nVidia-based T601.


THE VERDICT:

While not without imperfections in its own right, T50 is an impressive, brave and reasonably-well-executed concept.

If you're a T4x diehard like myself - with a shell or two or seven to spare - obtaining this board at somewhat reasonable price ($200-250 FCO USA for a bare planar) is a must.

My two biggest concerns would be support of the product itself, and the aforementioned LCD flicker.

Having said that, if these planars were readily available for purchase I'd have absolutely no problems in shelling out the cash for a couple of them right now.



other notes:

1) For those interested in running Linux on T50, I've booted Fedora 19 from a "live" DVD and all the hardware was recognized and instantly usable.

2) I was NOT impressed by the audio quality whatsoever and would argue that the analog chip on the original T43/p produced a much better sound, although not stellar in its own right. Then again, everything after A3x series was...meh at the very best in that respect.

3) While I haven't performed a "proper" battery rundown, a 9-cell Panasonic holding 85% of its design charge yielded 4 hours of light use which is about on par with my own T43p, give or take 15 minutes.




Additional pictures are available here:

http://s1088.photobucket.com/user/ajkul ... t=3&page=1

Once again, my deepest gratitude goes to our fellow forum member Joe who had provided me with this unique opportunity of testing his new "baby".



Questions? Ask away!

[Cigarguy]

Wow, just WOW! Nice machine and fantastic review. Despite the short comings, I'd still go for one if I can hold of a board. Hopefully there will be a version 2 with some of the bugs worked out. My dream is for one of ASUS, MSI, Foxconn or Gigabyte to pick up production of this board, update the BIOS, iron out the bugs and mass produce it. Might be a pipe dream though. Considering what's all was involved, a very good job by the guys in China.

Thanks ajkula for reviewing and sharing this.

[dr_st]

Really excellent review, George. Straight and to the point, you covered all the important aspects without getting wordy as some (e.g., yours truly) become while reviewing. I envy your ability.

The lack of docking capabilities is disappointing of course, but understandable. Since the hardware is different, no way would it be compatible with the original IBM docks, as a lot of the ports are pass-through or hard-wired to the board. They would have to basically provide a new dock as well, for the connector to be useful.

You mentioned the problems with Fn+F3 - what about other Fn key combos? Do any of them work at all?

Finally, what about Cardbus/Expresscard - are these available/functioning? I see the cage in the picture, but does it work?

Super-duper-mega thanks to Joe and to you for making this review happen.

[Brad]

Thanks for a great review and to Joe for letting you review it.

Brad

[Tasurinchi]

Thanks George for the detailed review!

Nice too see the pictures with the innards, it's nice to see the old style heatsink working with new hardware. It's a standard heatsink/fan I guess, right?

[Medessec]

This is an absolutely thorough review... pretty much filled all the gaps that could be there- and answered any questions I might have had. Thanks so much for taking it upon yourself on getting this thing... I know if it was me, I probably would've taken a 5 month vacation with it before finally sharing the details with you guys (naw, I'm not that irresponsible... )

3D mark puts this laptop at 3098. A FrankenPad with NVS140M GPU and a X9000 CPU scored 2524.

That's quite a good figure for the CPU-side of things, and definitely good for those who are considering having one for basic tasks and as an on-the-go mobile companion.

Freestone - which I've been using for years in a variety of testing setups - rates T50 at measly 78. That, of course, is much better than what a real T43p will score - anywhere between 46 and 48 depending on the graphics driver and settings - but a far cry from a nVidia-based T61/p units which will run anywhere between 120 and 150.

I know that this was to be expected... but I myself actually have an NVS 140M Frankie and I can attest that a lot of older games thrive on the hardware, even at UXGA, and a lot of newer games will run fine. Minecraft, which can easily be described as a killer of T61s with bad GPUs (it heats up both the CPU and GPU to maximum throttling temperatures at offset intervals) runs smoothly on the Frankie, even with draw distance turned up.
But I've got experience running games on laptops with first-gen Intel HD graphics, and a lot of them will run... but with extremely undesired poor performance, juttering, or glitchy-ness. From a gaming perspective, first-gen Intel HD is actually one of the worst GPUs you can have... because some earlier Intel GPUs don't work in the same way, so a lot of games will experience these problems rooting from the new configuration. Minecraft in particular absolutely hates Intel HD first-gen, it can run fine(barely) for the first 5-10 minutes before encountering a horribly intolerable lag spike, which can crash the game or force the player to deal with a 2 FPS crawl for a minute or two before the laptop saves itself.

For these reasons, I'd probably end up with a T50, but only because it's a major pick point in the Thinkpad history. A Thinkpad fanbase's love letter, to Thinkpad. Pretty much novelty... rather than actually using it. Which is what I'm pretty sure the guys at 51nb want


The big issues you described:

1) The machine still uses the original T4x media drive and UltraBay, limiting transfer speeds to PATA standards. Hardly acceptable in A.D. 2014, although the reasons behind such a design are rather obvious.

Again, I've mentioned before... I think the Serial Slim Ultrabay(T400/T500) would be so much better to have on the T43. It fits flush, and all the normal accessories have been made for it. And you'd get SATA... the only reason I can think of why 51nb would use the original T43 interface is for T43 owners who have their T43 accessories, and want them to work. But that's kinda silly to me... I understand this is a straight motherboard swap, so it could just be a matter of making your T43 a newer machine at one major component, while leaving the rest of it alone... but not having Serial Slim takes so much away from it. At least- from my perspective.

2) Lack of ports. With no docking station connector, the expansion options of T50 are very slim, and I'm being kind here.

Well, it's not so bad if you compare it to... say, an HP Mini. Or a common midrange UltraBook. But not having ExpressCard, HDMI or any other Digital video out, it's even lesser than an X-series on expandability. For a Thinkpad, it is quite abysmal.

3) Pressing Fn + F3 combo which would simply turn the screen off on a "standard" ThinkPad from almost any era sends the T50 into a comatose state: nothing is displayed on the LCD but the machine becomes completely unresponsive and a hard shutdown is required. No idea on what all of this is about, but let's just say that I wasn't happy about it to begin with, and became even less happy when I found out that I could replicate this behaviour every single time.

This sounds like the feature is just incomplete... or there's a detail being left out that you should probably have. But I guess for now... wow. Heh. Quite an issue.

4) From time to time, the machine refuses to recognize a perfectly healthy battery and states that "no battery is detected". Removal of the battery and a shutdown/restart are required. I've also encountered numerous occasions where the system would not turn on without the AC adapter being plugged in, although a fully charged battery was present.

This would actually very much prevent it's use in it's current state as a mobile companion... making it definitely more of a functional prototype. Quite disappointing, but really very pressing, so I'm sure they're working on it.

5) My final - and BY FAR the biggest - gripe is the fact that the LCD is only usable at full brightness AND that the problem does not reside within the screen itself. Once the brightness is lowered, the severe flickering starts rendering the use of this machine extremely unpleasant. If I were a betting man, my bet would be on improperly regulated voltages between the planar and inverter being the culprit for this behaviour. Since I wasn't about to start ripping someone else's unique laptop apart and troubleshoot the way I'd do if it were mine, my word to the wise who are interested in obtaining a T50 planar is to count on *always* running the machine with the screen at full brightness.

This issue probably wouldn't bother me anywhere near as much as it would bother you guys... I often use my laptops at full brightness, and maybe I'll turn it down to minimum brightness if I'm in class and we're watching a video with the lights dimmed, or if I want to squeeze extra battery out of a machine. I'd still probably be pretty annoyed at this issue, but I'd put it behind the Fn+F3 issue and Battery issues in level of internal hate.


In response to your verdict, I have to lightly applaud the guys at 51nb for all of their hard work and sacrifice... because I was expecting a total shamble of quality issues, ranging from random crashes, graphical glitches left and right, a certain key combo causing the laptop to lock up(I mean, if you type fast and you happen to press Y, F and J at the same time), and possibly even the board bricking or failing completely on you. But it looks like despite everything else(the alarming battery issue, Fn+F3, and the screen flicker), they've essentially created a fully working solution that functions, and impressed even you.

The only real question I have is that... you didn't mention the ThinkLight at all- does it function? Also, what ports does your particular T50 have? It was hard for me to tell with the pictures, but I think you do have a first-batch prototype, with no HDMI port and basic ports only (Ethernet/56k, Headphone/Mic, USB 2.0)

[RealBlackStuff]

I'm probably the only lucky other one who has actually seen this machine in real life, while visiting George.
I can confirm all his praise and gripes.
No HDMI port (taped over like the docking port), but the contacts are there on the mobo, if you want to solder one in yourself.
Ethernet, VGA and USB ports work, as does the Intel-N 6200 wifi card.
I'm sure George will try (or has tried) the Thinklight and other Function keys...
I was most impressed by starting up Firefox, took only about 2 seconds!
Unfortunately, this T50 (or any other 15" or bigger laptop) would be too big for me.
I prefer desktops for daily use, and small laptops (previously X61s, currently X200s) for traveling.
But hats off to the folks in China who concocted this!

PS: they'd put me out of business for SATA-mods...

[ajkula66]

Nice too see the pictures with the innards, it's nice to see the old style heatsink working with new hardware. It's a standard heatsink/fan I guess, right?

Yes. It's the heatsink found on T43 models with Intel graphics.

You mentioned the problems with Fn+F3 - what about other Fn key combos? Do any of them work at all?

Finally, what about Cardbus/Expresscard - are these available/functioning? I see the cage in the picture, but does it work?

Here are the answers for the first part of your question:

Code: Select all

ThinkLight and brightness up/down both work.

Fn + F3 = comatose state
Fn + F4 puts the machine to sleep just fine
Fn + F5 does absolutely nothing
Fn + F7 toggles between external and internal screen
Fn + F12 doesn't make the machine hibernate. However, the hibernation might have been disabled by the owner.

For the second part, I'll have to dig out a PCMCIA card from somewhere and report back. Stay tuned.

[cadillacmike68]

Wow, those guys over there in China have really outdone themselves. While I think some of the "issues" will prove unresolvable, some might get solved. No dock would hamper home or office based use, at least for me. Overall, I like it it shows considerable innovation.

[lazycat]

hello guys,i'm lazycat and i'm back
i'm the right guy who Medessec mentioned as 'taken 5 month vacation with the T50 before finally coming back to say hello and sharing the details of the machine'
well, one reason that i didn't come for so long a time is that i wanna collect almost all the bugs and shotcomings of the machine. the other one is that we found not all the machine represened the same bugs--some problems are in common, and some are individual,we need time to discriminate them. up to now ,there are about 54 T50 machines made by 51nb, each one was numbered and it's owner was invited by 51nb to join a group in QQ --the most popular IM software in china. I'm the number 5--the four guys before me are management of 51nb
my machine was assembled in DEC 8th, it took me about 1 month to install the OS and software environment to make sure whether everythins of the machine was ok. then after the Spring Festival, i upgraded it to the config now:
I7 640M 2.8G
nanya ddr3 1333 4G*2
plextor m5p 256G ssd
wdc 1t hdd
and,the T43 15inch 1400*1050 ips monitor

i also did some work in those days to improve the heat emission efficiency of the south-bridge :http://forum.51nb.com/thread-1426774-1-1.html and http://forum.51nb.com/thread-1428827-1-1.html

well, maybe i can follow the points ajkula66 has pointed out and do some explain--thanks for ajkula66,you made a very good test and a very detailed report

1-2: to tell the truth we don't consider they are big problem because from the beginning we had known it would be like this...
3: i can consider it's an individual problem of the machine ajkula66 tested. i never heard this kind of bug in the QQ group form other owners of T50 machines...it works well on my machine.----and, Medessec you can be at ease with FN+PgUp--the think light works good with other fn keys, fn+f3 sleep is ok, fn+f5 can lighten and extinguish the wifi & bt light in turn, but couldn't have the real effect to wifi & bt... fn+f7 is ok, fn+f12 hibernation couldn't work thought the hibernation funtion of the system is on...fn+space, no effect...
we also solved the problem of installing the driver of touchpad and red point mouse.
4: it's also an individual problem...i heard only 2 or 3 people complained of this, but mine is ok--though the charging light is always yellow--the battery works well.
5: fn+Home & fn+End--suppose to be monitor brightness control --flicker...this is a common problem exits in all T50 machines...up to now we haven't finded out why this happened...i guess that might be that the BIOS microcode in charge of this part and the machanism of the monitor modulation mode are mismatch...but, we found a little software to control the brightness of the monitor in a 'soft' way: NEC Brightness Controller.exe . we hope you guys here can give us some advise about this.

on the other hand, there also individual bugs of my machine i never heard from others,or only one or two people encountered the same situation with me:
a: typing problem. when i type fast with "chu" or "shu" or "zhu", it came out "ch'cu","sh'su" and "zh'zu", and sometimes the letter 'u' will be lost or come out very slowly...some guy told me when he changed the settings of keyboard in control panel, this situation could be improved...but it doesn't work on my machine...
b: high temperature of south bridge chip. while the machine is in idle mode, the temperature could reach 69°C (degree Celsius). in stress test the temperature could rised to more than 80°C and finally caused the system halt...three or four machine has the same problem.
some people (2 or 3) reported that the hdd in UltraBay caddy adapter couldn't boot or run very slow----not the same with my T50, it works well with the in ultrabay. i doubt they didn't use a good caddy.

well, one thing more: the PCMCIA adapter is just a frame case left there for support the palm...there isn't a interface for it on the mainboard However, there's a SD adapter hide inside.

the reason why there's so many individual bugs...i don't know...maybe the low production
till now i didn't know if there would be a version 2 of T50 or not, but the good news is, HOPE announced that X62 mainboard is on the way----he supposed that the design work will finish at the end of the year. and , as the X6x series is much more populor than T4x series, we can believe that the increase in production can improve the quality

[Cigarguy]

Thank you lazycat! Exciting stuff. For a first effort and, considering the resources you guys had to work with, you guys did a great job. Really excited about version 2. As with everything in life, version 2, 3,4 and onwards will only be better. Hopefully a larger production run will be made and some will be shipped outside of China to us geeks on this side of the pond. Failing that, being Chinese myself, I may have to make a trip to your city once the T6x is ready.

Thanks again for the update.

[lazycat]

...Really excited about version 2. ....

I mean, I don't know any plan about version 2...
the on-going plan now is a mainboard for X6 series...

[ajkula66]

I mean, I don't know any plan about version 2...
the on-going plan now is a mainboard for X6 series...

Personally, I'd be very interested in a T50 board myself - even with all the noted imperfections - and am darn certain that I'm not the only one.

Could you possibly elaborate on the possibility of some quantity of them making its way out of China?

[irus]

Thanks for the review aj!

i was expecting the graphics or cpu performance to be poor thanks for confiming. but i suppose this machine will be fine for office and web browsing.

I dont use thinkpad software anyway but the brightness issue is a deal breaker cuz i use the display at its lowest brightnes settings many times!

id class this as a collectors item and a fantastic one at that.

Look forward to the next revision of this board or a T51 with sandy bridge or whatever its named!

[Saucey]

Great review ajkula66!
Also thanks for chiming in Lazycat!
Great to know about the 'X62' rumour.

Very interesting read.
T43 has a lot of charm, hope you guys could get a T50 mobo stateside!

[jevons9958]

Thanks for the review aj!

i was expecting the graphics or cpu performance to be poor thanks for confiming. but i suppose this machine will be fine for office and web browsing.

I dont use thinkpad software anyway but the brightness issue is a deal breaker cuz i use the display at its lowest brightnes settings many times!

id class this as a collectors item and a fantastic one at that.

Look forward to the next revision of this board or a T51 with sandy bridge or whatever its named!

I was told that there is no such issue with LED backlit screen.

[RealBlackStuff]

That's not a LED screen, it's ordinary CCFL.
I've tried a HVX150U2-100 LED-screen in George's T43p, and it showed the same problems.
Brightness would only function between 5-7 (7=max).
Any lower, and it would switch off.
See also here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=107018

[jevons9958]

Hey George and RealBlackStuff,

This problem was actually solved by using software ' NEC Brightness Controller'. Now, I can control the brightness of the screen freely and smoothly without flickering.

That's not a LED screen, it's ordinary CCFL.
I've tried a HVX150U2-100 LED-screen in George's T43p, and it showed the same problems.
Brightness would only function between 5-7 (7=max).
Any lower, and it would switch off.
See also here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=107018

[sethstorm]

PS: they'd put me out of business for SATA-mods...

Not so fast - time and travel costs would still put you in favor.

Finally, what about Cardbus/Expresscard - are these available/functioning? I see the cage in the picture, but does it work?

If it's anything close to the previous versions, no. They seem to be there to keep the case intact.

Yes, the machine that we've all been waiting for is FINALLY here, and by unbelievable kindness of a fellow forum member ended up in the hands of silly old me...

....The fit and finish of this machine is exceptional. Without knowing that I were looking at a custom build, it would be reasonably difficult to detect that fact.

Aside from the fact that it's still not available to Places That Matter, they seem to have a very odd routing for the wireless antennas. Routing the cables through the heatpipe just looks like it'd invite cables to melt(see W520 internal audio wiring for an example). On the other hand, it's good to see that it accepts both sizes of minipci-e cards.

[RealBlackStuff]

...they seem to have a very odd routing for the wireless antennas. Routing the cables through the heatpipe just looks like it'd invite cables to melt(see W520 internal audio wiring for an example).

If you look at pictures of the bare motherboard (w/o heatsink) on 51nb.com, you'll see that there is no more Southbridge chip.
It's an empty spot, so feeding antenna cables under there makes sense, as these cables would be too short otherwise!

[sethstorm]

If you look at pictures of the bare motherboard (w/o heatsink) on 51nb.com, you'll see that there is no more Southbridge chip.
It's an empty spot, so feeding antenna cables under there makes sense, as these cables would be too short otherwise!

I noticed that from earlier posts - just didn't know how/if the heatsink itself would otherwise affect it.

[ABuNeNe]

No hdmi output, usb3.0 ports, expresscard 54 slot... will give it a miss.

[Cigarguy]

No hdmi output, usb3.0 ports, expresscard 54 slot... will give it a miss.

That's good as I doubt very few, if any, of us will get our hands on this MB. Reading lazycat's thread above there's only 58ish machines floating around. It's not like we can order a Gigabyte MB from Newegg install in our T4x and whine away at missing features.

[ABuNeNe]

No hdmi output, usb3.0 ports, expresscard 54 slot... will give it a miss.

That's good as I doubt very few, if any, of us will get our hands on this MB. Reading lazycat's thread above there's only 58ish machines floating around. It's not like we can order a Gigabyte MB from Newegg install in our T4x and whine away at missing features.

No worries, always ready to help the less fortunate ones.

[Easy Wind]

seems to me I've read the page that described this mod/machine, but 51nb.com is not my native language so I have no idea how to find stuff on there relating to the T50....

With that said, when looking at the pictures George posted, how are they able to put an i5/i7 chip on this M/B ??

[ajkula66]

With that said, when looking at the pictures George posted, how are they able to put an i5/i7 chip on this M/B ??

It's a brand new, custom-designed motherboard.

[Easy Wind]

Thanks! Are they modding existing T43 boards, or building from scratch? And if they are modding existing boards, do they have to be in working order?

[ajkula66]

Building from scratch...

[systemBuilder]

It's really sad that they failed to add a USB 3.0 port. With just 2 USB 3.0 ports, you can basically forget the PATA disk drive interface and the docking port; the USB 3.0 port can outperform both of these. To dock, you just put all your peripherals (keyboards, mice, other USB ports) on a single USB hub and plug the hub into the device. The only thing you have to plug-in extra is the VGA connector ...

[Temetka]

Are you people really complaining about USB 3??????????????

OMFG.

This board is a work of art and the people who took the time and expense to design and build it should be congratulated, not bitched at.

REAL Mod-edit: the Forum-Software objected to (translated): female-dogged