Modern mainboard for traditional T60 ThinkPad(xyte.ch)
xyte.ch
Modern mainboard for traditional T60 ThinkPad
https://www.xyte.ch/t700-crowdfunding/
32 comments
This is really interesting.
Shenzhen markets were awash with old laptops when I was there a few years ago (I still have a tiny Sony Vaio I bought when I was there). There were giant stacks of things like obsolete Toughbooks, giant stacks of Thinkpads etc. along with obsolete servers being recycled.
Being able to recycle those robust, well made chassis with modern hardware is a great idea.
Shenzhen markets were awash with old laptops when I was there a few years ago (I still have a tiny Sony Vaio I bought when I was there). There were giant stacks of things like obsolete Toughbooks, giant stacks of Thinkpads etc. along with obsolete servers being recycled.
Being able to recycle those robust, well made chassis with modern hardware is a great idea.
I had a fantastic experience with ordering my laptop from XYtech and have had the pleasure to have met him in person. If anyone has questions I would be happy to answer, although mine is based on the X230 chassis.
> Being able to recycle those robust, well made chassis with modern hardware is a great idea.
A modernization on all the internals in L's X60 is needed, too. Perfect size and strong body.
A modernization on all the internals in L's X60 is needed, too. Perfect size and strong body.
If someone does this for 2014/2015 vintage MacBook Pros, they'll absolutely make a killing.
I thought the new m1 MacBook pretty much fixed all the problems? Who would want a vintage one, and why?
Didn't really fix the keyboard or the screen. I'd like a matte screen with a thick glass panel to protect it when closing, and a dust-resistant keyboard. And some USB ports.
Does have MagSafe though, does it not?
Does have MagSafe though, does it not?
I thought the keyboard was reverted to the old one? I absolutely hate the butterfly ones and their new "Magic" keyboards. I exclusively use apple's old aluminium wired keyboard which were pretty much the same as the ones in MacBooks uit until 2015.
However I haven't tried the post-butterfly models as I hardly visit stores anymore since Corona. So they're not back to the old quality still?
However I haven't tried the post-butterfly models as I hardly visit stores anymore since Corona. So they're not back to the old quality still?
If one has the know how to design and build laptop mainboards, it would be nice to team up with other people who can build the chases, get some financing and start building new laptops as nice as the original ThinkPads, with socketable CPUs.
Linus (Tech Tips) talks about how much money would be involved, and going full retail seems to be... very hard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSxbc1IN9Gg&t=180s
I understand people really like their T-6x machines, but isn't it a little bit too much?
Or is it something similar to an Amiga accelerator board?
Or is it something similar to an Amiga accelerator board?
No this is basically an entirely new computer in an old chassis.
I don't know why these types of projects keep using mediocre Intel 11th gen quad cores though. I love old ThinkPads too, but I couldn't justify the expense for something that's already so outdated.
Maybe down the road there will be some affordable off-the-shelf Arm or RISC-V CPUs that would make for a neat drop-in motherboard upgrade for these old machines. Something really, really low power in a big honkin' ThinkPad chassis might have pretty incredible battery life.
I don't know why these types of projects keep using mediocre Intel 11th gen quad cores though. I love old ThinkPads too, but I couldn't justify the expense for something that's already so outdated.
Maybe down the road there will be some affordable off-the-shelf Arm or RISC-V CPUs that would make for a neat drop-in motherboard upgrade for these old machines. Something really, really low power in a big honkin' ThinkPad chassis might have pretty incredible battery life.
I also could not justify the expense, it's just a poor price/performance ratio. You can get a sub $500 nuc with one of these in it instead, if you want a hotrod, why pay above the odds for one that's going to lose a race?
I expect the reason for the part choice is that supplies of the 12th gen chips are wholesale restricted to larger vendors such as lenovo, hp etc - but this is merely a suspicion and not something I have proof of.
I expect the reason for the part choice is that supplies of the 12th gen chips are wholesale restricted to larger vendors such as lenovo, hp etc - but this is merely a suspicion and not something I have proof of.
Did you see that 70s vintage Ford F-150 with the Tesla power train transplant? This sort of thing makes even more sense for computers than for cars, considering the lack crumple zones and such pre-80s.
Is this what you mean? [0] It’s actually a “crate engine” sold by Ford. Awesome concept.
These ThinkPad mods are pretty much all about the keyboard and overall form factor. The display has to be swapped out for something more modern, the batteries should probably be upgraded, obviously the entire motherboard is being replaced… It’s getting close to a ship of Theseus scenario. A lot of old 90s laptops have pretty brittle plastics too. ThinkPads in general seem to fare better than say PowerBook G3 display hinges. It’s a heck of a long road to go down for a sturdy laptop with a great keyboard and a ton of ports. If the motherboard could be made for under $500 with open source hardware I’d be tempted.
0: https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2021...
These ThinkPad mods are pretty much all about the keyboard and overall form factor. The display has to be swapped out for something more modern, the batteries should probably be upgraded, obviously the entire motherboard is being replaced… It’s getting close to a ship of Theseus scenario. A lot of old 90s laptops have pretty brittle plastics too. ThinkPads in general seem to fare better than say PowerBook G3 display hinges. It’s a heck of a long road to go down for a sturdy laptop with a great keyboard and a ton of ports. If the motherboard could be made for under $500 with open source hardware I’d be tempted.
0: https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2021...
I believe they had to find a good one-size-fits-all while keeping the price low enough to attract buyers. The target audience is the owners of T-60 laptops who are willing to pay more than what a new Thinkpad costs to make their current laptops better.
I understand people get attached to these computers and I’ve paid more for old computers than it’d cost to get new (and more practical) ones, but it’s a different thing.
I understand people get attached to these computers and I’ve paid more for old computers than it’d cost to get new (and more practical) ones, but it’s a different thing.
Oh please do this for my t42!
So I'm not the only one still holding on to a stack of those - now on number 2 of 3. Great (1600x1200) screen, great keyboard, sturdy, it even lasts a few hours on the battery - not bad for an almost 16 year old machine. Yes, a new mainboard would be good, I've been toying with the idea of stuffing one of the more performant SBCs in there (almost anything will outperform the 1.8GHz single-core Pentium-M in those things) but have not yet found one which can drive the screen.
I can get 8 solid hours of battery on my t42p with tlp and the schedutil governor. I also have a script that unloads the modules for certain hardware I might not be using that often. This is with one of those new Chinese batteries.
Absolutely beautiful machine. I am pretty sure it’s the greatest laptop ever built.
Absolutely beautiful machine. I am pretty sure it’s the greatest laptop ever built.
Same. The 16:10 we have with macs and the new xps are nice, but what I would give for a 4:3 ratio display on a modern monitor.
Sounded interesting but then I read 'Payment is not refundable until at least 20 builds are crowdfunded. The final price will depend on the cost of components etc and if the final price is too high, you can choose to get a refund.'
»The T700 project is a drop-in replacement motherboard for the TP T60 and T61 series of laptops. This consists of an aftermarket motherboard not produced by L that fits in the chassis with little to no modifications necessary.«
Of course, L refers to the current manufacturer and brand owner of Thinkpads. There, i lifted the veil!
Of course, L refers to the current manufacturer and brand owner of Thinkpads. There, i lifted the veil!
Why the avoidance of using the name? (I also notice "TP" is only ever used, never "Thinkpad").
From one of the blog posts[0]:
> There is also the threat of lawsuit. As I’ve later learnt, 51nb was sued by big L on the pretext that the images and website contained trademarked terms. However, the real reason was revealed that 51nb actually owned the tp.cn domain name and big L wanted it for themselves. Even though 51nb actually won the lawsuit, it hurt their financials badly and they were very reluctant on continuing these projects.
[0]: https://www.xyte.ch/2021/11/09/t700-part-1-preparation/
> There is also the threat of lawsuit. As I’ve later learnt, 51nb was sued by big L on the pretext that the images and website contained trademarked terms. However, the real reason was revealed that 51nb actually owned the tp.cn domain name and big L wanted it for themselves. Even though 51nb actually won the lawsuit, it hurt their financials badly and they were very reluctant on continuing these projects.
[0]: https://www.xyte.ch/2021/11/09/t700-part-1-preparation/
Magical thinking. Of course you can state matter of factly "this is not a Lenovo product" without violating trademarks.
OTOH maybe there is a real risk of getting sued, even if the lawsuit doesn't have merit. CentOS always avoided mentioning Red Hat and refered to the "upstream vendor". I think this was an agreement so that CentOS didn't show up as the first result for "Free Red Hat clone" and it was slightly less obvious to decision makers what it was.
OTOH maybe there is a real risk of getting sued, even if the lawsuit doesn't have merit. CentOS always avoided mentioning Red Hat and refered to the "upstream vendor". I think this was an agreement so that CentOS didn't show up as the first result for "Free Red Hat clone" and it was slightly less obvious to decision makers what it was.
One word: China.
They might be very much reasonable to behave as they do.
They might be very much reasonable to behave as they do.
Trademark violation? Whether ungrounded or not, as a small player it's better to be cautious with corporations and their army of evil lawyers.
Personally I just want a Ryzen-powered mainboard, but figure there's sourcing reasons for why they're sticking to this intel generation.