Lenovo ThinkPad T470 Media Box Conversion

Lenovo ThinkPad T470 Media Box Conversion

This project converts a Lenovo ThinkPad T470 motherboard into a compact media server or NAS enclosure while reusing as much of the original hardware as possible. The laptop had a broken screen and keyboard and I didn't want to throw it away with a working board which is why I started the project.

The enclosure was designed around the build volume of my 3D printer (approximately 220 × 220 mm), which is why the design is split into multiple parts. Some components are designed to press-fit together, while others are assembled using heat-set inserts and screws, making the enclosure easy to print, assemble, and modify if needed.

The enclosure is designed around the T470 motherboard and supports:

• Lenovo ThinkPad T470 motherboard

• 1 × 2.5" SATA drive (boot drive)

• 1 × 3.5" SATA drive (high-capacity storage)

• M.2 Wi-Fi to dual SATA adapter (replaces the original Wi-Fi card and provides connections for both drives) - I used this one (M.2 A Key + E Key to SATA 3 Adapter JM582 Chips 2 Ports SATA III Revision Card)

• Original internal battery

• Original power button board using a custom external power button housing

The enclosure is designed with customisation in mind. One side includes ventilation slots, while the opposite side has a mounting opening for a 120 mm fan. The remaining panels are intentionally left blank (apart from the power button) so you can easily modify the STL files to add your own I/O such as USB, Ethernet, HDMI, or anything else your build requires.

Power Distribution

The enclosure is powered from the original 20 V Lenovo power input. The incoming 20 V supply is split into two paths:

• Directly to the ThinkPad motherboard for normal operation and battery charging.

• To a 5 V relay, which switches power to the rest of the enclosure.

The relay is powered from one of the motherboard's USB ports, meaning the drives and cooling system only receive power when the ThinkPad itself is turned on.

Once the relay closes, the switched 20 V supply is split into:

• A 5 V buck converter for 5v SATA power.

• A 12 V buck converter for 12v SATA power and a PWM controller for the 120 mm fan.

This allows the laptop to charge normally at all times while ensuring the drives and fan are only powered when the system is running.

Important: If you use a USB port to trigger the relay, make sure Always On USB is disabled in the BIOS. Otherwise, the USB port remains powered when the laptop is off, causing the relay (and therefore the drives and fan) to stay on. Alternatively, you can source the relay's 5 V trigger from another switched power source on the motherboard.

Assembly

The enclosure uses heat-set inserts throughout:

• M2 heat-set inserts and screws for the main enclosure.

• M3 heat-set inserts and screws to secure the motherboard tray to the outer shell.

• M4 heat-set inserts and screws to mount the external power button assembly.

Unfortunately I didn't note the lengths, I just purchased a set of inserts and screws and used them as needed. 

Notes

• A mount is included for the original internal battery.

• No mount is provided for the removable external battery.

• This design does not use the original Lenovo SATA/M.2 drive cable. The T470 I received was missing the original cable and instead had an M.2 drive caddy with a cable that was too short for this layout. The enclosure is therefore designed around an M.2 Wi-Fi to dual SATA adapter, which provides SATA connections for both the 2.5" and 3.5" drives.

• Some soldering and wiring is required for the power distribution.

• The design is intended as a starting point for customisation, so feel free to remix the side panels to suit your own hardware and I/O requirements.

Disclaimer

This was a personal passion project that I spent far more time on than I expected. After putting so much effort into it, I felt it would be a shame to keep it to myself if it could help someone else build something similar.

I'm really proud of how it turned out, but it is by no means a professionally designed product. This was only the third project I've created in Fusion 360, and by far the largest and most complex. Because of that, you'll probably find a few imperfections—some tolerances may be a little off, a few holes might not be perfectly positioned, and some of the model joins aren't as clean as they could be.

That said, I've built this project myself, and it works well for my intended use. I hope it provides a useful starting point for others, whether you build it as-is or use it as a base for your own improvements.

I also didn't take photos of or document the build process, but it should be pretty self-explanatory, happy to answer questions if you have any.

If you do end up making one, or improve on the design, I'd genuinely love to see what you create.