Building a custom 4:3 laptop in 2015? I've done just that.

First and foremost, I'd humbly suggest that anyone/everyone interested in the subject matter at hand reads my original review found here:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=114057

as well as the "teaser" post that was serving as a sort of placeholder for this very review:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=117010

While the system that I've built - with tremendous help of other TPF forum members - does maintain a somewhat different set of specs, most observations found in the initial review apply nevertheless.

The specs of "my" T50 are as follows:

Intel i5-450M Core i (1st generation Arrandale) CPU*
http://ark.intel.com/products/49022/Intel-Core-i5-450M-Processor-3M-cache-2_40-GHz
T50 motherboard mounted in a NOS 15" T4x base
8 GB (2x4GB) matched Hynix DDR3 RAM 1066MHz
15" UXGA (1600x1200) AFFS LCD (NOS Boe Hydis HV150UX1-101) mounted in a NOS 15" T4x lid
http://www.panelook.com/HV150UX1-101_HYDIS_15.0_LCM_overview_3626.html
100GB Micron P300 SLC SSD (MTFDDAC100SAL-1N1AA), NOS
http://www.storagereview.com/micron_realssd_p300_review_100gb
Intel 6200 wireless card**
JMicron Ethernet controller
NMB keyboard with Slovenian layout
SD card reader (hidden in the PCMCIA cage)
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit English (clean install from digitalriver-sourced media)
9-cell Panasonic battery in “green” (FRU 92P1068)
Standard 72W IBM AC adapter

NOTE: Items marked * and ** should be considered a temporary part of the setup since they will be replaced in the final version of this build. More details about this aspect of the story can be found in the final part of this review.

OK, so now that I’ll have spent – once everything is said and done – roughly $1K on building a 4:3 system in A.D. 2015, how does it compare not only with its long-lost older cousin in the form of my own SATA-modded T43p, but with the expectations/realities of today’s day and age as well?

The answer to the questions posted above really depends on what one’s expectations are to begin with.

A decade-old Pentium M platform that once lauded T43p as its most powerful moment – at least in IBM’s implementation – is barely usable today, SATA-modded or not. The CPU chokes from YouTube videos, let alone anything more demanding. While restricting the number of processes running, tweaking the OS in other ways, installing light browsers or moving to Linux altogether can help a great deal, these systems are nevertheless showing their age and while one might argue that they have aged gracefully, they for the most part have just aged – period.

Enter the brave team of hobbyists from China with the creation of the so-called T50 planar which is an Arrandale-based drop-in replacement board for any T4x/R5x ThinkPad board.

The first – and by far the biggest – problem is that these planars are made out of crystal clear unobtainium unless one resides in mainland China. What sits on my dining room’s table is only the second known example in North America.

The next issue that presents itself is the fact that while there’s a plethora of inexpensive used T4x/R5x parts still available, NOS ones are getting extremely difficult to locate, even for silly old me.

These aspects of the story clearly turn the concept of running a T50 as a daily driver into sheer fantasy for about 99.99% of the population that might otherwise be interested in owning a system of this nature.

I still feel it’s a darn shame, but am just counting my blessings and enjoying the machine while writing this review.

It’s mine. All mine.



It’s a sheer waste of one’s words trying to describe how noticeable is a jump from a top-shelf-Dothan to a low-end Arrandale. Load a simple YT video in a conventional (IE, FireFox, Chrome) browser and the comparison reveals that there’s no comparison. It’s really *that* simple.

For those who prefer to see the numbers involved:

Pentium M 780 2.26 GHz Dothan found in T43p scores 500 with a single-thread rating of 624 in PassMark.
http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Pentium+M+2.26GHz&id=1174

Arrandale i5 450M that is currently installed in my T50 gets 2149 with a single-thread rating of 963. The i7 640M which is the most powerful CPU that this platform can take would yield 2997 with a single-thread rating of 1295.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5+M+450+%40+2.40GHz
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7+M+640+%40+2.80GHz

Ugh. That hurts.

And it doesn’t stop there. At all.

Take a peak at how SSDs behave in CDM:



and HD Tune (T43pSF/T50 respectively) :






Do bear in mind that a “standard” T43p would only give you ATA-6 speeds at best due to its PATA architecture…

For those who believe in WEI as being an important benchmark:



More detailed shots of each…

T43pSF:



T50:



So, with all of this being said, should we be looking for your T43pSF being offered for sale sometime soon?

Not necessarily. I still love this machine dearly, and the worst that can happen to it is to end in the “glorified typewriter” pile next to my A31p.

Now, let’s discuss a couple of newly-found bugs that I’ve discovered and subsequently examined on my new T50:

1) The audio buttons at the top of the keyboard serve no purpose. They are outright dead. Volume has to be controlled via the OS itself. This is a Windows-only problem, everything works 100% fine in Linux, tested in CentOS.

2) The battery and power LEDs under the LCD are swapped. Once you unplug the power cord, the “Z” power light stays on, but the battery light is gone. The issue presents itself regardless of the operating system.

3) The wireless LED is visible while the system is starting but then disappears in Windows. I’ve ran CentOS from a “live” DVD and the LED behaves normally in that environment. In all fairness, I can’t blame the board designers for this one.

4) “NEC brightness control” referenced by other forum members/T50 users as software that resolves the LCD flickering problem described in my original review does absolutely nothing on this system. Maybe it doesn’t like talking to the Hydis panel. Whatever the story might be, the LCD remains usable at full brightness only. This statement, unfortunately, holds true in both Windows and Linux.

None of this diminishes my gratitude for effort that the members of 51nb have put into designing this board.

Perfect it’s not. Nor is it a gaming rig by any stretch of imagination.

A breathe of fresh air for 4:3 (mostly ThinkPad) die-hards such as myself it most certainly is.

There are a couple of things that I still miss when using the T50 that are present on my old T43pSF:

1) Hotkey functions. I’m way too used to Fn+F3 to shut the screen down, let alone Fn+Home/Fn+End to adjust the LCD brightness. While the system is “safe” – unlike T43p – to be put to sleep on regular basis, I’d prefer having the ability to power the display off nevertheless.

2) Power Manager. Yes, there’s a lot one can set up within the OS itself, but I do miss this utility for its functionality and ability to control more than just one aspect of the system.

3) Fan control. While the system is cooled well using the NOS conventional M10 “long” fan (FRU 13R2657, normally found on ThinkPads T41p and T42/p) I feel that the cooling properties in EC are overactive, at least for my liking.

4) So far I’ve found no way of turning the touchpad off in BIOS. I’ll be looking into this matter further, but unless the option is hidden exceptionally well, for now I’m going to presume that it’s simply not there.

Conclusion and a few final observations and remarks:
​

a) While words can’t describe the speed/responsiveness difference between those two systems, I would’ve *really* liked a board based on SandyBridge architecture, for reasons that I don’t really think need to be elaborated on. It would have made a tremendous difference and the system would’ve been a lot more future-proof. I would really hope that HOPE and the rest of nb51 crew will re-visit the currently abandoned – at least to my understanding – idea of a “T70” planar which would’ve been a SB-based board for the 4:3 T6x platform. Now combine that with a Hydis LED AFFS panel – even at insane prices that these screens go for nowadays – and you have a winner.

b) The pictures that I’ve linked show a NOS 15” T4x palmrest/keyboard bezel that I own, but have chosen not to install right now, since I never use FPR to begin with and the current palmrest is presentable enough, at least IMO.

c) There are two components of the system that will be replaced, sooner than later.

The first one is the Intel 6200 wireless card that will be swapped for an Atheros-chipped unit. I’ve never been all that keen on Intel’s wireless offerings, and 6200 hasn’t really done much of anything to change my opinion on the matter at hand.

The second one is the CPU itself. If I have to live with the fan running at all times, it may at least be with a good reason. I7 640M will find itself on this board in the near future.

d) Was it worth investing both the time and money that I’ve put into this project for the sake of enjoying a 4:3 system that can cope with the requirements of today, even if only for my simple needs?

I guess that it all depends on the perspective one chooses to take.

If I were billing myself for the time spent – as I would have done on a build intended for a customer – this would’ve been one heck of an expensive system, likely more costly than any of Lenovo’s current offerings. Not kidding. We would be in the territory of the last 4:3 laptop standing – Panasonic CF-31 – which is an incredibly nice machine in many respects but…I’d rather have this. Seriously.

If I were to look at just the dollar amount spent on parts I could conclude that a T450s would’ve easily been within my reach. Broadwell, FHD IPS LCD and what not. More “oomph” and superior battery life when compared to any dual-core Arrandale-based system no matter where one went to school.

But it sports a 16:9 LCD. Not to mention a lousy 6-row keyboard layout.

T450s might be a fine system that would make many people happy, but I’ll pass and hang onto this one instead.

All the design imperfections notwithstanding, I’m very pleased with the machine that I’ve built and reviewed. It doesn’t mean that everyone should/would feel the same way.

Questions? Sly remarks? Not-so-well-hidden kicks in the gut?

Bring them on.

 

Nicely done! Actually if you snatch 640m the battery life wont be so bad. Not enough to justify giving-in to inferior aspect ratios Also I think it can be tweaked to go faster too. Keep up the good work!

A bit off - I really wish someone builds Sandy/Ivy board for the 8740w. It has it's fan base in China as well (the only 16:10 IPS (of decent real-estate) and half of the GPU upgrades are first tried there), but not as much as the ThinkPads obviously. If it does happen, I hope it would be with less side effects

 

Thank you.

I might, once I find a project worth my time. Getting old and grouchy...

I was toying with the idea of shoving a DC panel from 8740W into a W701 - which has been done by at least one member of 51nb forum in China - but gave up once I understood what it actually involved.

As for SB/IB board for 8740W, that would be a very interesting concept and I could see myself going for it. Nothing beats that particular LCD (1920x1200 DC version) in my book...

Your turn, buddy...

 

You are welcome! Seems that less and less people are after modding, which is really sad

Yeah time, then comes money, but mostly time, that's what holds back my current build.

I only found W700 CCFL to 8bit DC from 8730w, and speculation what it takes to make a DC2 work. A link would be nice As for W701 - it is pretty awesome machine, sadly Lenovo decided to make the MXM slot proprietary as hell (even more than what HP did with 8740w (wont work well with AMDs, nVIDIAs seem to do fine, it's a BIOS thing)), which made this machine more or less obsolete. Really, REALLY, bad decision, especially when you take into account that it's their last 17" workstation. I imagine W701ds with DC2 conversion and K5100m or M6100, that would be a kick-@$$ machine (not to mention expensive as hell, but as we say around here - fun has no price... or something like that )! The built-in colorimeter should be fine to tweak the DC2. Again, really sad that the up-to-date part (GPU upgrade) can't be realized, the CPU is strong enough to not be a concern, as well as its cooling as far as I can tell, so it can be clocked quite a bit (thank you @unclewebb for ThrottleStop). Speaking about conversions I have a theory that you can go the (relatively) easy way, but it's still some work to do - get the DC2, get the DC2 cable, get extra W701 RGB cable, cut both and mix and match. What I mean - you'll make the 10bit DC2 panel 8bit (leaving the extra lines unconnected), but it should work without color board and getting DP line. Still quite some work and again - just a theory, the on-board electronics might say - "Hey, where's the extra color channel? I wont work without it." and that would be it, who knows. As for the DP line, the MXM slot has extra DP lines, even if not used, I'm sure the GPU is connected to them as well*, it's just that they don't go anywhere after the MXM slot. Some soldering and you'll pull the extra DP needed without sacrificing existing DP connector. That's for the full 10bit mod. Whatever you decide - Good luck!

*Thinking about it, this is valid for standard MXM GPUs, but considering we are talking about this machine which has proprietary module, it might not be the case, and those lines might be missing.

Yeah, one can dream, hope someone comes-up with such board Till then, I'm working with what I have on hand while still looking for a (reasonably priced) DreamColor assembly or at least the main parts needed (display, color board and both cables - motherboard > color board and color board > display). Quite the display indeed, amen to that!

 

I freaking hate that the only new off-the-shelf not-short-screen-disguised-as-wide-screen laptop panel you can buy now is on a Chromebook (ignoring some rugged laptops). I would just throw a GNU desktop onto it but... arrrrr...

Do those ancient 1200p 4:3 panels show an degradation after so many years?

 

The one that I've installed in this system is NOS (New Old Stock) so it's as good as new. The ones that have been in use - and I've got several in my other systems - will show signs of age after several years.

 

This is amazing work! Well done!

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

I like everything except the full brightness all the time. While it certainly is not nearly as bad as it sounds, since you can apply a software filter and even hook up its control to some keyboard combos, battery life suffers and this rare panel burns out faster.

 

Awesome inspiring build!