Replacing NP900X3C Mobo with NP900X4D or later?

See title. I've also been eyeballing the NP900X3G, but the layout of the board is pretty much reversed?

 

Would you be meaning "replace NP900X3C Mobo with NP900X 3D or later?"? The X4D is a the larger machine and the board layout is different (eg only one fan but two RAM slots rather than 2 fans and soldered RAM.

Provided that the ports are in the same places then the remaining obstacle to a board swap is the display resolution as this is coded into the BIOS (probably to speed up the boot time) and a computer outputting a signal meant for a 1600 x 900 panel onto a 1920 x 1080 panel isn't very readable. The X3B, X3C and X3D all use 1600 x 900 resolution while, I think, the X3E models onwards are FHD and higher resolution. I recall someone doing a BIOS edit to sort out this display resolution problem but that's not something I would want to try.

John

 

Yes you are correct. I'm sorry my brain was a bit tired last night.

 

I put X3G internals into an X3D case. The mobo and daughter boards swapped right in, but the display was a bit of a battle. You need the FHD display, and you need a hobby knife and a Dremel to make it fit because it’s physically larger. You have to grind away a bunch of aluminum ribs (and half of a magnet) from the inside of the lid; be very careful not to grind all the way through. I recommend you completely cover the rest of the lid with painters tape or something to keep the aluminum dust from sticking to everything. Take your time and do a couple test fits, it’s better to remove too little material than too much. Then there are a few clips along the bottom of the bezel that need to be excised. Put it all back together with lots of 2mm digitizer tape. I can tell that it’s not absolutely perfect, but the fit is close enough that my wife can’t tell I had to butcher it on the inside.

 

Heya, thanks for sharing! If I were your wife then I would quite easily notice the shoddy craftsmanship not to mention the TN panel which you've mentioned. Jokes aside, was there any series issues running the stock panel i.e black screen and the likes? The idea was to pair this with a wacom tablet for drawing on the go among other things.

 

@Nessaja, sorry for the delayed response. No issues at all, but again, you need the panel that matches the mobo. The original 1600x900 panel doesn’t have the correct cable. I even found a 1920x1080 panel on Alibaba that sorta fit and had the correct cable and everything but it wouldn’t even power on. It has to be the X3G panel. Once I got the lid modified it was all plug and play.