x220 ulv fan cooler weights only 31 g

[ssd_thinkpad]

Today my x220 ulv fan equipment arrives and it weights only 31 g. This is including some plastic that I did not remove. The ulv fan only has one heatpipe and it is CU. I thought they made it of aluminium, I am a little bit disappointed there. It seems to be exactly like the lv cooler with the difference that they

- removed one CU heatpipe
- one site of the cooler is blocked by a plastic part so there is no heat coming through.

I was hoping to remove weight by having still a passive cooled system as I have with the T60 now but I don't think it will work with this cooler.

[khtse]

Today my x220 ulv fan equipment arrives and it weights only 31 g. This is including some plastic that I did not remove. The ulv fan only has one heatpipe and it is CU. I thought they made it of aluminium, I am a little bit disappointed there. It seems to be exactly like the lv cooler with the difference that they

- removed one CU heatpipe
- one site of the cooler is blocked by a plastic part so there is no heat coming through.

I was hoping to remove weight by having still a passive cooled system as I have with the T60 now but I don't think it will work with this cooler.

What the heck is "ulv" fan and "lv" fan? What's the problem with it being 31g? Too heavy? Too light? The effectiveness of a cooling fan/heatsink is not judged by its weight. People who buy an X-series instead of a T-series expect it to be lighter, so every component in it is intended to be lighter than their counterparts in the T-series. By the way, copper is more effective in transferring heat than aluminium. If you have any experience with after market desktop CPU heatsink, you know that copper version of the same model is usually more effective and cost more.

I haven't seen the CPU cooler of the X220 yet, but sides of heatsinks are oftentimes blocked so that airflow goes in the direction that they are intended to. Btw, T60 does NOT have a PASSIVE cooling system (unless your fan stopped working), and the CPU in the X220 is significantly hotter than that in the T60 (since now both the memory controller and graphic chip are integrated into the CPU), you do NOT want to turn it into a passive cooling system.

[iamdmc]

Having had experience with both models, I can't agree that the T60 runs less hot then the X220. That's just crazy talk.

[khtse]

Having had experience with both models, I can't agree that the T60 runs less hot then the X220. That's just crazy talk.

The X220 maybe cooler in many situation due to significantly higher CPU performance at the same clock speed. As a result, it can be run at a lower clock speed and use less energy (thus less heat) than the T60, running the same task.

But it's completely different story when the CPU is at full load. Full loading CPU with HT enabled using LinX can caused the CPU in X220 to heat up to 90C and start throttling. There has been a lot of discussions regarding this issue on notebookreview forum and lenovo forum.

[ssd_thinkpad]

Having had experience with both models, I can't agree that the T60 runs less hot then the X220. That's just crazy talk.

Did you use both coolers with the same system? Did you notice a difference between the ulv and the lv model?

ULV = Ultra Low Colt
LV = Low Volt

Aluminium is lighter than cupper and I think it is more expensive. I thought the ULV model is aimed to be lighter and therefore uses more aluminium instead of cupper. Instead the ULV model is a stripped down LV model. I remembered the T60 cooler to weight around several hundreds of grams. This 31 g is just amazingly lightweight.

[erik]

I was hoping to remove weight by having still a passive cooled system as I have with the T60 now but I don't think it will work with this cooler.

unless you have a ULV processor such as the 17W TDP i5-2537M, the ULV heatsink is a poor choice for 35W TDP processors.   the ULV heatsink simply cannot dissipate heat rapidly enough to match NV processors.

[khtse]

Did you use both coolers with the same system? Did you notice a difference between the ulv and the lv model?

ULV = Ultra Low Colt
LV = Low Volt

Aluminium is lighter than cupper and I think it is more expensive. I thought the ULV model is aimed to be lighter and therefore uses more aluminium instead of cupper. Instead the ULV model is a stripped down LV model. I remembered the T60 cooler to weight around several hundreds of grams. This 31 g is just amazingly lightweight.

Copper is more effective as heatsink materials. Heatsinks made of copper are more expensive than their aluminium counterparts. Thinkpads (X200s, X61s) with ULV CPUs, i.e. the more expensive models, use aluminium heatsinks because by nature of ULV, they run cooler thus could use thinner lighter, but "weaker" heatsinks. Not because aluminium is a premium material or anything like that. But then, heatsink is only part of the overall cooling design. If the airflow sucks, it doesn't matter even if you put a 3 pound heatink in it.

[ssd_thinkpad]

khtse, aluminium is indeed cheaper, I did not know that. I am disappointed that the x220 ulv cooler is not using more aluminium than the x220 lv cooler. Instead just one cupper heat sink is left out. I will report here about the temperature comparision between both coolers, for sure

[khtse]

khtse, aluminium is indeed cheaper, I did not know that. I am disappointed that the x220 ulv cooler is not using more aluminium than the x220 lv cooler. Instead just one cupper heat sink is left out. I will report here about the temperature comparision between both coolers, for sure

I don't think there is X220 with low voltage CPU, Only Normal Voltage and Ultra Low Voltage. And X220 with ULV CPUs are not available here in the US as far as I know, at least I haven't seen anyone talking about it and the only place I read about it is from X220 Hardware Maintenance Manual.

What's the CPU on your X220? Is it a NV or ULV? If it is the former, do NOT try to install the ULV heatsink on it. The ULV heatsink is smaller (according to your description, I haven't seen one) because the ULV CPU generate less heat than the NV CPU, and thus a weaker heatsink is already capable of dissipating the heat it generates. Putting the heatsink designed for ULV CPUs onto your NV CPU most likely will cause your system to overheat very often, rendering your system highly unstable, and it will auto-shut down whenever it is overheat. It the best case scenario, your system will be a lot noisier as the fan has to work a lot harder to cope with the smaller heatsink to get rid of the heat. Given that these heatsinks are very light to start with, any weight saving by putting on a smaller heatsink will be insignificant.

[ssd_thinkpad]

My i3 x220 (no ulv) idles below 60 celsius with passive cooling. My T60 idles at around 70-80 celsius when cooled passive.

The motherboard with the non-ulv cooler definitely weights something. I did not replace the cooler yet. I removed speakers, expresscard and sata drive and put a intel msata inside. So far it works great, although the display is like looking through a bunker. Too much on the top and below, there shouldn't be such a big bezel at all. Keyboard entry is not good due to the small palm rest. But the build quality is outstanding. When you open the x220 you notice that mostly all screws are the same which is a big plus. The x220 is heavier than what I thought it would be, so I will try the ulv cooler.

[ssd_thinkpad]

The non-ulv cooler is definitely heavier. The ulv cooler has a five pin connector to the motherboard where the non-ulv cooler only uses four pins. The fifth pin of the ulv cooler is not used. A scissor did the job more than fine. I am running my x220 i3 now with the ulv cooler and it is passive cooled below 60 celsius. I don't notice any difference in heat - now The x220 feels more lightweight now with the 4 cell battery, no sata, no speakers, no pcmcia and the lighter ulv cooler. I begin to like it. I hope our relationship will stay a cool one, though

[erik]

And X220 with ULV CPUs are not available here in the US as far as I know, at least I haven't seen anyone talking about it and the only place I read about it is from X220 Hardware Maintenance Manual.

my latest X220 has an i5-2537M.   they're around, albeit very rare.

[ssd_thinkpad]

my latest X220 has an i5-2537M.   they're around, albeit very rare.

Did you order this x220 at lenovo.com? I only found the mainboards in the ibm shop but without price and delivery date.

I remember there was a difference in the speed aluminium and cupper could give the heat away. I just do not remember which was faster.

By the way, when you reconnect the mainboard, you have to plugin the monitor. I did this now several times, but this procedure is not showed on lenovoservicetraining.com

[khtse]

my latest X220 has an i5-2537M.   they're around, albeit very rare.

Do you any experience with NV X220? How does the battery life compare?

[erik]

Did you order this x220 at lenovo.com?

i don't believe they were ever offered on the sales site, if that's what you're asking.

Do you any experience with NV X220? How does the battery life compare?

my last X220 was an i5-2520M.   on a 4-cell battery it got around 4 hours of normal use.   the i5-2537M seems to be getting around 5~5.5 hours with a 4-cell under the same usage pattern.

these are preliminary numbers though.   i've only been using the ULV a couple of weeks and haven't had much time to thoroughly test it.

[Widows Son]

..... X220 with ULV CPUs are not available here in the US as far as I know, at least I haven't seen anyone talking about it and the only place I read about it is from X220 Hardware Maintenance Manual.

FWIW, COSTCO does carry one:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.as ... 84&topnav=


Have a Magical Day!

[erik]

FWIW, COSTCO does carry one:

link

that's an ideapad E220s, not an X220.