3 ms·

The chip is soldered in, and the heat dissipation from the i7 2640m in the x220 model is woeful, 30-40 degrees at idle and then 90-96 under load typically. The

The chip is soldered in, and the heat dissipation from the i7 2640m in the x220 model is woeful, 30-40 degrees at idle and then 90-96 under load typically. The fan will sit at 4500-5000rpm to get the temperature back below 50 degrees, depending on your thinkfan profiles in linux. A docking station makes matters worse. I cannot wait to replace mine.

pelasaco 5y ago
but what would be the alternative? There is any CPU update that would be possible for us?
- eliasmacpherson 5y ago
  I don't think there is enough demand for anybody to make a replacement motherboard for the shell, maybe some person will undertake a solo project to do it for a lot of money. Apparently you can fit an x230 board in there but the x230 does not accept x220 batteries and so you have to flash the EC too. I'm not massively impressed with the performance of the x230 i7 and the heat dissipation will remain a big problem, so I don't consider this swap worth the effort. https://old.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/3fzm0c/x230_motherboard_in_x220_chassis/ https://old.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/3fzm0c/x230_mothe... https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Embedded_Controller_Firmware https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Embedded_Controller_Firmware There are more options if you want to get into soldering CPUs https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=121844 https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=121844
flyinghamster 5y ago
I have a couple of used X201 Tablets with i7s that I picked up a few years ago to use as beaters, and I'll heartily agree that an i7 in a laptop is ill-suited for any kind of extended load[0]. If I set the BIOS to the "normal" setting, the 2.13 GHz i7 L 640 throttles down to 1.2 GHz. There's also a "performance" setting; I don't recall what it throttled to when using it, but I do recall that it would let the CPU get up to 99°C, one degree shy of shutdown. They stay in the low 80s [edit: under load] in normal mode. If you only need short bursts of high performance, the i7 is fine. [0] YMMV, particularly with newer processors

pelasaco 5y ago

but what would be the alternative? There is any CPU update that would be possible for us?

eliasmacpherson 5y ago
I don't think there is enough demand for anybody to make a replacement motherboard for the shell, maybe some person will undertake a solo project to do it for a lot of money. Apparently you can fit an x230 board in there but the x230 does not accept x220 batteries and so you have to flash the EC too. I'm not massively impressed with the performance of the x230 i7 and the heat dissipation will remain a big problem, so I don't consider this swap worth the effort. https://old.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/3fzm0c/x230_motherboard_in_x220_chassis/ https://old.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/3fzm0c/x230_mothe... https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Embedded_Controller_Firmware https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Embedded_Controller_Firmware There are more options if you want to get into soldering CPUs https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=121844 https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=121844

flyinghamster 5y ago

I have a couple of used X201 Tablets with i7s that I picked up a few years ago to use as beaters, and I'll heartily agree that an i7 in a laptop is ill-suited for any kind of extended load[0]. If I set the BIOS to the "normal" setting, the 2.13 GHz i7 L 640 throttles down to 1.2 GHz. There's also a "performance" setting; I don't recall what it throttled to when using it, but I do recall that it would let the CPU get up to 99°C, one degree shy of shutdown. They stay in the low 80s [edit: under load] in normal mode. If you only need short bursts of high performance, the i7 is fine. [0] YMMV, particularly with newer processors