For those who still appreciate the 4:3 format and hi-end IPS LCDs...my new FrankenPad

FrankenPad T601FL:




T9500 Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz Penryn CPU
8GB RAM
15" UXGA (1600x1200) Hydis AFFS FlexView LED LCD
nVidia NVS140M GPU
DVD RW multiburner
256GB Crucial M4 SSD
Atheros abgn wireless card
Verizon WWAN
Bluetooth
NO MODEM
Gigabit Ethernet
UltraNav
Security Chip
Fingerprint reader
Middleton's BIOS
Win 7 Pro 64-bit

The basic ingredients were a good looking shell from a 15" T60 unit, a late-model T61 motherboard and a brand new Boe Hydis AFFS UXGA FlexView LED lit LCD...

More on this latest project of mine, along with quite a few comparison pictures can be found here:

forum.thinkpads.com • The ultimate* 4:3 FrankenPad...brace yourself...HUGE pics

Questions, comments and constructive criticism are both welcomed and encouraged...

 

Love the work man .

 

Nice! Was there an option for LED in those, or you made it to run

 

There was no LED option back in the T6x series days...however, Hydis introduced these LED-lit FlexViews some time ago, and with quite some modding in the cabling/inverter areas (not on the panel itself) they can run on any 15" ThinkPad...I also own a heavily-modded T43p that utilizes the same screen, you can see it here:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=107072

 

Dude thats awesome i'm checking out the link.what kind of modding was required to fit then ewer motherboard? Have you tried higher quality thermal pads or copper shims for the gpu? does the gpu even have a heat sink? if not have you consider big thick soft thermal pads to shim between the board/gpu and case?

 

The frame has to be slightly modified to accept the T61 board, and you lose the modem in the process. Very slight cutting is involved.

Nope, all is stock T61 cooling, where CPU and GPU share the same heatsink. I'm not a gamer, so I'm quite comfortable with not modding any of those aspects. I have yet to see GPU temps rise above 65 degrees C anytime apart from benchmarking applications/stress testing.

 

The only problem with your brightness comparison between LCD panels is that brightness fades over time, so a really old panel is at a huge disadvantage compared to a new one.

Anyway, that is totally awesome! I was on 4:3 for the longest time myself!

 

That's why the first shots in the linked thread are against the NOS LG screen that was installed less than a month ago...that's the newest I had around here...:hi2:

 

Impressive job then, any pictures of the LED mod, or it's top secret Also what kind of tricks do you mean regarding the SSD? I also have 256GB M4 (mSATA with adapter, but anyway) and have similar results, isn't that the limit of SATA-II?

 

The latter...

I believe I wrote "tweaks", not "tricks"...not done tweaking the SSD yet, will get to it over the weekend...

 

Brightness on LCD (ac) fades over time? so that means if i upgrade my laptops screen to better screen it might be waaaaayyy brighter? SSD tweaks?

 

This is true for CCFL-lit panels, not for the LED ones. I really don't know what you own so I couldn't possibly comment on that.

Well, yeah, the basic stuff to optimize the interaction of OS with SSD, nothing mind-boggling, really.

 

The white LED's used in the backlight for any LCD screen do fade, and the color can shift as well. And what is funny is that it happens for the EXACT same reason that CCFL's fade, the phosphor that emits the white light degrades.

 

I guess that I should've been more specific in my response...

Yes, LED panels do age as well (as pretty much everything does) and will eventually fail. That being said...

I support several businesses that still have a plethora of early T400/X300 ThinkPads with LED screens. None of them is showing signs of aging as of yet, and they're well into their fourth year at this point in the game.

My point being, most users will not keep their laptops long enough to ever notice a decrease in brightness of a LED panel.

 

I'm sure my 5920G is showing signs of age on top of being a poor quality screen. I bet once i upgrade the colors will "POP" more and it will be more visible in sun light.

What kind of SSD tweaks did you do?

 

Honestly, the only laptops that I found *really* usable in direct sunlight were newer ToughBooks, such as CF-30/31.

Just the basic stuff to prolong the life of the drive...disable Prefetch/Superfetch/Indexing/Paging File/Defragmenting...

 

The only LED screens available today is OLED ones. LED screen != LCD screen with LED backlight. CCFL backlight still have advantages compared to normal (= white LED only) backlights but LED backlights can be made thinner and thin is in...
(Sorry for the interruption but calling LCD screens "LED" is a pet peeve)

 

That's hardly the only reason why LED backlighting is used...in this particular case, the new (LED-lit) Hydis panel is of the exact same size (not any thinner) as the conventional CCFL-lit one from the same manufacturer. I've got several examples of each model sitting here...

 

No QXGA panel?

 

That was the previous one, you can see it here (the second post):

My FrankenPads... - Lenovo Community

I've also owned a QXGA R50p and QXGA-modded T43p, but my eyes are not good enough to enjoy that resolution anymore...

 

any power savings going to led?

 

Honestly, I wasn't even thinking about that, since power savings are meaningless in my usage scenario...the machine has since been sold, so I can't test anything anymore...