T400 & Best Motherboard Available 2012

[theseleben]

Evening All,

I currently have a Lenovo T400 (7417-CTO), and have loved it since its first bootup.  I've upgraded a handful of components, including the drive and memory (Samsung SSD 830 series and 8GB RAM).  I'd really like to upgrade my motherboard for a few reasons:

- Need more video card power.  Currently running the onboard Intel card (didn't upgrade to discrete when purchased).

- I want to capitalize on my new SSD's full potential (Sata III). 

What's the best available motherboard for the T400 series in terms of an upgrade?  Would a new T420 motherboard with an Nvidia chip fit the casing of a T400, and be compatible (i.e. keyboard, buttons, lights, etc)? 

Thanks a bunch everyone,

Benjamin

[richk]

No other model's motherboard will fit. You can put in an ATi-based board, which will give you some improvement, but that sort of upgrade is usually not cost-effective.

[theseleben]

Thanks a bunch for the reply Richk - very helpful.  Any chance you or anyone else knows the model number of the T400 motherboard with discrete ATI video?  I'd like to see what it would run me... perhaps on Ebay if need be. 

Thanks again,

Benjamin

[ColonelONeill]

Maybe an eGPU solution?

[ahumeniy]

You can take a look at the Hardware Maintenance Manual (it's available at Lenovo's website free of charge if you know how to search) There you can find the part numbers for every component of a T400 such as motherboards.

[TheDude]

Might be about time for a T420?

Another option is find an Advanced Dock (not mini-dock).  ebay has them.  You can put in a lower-power video card (under 50 watt), possibly as high as an AMD 5570/6570.  You will want to search around for other's experience - this is now a bit of an old solution as well.