temperature of thinkpad X220

Hello all,

My X220 : i5 2520, Ram 16GB corsair, SSD 256GB Samsung 830.

I use my machine to setup "Virtualization VMWare LAB on VMWare Workstation" for my practice.

When turn on my LAB so the temperature of my machine is so high, it's always about over 90°C (CPU temperature with AIDA64 result)

Help me, my machine is seem too hot to work.

Thanks all !!!

 

That's normal? Do remember you have a standard voltage i5 in your laptop, my X220 tablet would reach those temperatures when I tested gaming performance on it..

 

Yeah 90s at load isn't too unusual for the x220, especially if you have an i5 or i7.

 

Still, you could probably slash about 5-10C by using an after market and high quality thermal paste. Lenovo uses a decent one but their application method isn't the best. They often apply too much paste. I recommend Shinetsu or Tuniq TX-4, good results and easy to apply/clean. ICD-24 is even better in terms of temps but will leave permanent marks on the heatsink and CPU after a few months.

 

try using TPFanControl and set 64 for fan speed - this should spin the fan to maximum rpm thus cool your laptop better. the other thing that you can do is disable the turbo boost.

... 90 deg C and up is too much for my likings ..

I knew i7 x220 laptops were having heat issues but didn't know the i5 ones are in the same bucket :|

 

my i7 X220 was around 50 degrees average, and it will hit around 85 degrees when i stress it with furmark and prime95 at the same time.

 

85 is what I'd expect in Prime95 with a decent paste job.

 

for CPU stress testing use LinX.

I've seen couple people complaining of their CPUs throttling down due to heat, and we all know at what temperatures that happen (past 85 deg C by quite a lot).

 

90°C are normal. With an i7, some X220 also reach 100°C. There is nothing to worry about.

 

I have an x220 with an i5 2540, the cores seem to idle at around the 50-55°C mark and will quite happily get up to 80-90°C under load. This does seem to be normal however and as soon as I stop whatever I'm doing they come back down to sensible temperatures very quickly. Nothing to worry about it seems.

 

I also have the x220 with a 2540 proc. Hovers around 45-50 when plugged in doing basic tasks like web browsing. Hovers around 85C when playing demanding games. I can get the gaming temps lower sometimes by limiting the frame rate, for example via vsync.

My system perf is set to "turbo" in lenovo's power manager. There is one setting higher "maximum turbo." I haven't noticed an increase in frame rates with the highest setting. I think all it does is stop the proc from throttling unless the temps get too high. The normal turbo setting will throttle down if the temps are high and if the extra boost isn't needed.

 

It looks like you dont realize that with 100 deg C your CPU is within 5 degrees of shutting down completely, and is throttling down already. On top of that 5 deg C is difference that you can experience when going from inside to outside of a building at least half the time within a years four seasons, thus affecting the cooling abilities of the laptop with 5 deg as well.

I can accept somebody's opinion of ~90 deg C being OK, eventhough for me that's hot, but saying 100 deg C is nothing to worry about sounds like fail to me.

 

I have an i3, so it only reaches 84°C at max. load.

But yes, over at the German ThinkPad forum there are enough people with an i7 in their X220. According to one of them, his X220 reaches 100°C under max. load, but it doesn't throttle.

CPU's are made to be "used", and it is yet to be proven that a CPU that runs at 100°C for 24/7 is gonna live shorter than one that runs at 80 or 90°C for 24/7.

There are people that say it doesn't matter if your CPU gets hot, and there are people who say CPU's should stay cool.

So far, all my "hot" CPU's have survived, so I personally don't care about temperature anymore.

 

I drive past red lights all the time, never been stopped or crashed. It must be safe!

I could go on for a page to talk about laptop failures when processors hit approximately 100c for prolonged usage in laptops, however I'd rather just say this:

1. Processors were not designed to operate 24/7 at 100c. Nor were 98% of laptops.
2. Usage at 100c will lead to saturation, which will lead to power system degradation. There's a risk your power system will fail, and your motherboard and other peripherals will die. This I have tested my self. And if you look at Johnny guru's reviews on power supplies, you will notice some power supplies for desktops (much higher quality than any power system in any laptop) show degradation in the hot box)

While internals may not reach 100c (at that point your laptop should have turned off) they can reach upwards to 60c-80c nearing the CPU which is enough to cause instability. Not to mention some companies think it's perfectly fine to place ram, or hard drives near the CPU or GPU.

This is why it's important to have a good cooling design that prevents temperatures from hitting 100c. If temperatures hit 100c and remain, the cooling system is inadequate. (HP envy 17, both old and new revisions).

 

Really? I must try this one day!

Seriously though. CPU's weren't made for working at 100°C all the time, you are correct. However, CPU's are made to be used at constant full load, because many people just have to do that. So in this case, if it reaches 100°C while doing so, you don't really have a choice.

The interesting thing is that the i7-2620m (and 2640m) both have a TJunction of 100°C, yet the X220 doesn't shut down at 100°C. I'm not sure why, probably because you would never be able to use it at full load otherwise. BTW, it may not throttle, but it most likely goes easy on the turbo boost)

The X220 is MIL-Spec tested, so it will also withstand great heat under full load. I can't imagine it being that bad.

 

Don't go past red lights, I was providing an analogy.

MIL Spec doesn't make it any more durable than a laptop which isn't mil speced.
To be honest most laptops in the $700 and up range can easily survive MIL specs. Some under $700 can survive it just as well, it's just a little harder due to hinges, and hard drives used.

You really do have a choice which is to not run the processor at 100c all the time.
At 100c, every arrandale, or sandy bridge laptop I've handled that ran that hot throttled the processor. A couple throttled very little, maybe 200-400 mhz but a majority easily went down by at least 40%.
Forgot to mention we have a family owned computer repair business in the Dallas area, been in business for over 5 years.

Mil specs tests the system at 60c while turned off. The only time the computer is tested (but not during full load) while being heated is during the temperature fluctuation which is -19.4c to 60c.