Some questions and issues regarding X220

Hello, I just got an X220 and want to possibly upgrade the HD to an SSD. I believe I first need to get an external DVD writer to create the recovery discs and then install those recovery discs onto the SSD. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I might hold off the SSD upgrade until I can deal with the hot temperatures of this laptop.

The fan seems to be on a bit loudly quite a bit and the area around the vent is pretty hot. Is this somewhat normal for this laptop? I don't recall the X230 being this way (the one I tried was new and the X220 I have is a used one). It seems the temperatures are more often than not near 70C.

I'm looking into disabling some of the background programs. Can you guys recommend some programs to disable? I'm not sure which Lenovo and Microsoft programs are "essential."

I do like the screen, keyboard and a lot of the other nice things about it.

I would appreciate any feedback.

Thanks.

 

1: I think you can create bootable USB recovery media. I did not do that and just used a clean ISO image and a clean install and drivers from the Lenovo site ... I hate any form of bloatware.

2: clean out the fan and vents. if you blow air into the vent in reverse to dislodge it it helps. worst case you may need to poke inside and do a repaste, my 220 and 230 both run pretty cool.

 

I did not think of creating a bootable USB recovery media! That seems like a better way. I think the recovery media is around 10GB so that's the size USB I would need.

I just blew some compressed air into the vents and saw some dust coming out. When you say blow air in reverse, do you mean blow it through the back of the laptop? I blew it in through the side as well as the back.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

 

The fan on my X200 was vacuum like until I replaced it, which solved the problem. You might want to upgrade to the latest BOIS to see if that offers any relief.

If you're not using WWAN, I'd suggest the mSATA SSD, which plugs into the miniPCI slot below the palm rest. That would allow you to keep the platter drive for storage, where speed is not as critical.

 

I downloaded the latest BIOS but it appears that the latest BIOS was already installed. Thanks for the fan replacement suggestion but I got this as a portable laptop and won't use it nearly as often as the main PC. Ah, did not consider the mSATA option. Might be a possibility.

Thank you.