T700 Crowdfunding: Modern mainboards for T60/T61

[rumbero]

For those who can afford it:

www.xyte.ch/t700-crowdfunding

[dr_st]

Impressive. The lack of a docking connector is a bit of a downside, but with TBT4 it is not as bad. This would be the most modern one yet. With a custom 3800x2400 screen for the 15.4" widescreen chassis - it could be a dream machine for some.

[RealBlackStuff]

Being picky:

T60, T61 4:3 15.4″: perfect compatibility

That size does not exist! Should be: 4:3 15.0"

15.4″ UXGA displays

That size does not exist! Should be: 15.0" UXGA

TransferWise

TransferWise no longer exists! Should be: Wise.

[ajkula66]

Interesting.

While I'm not in the market for anything of a kind at the moment - and am *way* too busy with non-ThinkPad-related stuff - this could be a game changer for quite a few oldtimers...

[TPFanatic]

Well isn't this potentially the perfect ThinkPad? Classic keyboard, modern chipset, high res LCDs, Thunderbolt... price is not bad compared to brand new workstations.

[dr_st]

Well isn't this potentially the perfect ThinkPad? Classic keyboard, modern chipset, high res LCDs, Thunderbolt... price is not bad compared to brand new workstations.

I think that in a T60 widescreen chassis, with a modern high-res LCD it may well be. The 4:3 variant leaves you with the old screens, which are scarce, relatively low-res and need expensive LED mods (or live with a dying CCFL). The T61 widescreen chassis is too ugly for me to consider.

I suppose batteries will be obtainable for third-party manufacturers for years to come.

Other than BIOS feature and stability, the make-or-break capability would be the Thunderbolt implementation. If it is robust enough to carry power, video (including all the dual modes, so you can connect it to a DP or an HDMI input monitor with a proper adapter), full PCIe (necessary for proper docking support) - then it truly be a world-class workstation. Without it - IMO, it's dead in the water.

Edit: Noticed this:

At launch, the stock BIOS will not support Thunderbolt 4. The TB4 hardware is fully incorporated in the motherboard design though. Coreboot should enable full TB4 functionality once it has been fully ported.

How does Coreboot interoperate with modern Windows?

[H-Atkinson]

For people such as myself who already have LED FlexView T601p systems, this is a really tempting offer. Might sell one of my P1s for this thing...

[xytech]

Coreboot is considered here mainly because of thunderbolt. It’s also a test bed for future projects as these projects are unsustainable by just ThinkPad enthusiasts. Targeting the open source and FOSS enthusiasts would bring in a lot more supporters and make these projects a lot more financially viable in the future.

Edited the page on the screen sizes as well.

[RealBlackStuff]

Your blog still shows "custom designed for the 15.4″ UXGA displays", should be 15.0".

[rumbero]

(user error, please ignore)

[xytech]

Your blog still shows "custom designed for the 15.4″ UXGA displays", should be 15.0".

Properly edited this time. Let me know if you guys have anymore feedback.