My Frankenpad (Thinkpad T60)

[asaggynoodle]

This originated from a PM to crazybubba64 as I purchased a few boards and an X9100 Extreme Edition chip from him. He asked me about the Frankenpad machine it went into, and I got carried away typing this, so I figured I'd post it for anyone who's curious.

Here's the temporary 4Ghz I can do, but the temps skyrocket 30*C in a few seconds. I'll have to check if it's a connectivity issue or the chip is really getting that hot that fast. It's a healthy bump in vCore from the stock 1.2xx volts to 1.4vish to get stable at 4Ghz.

https://valid.x86.fr/70n5zf

As far as the aesthetics it's 110% a sleeper build. You could pull this thing out in a coffee shop and people would just think you're using a work computer. Not a 95% custom 200%+ faster than stock pro tuned machine.

Just about every part is customized by me, CPU, Motherboard, BIOS, PLL, GPU, GPU voltage is hard modded, SSD. So the 4:3 thinkpad T60 is actually a 15" machine, but I have the motherboard of 15.4" T61P installed which gives me the NVS 140M (8400 GT basically) over the horrible ATI mobility X1300 that the T60 has. Then the motherboard adds Penryn and Merom support for CPU's but only has a 800Mhz FSB. Obviously the best chips need a 1066Mhz FSB, so the BSEL selection has to modified by cutting a trace, and pulling up the line to logic high by running a wire to the bypass capacitors on the back of the socket. This tricks the chipset into running at 1066Mhz. Of course, everything else gets overclocked too as the FSB is going from 200Mhz to 266Mhz. Typically the CAS latency will have to be lowered on most SO-DIMM modules as they are now running WAY faster than stock. Luckily most 800Mhz modules have enough headroom to allow them to run faster without any SPD modifications to lower the CAS or slow them down for stability. My 800Mhz RAM is now running at 880Mhz at stock CAS latency, so it's a pure gain overclock there.

The GPU for whatever the hell reason is WAY overvolted from the factory. I have no idea why this is, but all G84/G86 GPU's use 1.2v on the core, which means there is absolutely stupid amounts of headroom for overclocking. I'm talking 50%+ on the Core, 60%+ on the GDDR3, then 100%+ on the shader. Many people undervolt these GPU's for this reason, but my experience wasn't that significant as I've already gone beyond the stock cooling limitations.

The Display is a 4:3 (highly sought after and one of the reasons these machines are so popular with enthusiasts) 1400x1050 Boe Hydis display. These are IPS displays that use a technology called AFFS, which essentially means that instead of the typical vertical pixel layout they are oriented in chevron patterns. I've documented this with my macro lens on my camera, it's pretty interesting. The benefits of this chevron pattern is that the viewing angles are stupidly good (essentially the full 180*). There is a UXGA option which is 1600x1200, these displays are very expensive, but are the highest resolution IPS 4:3 display you can get in a laptop. A QXGA variant exists, but is extremely rare and isn't IPS.

Since we're using an Nvidia GPU based system that means we don't have to deal with the cancer that is the Intel x3100 IGP. Plus, we get control of the IEDE information on the LCD... So that means we can play with the refresh rates. My display is capable of running at 96Hz without any artifacts at 32 Bit color space. Which is incredibly good as it mitigates almost all the ghosting you get from the IPS panels. That means even on a smooth scroll you can still read the text versus everything becoming a blob of text.

Lenovo used the same physical design for the W500, T60, T61, and T500 models as far as the heatsink is concerned. Which means that you can pick and choose any model you want. Ideally the heatsink from the W500 is the best as it has bigger and more heatpipes that reach all the way around the bonded fin assembly on the heatsink. Although, the fan from the T500 is a newer, higher density fin unit. So it's quieter and pushes more air. If you were after the best combo, I'd take the fan out of the T500 and put it in the W500 heatsink. Spacing for the GPU is slightly off by 1-2mm, so using a few thermal pads between the bracket and top of the heatpipe to push it into place is required (or a shim, but I like the direct contact method).

Now, the crazy thing as I mentioned about the heatsink is that Lenovo has a VERy similar physical design internally for most of the machines at the time across all the screen sizes. So long as the machine is a 4:3 aspect ratio, just about any motherboard will fit in any machine with only slight/moderate modification to the chassis/board. For example, my 15" T60 chassis is using a 15.4" T61P motherboard. It's physically longer width wise, which means the SATA and Ultra Bay are moved 2 inches out. Effectively eliminating the use of a CD drive or second battery unless you don't mind having half the drive sticking out the side (I actually use it like this sometimes). The HDD is no longer an option, which I don't care about as I use an mSATA drive in a SATA caddy anyways. this fits pretty much perfectly and requires no modifications.

BIOS wise is an interesting topic. Lenovo for whatever the hell reason decided it would be cool to remove the SATA-II functionality of the motherboard... Even though it actually supports SATA-II? On top of that the stock bios doesn't have the proper code written in the EC to monitor the temperature sensors in the Penryn chips. Which means they will always cause boot up beeps and errors (still works, but extremely annoying). Finally, there is no Intel IDA support. Which is effectively the precursor to Turbo Boost. I believe all T9XXX chips will bump up the multiplier by .5 to "turbo boost" under certain conditions. Aftermarket BIO's remedy all of this missed out functionality and even more (GPU undervolts, Quad Core APCI tables, etc). Lots of really cool stuff in this area that opens up a ton of functionality to the machine. The most important thing is that some of them feature a Intel Microcode update that allows the use of practically any Merom/Penryn core chip. Even the E-series apple OEM chips.

The keyboards in these machines also come in multiple different switches, so you can actually get the custom feel that you like (just like desktop keyboards). I don't believe this was intentional, although as Lenovo used multiple suppliers, it seems to be a unknowingly positive side effect. Plus it comes with the amazingly fantastic tracpoint nipple. Meaning you can move the cursor and do left/right clicks without ever removing your hands from the home row. Actually really awesome if you type quite a bit.

I'm sure there's more to add, but it seems I'm drawing a blank so this seems like a good place to stop for now. I'll add pictures eventually so you can get a visual perspective of what I'm talking about in some of these topics soon.

Here's an album of some pictures I found on my camera, showing the Pixel layout on the AFFS display, the straight vertical orientation of the original 1024x768 trash display I got rid of stock. Then the T2400 is the original chip, current wPrime score is about ~25 seconds versus the 57 of the stock T2400 chip.

https://imgur.com/a/AKqIZdt
(Pictures are very high resolution if you click on them.)

[wren4777]

That sounds awesome

I have a widescreen R61 lying around here waiting for a 51nb T70 board to mod in...

[crazybubba64]

Holy crap I have no words...

This sounds INCREDIBLE!

I'm looking forward to pictures!

EDIT: Just saw the pictures. WOW that display is sharp. I'd love to see some of the board mods you've done to it.

[asaggynoodle]

[crazybubba64]

Have you gotten a cpu-z validation of the fake chip?

Did it have an unlocked multiplier?

What FSB clock did it run at (if at all)?

EDIT: Found a thread where someone had the same issue with the same chip: https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-Solved-fake-cpu-error-Fujitsu-Siemens-Amilo-PI-3560

Here's a picture of a real SLB48: http://www.x86-guide.com/en/cpu/Intel-Core-2-Extreme-X9100-cpu-no2751.html

Looks like it's a T8100 (which has an 800MHz FSB natively)

[asaggynoodle]

[crazybubba64]

Edited my post, it's a T8100 SLAUU

[asaggynoodle]

[wren4777]