Thinkpads Forum

Ok, my x60s arrived today
first impression: excellent!! very nice machine indeed. Im happy with the noise level too (im sort of over-sensitive to that). Keyboard is great, as always. Feels comfortable, no problem with its size. Also, looks like im lucky and not infected with the hot palmrest thing. Feels warm, but not abnormal so, i guess i wouldnt notice if it wasnt for those threads here that made me check all the time:) Feels about the same as on my T40p, maybe slightly warmer. And ive been using the x60s now all day long, mostly on AC and max performance, using the wireless card - sometimes quite heavy - too. I have the intel card, btw.

The HD is not the most quiet one ive heard so far though. Its ok, not too bad, but theres a little bit of white noise, audible only in total silence, coming from the drive (yes i am sure that is not the fan). I think i saw a post here a few days ago, when doing pre-purchase-research on x60 noise issues, someone mentioned the hd having a quite-mode, or someting similar. But i cant find that anymore. Maybe im mixing things up though, been reading far too many laptop reviews and things recently... Or maybe a bios update could fix that?
i know , i can just try of course;) just so many other things left that need installing that i thought it doesnt hurt asking.....
cheers
oh, and did i mention yet, this thing is just amazing:)
When the delivery guy gave me the box i was first thinking '[censored], they forgot to put the 'puter in there' ..its soooo lightweight:)

You may be able to adjust you HD's S.M.A.R.T features using NHC:

http://www.pbus-167.com/


Or your HD manufacturer may have a downloadable utilty you can get online to change the drive's power settings.

Doesn't seem to work. I can't even monitor the hd temperature with NHC. So looks like no smart for this drive (its an 80gig S-ATA 5400, HTS541080G9SA00 is what nhc reports (hitachi?))

Little bit off topic, but did you order yours through the Lenovo website? And if so, how long did it take for you to get it?

Just curious as I've ordered one and they quoted about 30 days... but hoping to get it sooner...

andreas74 wrote:Doesn't seem to work. I can't even monitor the hd temperature with NHC. So looks like no smart for this drive (its an 80gig S-ATA 5400, HTS541080G9SA00 is what nhc reports (hitachi?))

If it's Hitachi you can try downloading the feature tool and use it on boot up to set the drive features (if they're available):

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Oh, as for NHC...it doesn't show the temperature on mine either. However, the options for "Advanced Power Management" and "Acoustic Management" do work. I believe "Advanced Power Management" requires a reboot to change, while "Acoustic Management" can change immediately. "Acoustic Management" should reduce the drive's rotation speed; lower means slower.

smvp6459 wrote:"Acoustic Management" should reduce the drive's rotation speed; lower means slower.

Ok thanks, ill try that later when i get to it. However, what i had in mind was a silent mode that affects the speed of the drive almost zero i know, im probably asking too much, but thats what i remember reading ... ahh well, whatever. Will do some research.

kdavis wrote:Little bit off topic, but did you order yours through the Lenovo website? And if so, how long did it take for you to get it?

Nope, not through lenovo. Through some reseller here in switzerland. Theres loads of special-offer x60s's around a.t.m., here in this country. Quite a bit cheaper than directly from Lenovo, however its a 'fixed' model , not much to configure (but was just about right for me). Its the 1704-56G that is all over the place here. Ive ordered it friday, they had it in stock, delivery arrived yesterday:) .... I think for an X60 core2duo it would look very different . Would take alot longer i guess.... (mines an L2400 ...)

smvp6459 wrote:"Acoustic Management" should reduce the drive's rotation speed; lower means slower.

AM only changes the way the HD accesses data. It does NOT change rotating speed of course.
If it is the 'white noise' like sound that is bothering you AM won't help.

surg wrote:

smvp6459 wrote:"Acoustic Management" should reduce the drive's rotation speed; lower means slower.

AM only changes the way the HD accesses data. It does NOT change rotating speed of course.
If it is the 'white noise' like sound that is bothering you AM won't help.

I assumed it reduced rotation speed because:
1. The vibration of the drive is reduced
2. Less heat is generated
3. Power consumption is reduced

The read noises reduce as well and performance is reduced but I wouldn't expect less vibration, heat, and power consumption if all it was doing was accessing the drive differently.

[quote="andreas74"]
Ok thanks, ill try that later when i get to it. However, what i had in mind was a silent mode that affects the speed of the drive almost zero :) i know, im probably asking too much, but thats what i remember reading ... ahh well, whatever. Will do some research.[/quote]

"Advanced Power Management" allows you to set the drive to either go into low power idle or completely spin down when the drive isn't in use. You might choose spin down. Though, if you access the drive it will spin back up.

andreas74 wrote:Ok thanks, ill try that later when i get to it. However, what i had in mind was a silent mode that affects the speed of the drive almost zero i know, im probably asking too much, but thats what i remember reading ... ahh well, whatever. Will do some research.

All modern hard drives run at a fixed rotational speed, so the only options are on or off. What you probably really want is one of the upcoming hybrid hard drives that use a 1 GB+ flash memory buffer to allow the drive to run only 5-10% of the time, otherwise it's in sleep mode, not spinning at all.