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W530 motherboard in W520 chassis?

W500/W510/W520 and W700/W701 Series
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alalalalysa
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W530 motherboard in W520 chassis?

#1 Post by alalalalysa » Fri Nov 21, 2025 5:16 am

Fried W520 motherboard. Considering getting a W530 board and an i7-3632 to replace it (better GPU, CPU has lower TDP). Does anyone have any experience with this? Does it fit? What modifications are required? I know I'll have to flash the EC to get the keyboard to work properly and I know that the DisplayPort and eSATA+USB have been replaced with mini DP and just USB respectively.
moofish2842 on Reddit posted that they put a T530 board into a T520 and mentioned that the frame required a lot of modification but never elaborated. Their account is banned and I have no way of contacting them.

RealBlackStuff
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Re: W530 motherboard in W520 chassis?

#2 Post by RealBlackStuff » Fri Nov 21, 2025 7:43 am

T520/W520 have the same chassis, as do the T530/W530.
So you'd run into the same problems as this Moofish.
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dcfbf
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Re: W530 motherboard in W520 chassis?

#3 Post by dcfbf » Fri Nov 21, 2025 11:30 am

From what I know, many of the standoffs are in the wrong places so you'll need to modify them and you'll have to live with most of the screws not put in.

Edit: the VGA connector is also different on the W530 compared to the W520
IBM: 760ED, 600E, 570, T23, X30, T40, G41, T43 SATA, T43 UXGA, R52 IPS SXGA+
Lenovo: X41t, T60p UXGA, R60, T60, T61 4:3, T61, X61 SXGA+, T500, X301, E40, X201t, W520, X220, T430, W541, T450s, Yoga 460, P71, X1 Carbon 6, T480, T14 G3, X1 Carbon 12

Current Dailies: X1C6, P71

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