T520 heat issue

[pjw901015]

This is my first thinkpad, and the configuration is i5-2520m, integrated graphics, 4gb ram, 320gb 7200rpm hdd, 1366x768.

One of the reasons I decided to purchase a T520 is for its boasted cooling system.
However, I find myself hard to be bought into the numerous praises I've found on the web.

I can easily feel the warmth underneath with minimal usage.
On the right half of the bottom of the notebook, it truly feels "cool" as anyone would describe.
However, left side, from the lid in the center and on, definitely generates heat that sharply contrasts the other half.
This is a 3 day old system, and as said above, I'm feeling heat with a very light usage, such as web surfing and/or watching a video. You can feel enough heat to make you somewhat uncomfortable with the computer on your lap on a summer day. You can feel this much heat when you're using a smart phone for several minutes, before it reaches the level of being "hot."

This is a huge let down for me, when I expected to get a computer with top-of-the-line cooling system.
In terms of cooling, my dad's two year old acer produces similar results even after the wear and tear that this thinkpad is yet to accumulate.

The battery is plugged in, and under power options, I have 5,4,5,6 green dots for performance, system temperature, fan sound level, and power usage. The screen brightness is set at 15. Even when the computer runs on battery, with every option at 2 green dots, there is little or no difference.

I also ran a software (piriform speccy) to measure the actual temperature.
When idle, temperatures of cpu and motherboard fluctuate in the range of 46C and 50C.
With a bit stress, such as having around 10 internet tabs open, listening to music, and streaming a movie (which aren't as strenuous as encoding or playing new games), temperature peaks up to 65C, but mainly stays in the neighborhood of 59C. Can't imagine how hot the notebook will get if I were to maximize the power and put a considerable stress and also with time.

I cannot emphasize enough that this is just fresh out of the box.
This is not the performance such a laptop should display after only 20 or so hours of usage.

I wonder if my expectations were just absurdly high or the system indeed seems to have some fault compared with other computers with similar specs.
Please, I would like to receive some feedback regarding the issue.
This is bugging me a great deal because I exepcted this computer to last at least a couple of years.

Thanks a lot in advance.

[wolfman]

Hello,

I don't know that your expectations were absurdly high, however, your CPU temps don't seem to be too far afield from a recent discussion we were having here about T420 machines (with the same processor and graphics option as your machine) - here's the link: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=104235.

This review from notebook check confirms what you are seeing - that as you use the machine, heat will build up on the left to left middle side of the machine - where the vent for the CPU exhaust is: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Len ... 596.0.html - scroll to the temperature section.

I will say I use my T420 (see sig below - same CPU / graphics as yours - smaller chassis so should be more prone to heat issues) in a dock most of the time. However, just now after 45 minutes of use (no video however) I can reach underneath and still feel it's pretty cool to the touch on the left side.

Some folks here might have some additional feedback for you...
Steve