Thinkpads Forum

I just bought a refurb W520 and I have a question about the fan assembly.

What is the difference between the HSF set up between the 45w cpus & the 55w cpus (XM series)? I have an i7 2860 & Quadro 2000m. I'd upgrade the HSF if it would provide better cooling, but I'm not sure of the model number or anything else.

Is anyone familiar with this or has done this?

Btw, this is a super solid laptop! I'm just loving it. It's a great upgrade from my x200, which I'm loaning out right now. Too bad the w530 went chicklet on us (that's why I just brough a 520 over a new 530).

Well the service manual lists several coolers for this model, different ones for 55w and 45w CPU's, my guess is that there are differences in coolers used for 1000M and 2000M GPU's too

A cooler made for the 2000M GPU and 55w CPU should work on a 45w CPU and 2000M.
But no no one have documented the differences between these coolers, I'm sure there are a few people out there who'd be happy if you could provide that info, it seems the W520 will be the last real performance oriented ThinkPad.

Well, join the club [of those that bought an *20 over a *30 because of the whacko keyboard on the *30 !

Adda wrote:Well the service manual lists several coolers for this model, different ones for 55w and 45w CPU's, my guess is that there are differences in coolers used for 1000M and 2000M GPU's too

A cooler made for the 2000M GPU and 55w CPU should work on a 45w CPU and 2000M.
But no no one have documented the differences between these coolers, I'm sure there are a few people out there who'd be happy if you could provide that info, it seems the W520 will be the last real performance oriented ThinkPad.

Thanks for the info. Hopefully someone can pipe up and point out a serial number or something helpful. I obviously don't need the cooler, but overkill, IMO is always good, especially with computers.

I'd normally look for a better cpu (XM), but OCing in a laptop won't really benefit me. That's why I have a desktop, lol.

jcvjcvjcvjcv wrote:Well, join the club [of those that bought an *20 over a *30 because of the whacko keyboard on the *30 !

Exactly. That keyboard drives me nuts. I can't stand chicklet & never have been able to feel comfortable on it. I've been using thinkpads since day one practically. I got rid of a dead 700C. That was such a solid laptop too!

I really don't mind sticking with SB over IB. 5%+ perfromance isn't worth a crappy keyboard. I don't do anything so CPU intensive I need that 5%. VMs simply won't max the cpu. Ram/IOPS performance matters a lot, LOT more.

I was planning on dropping a 520 keyboard in the 530, but it seems no one wants to rewrite the bios to make it work 100%.

I wouldn't recommend putting a 55w CPU in to your W520 (or a W510 for that matter) at the cooling solution is barely capable of handling 45w CPU's if both GPU and CPU are under load.

No one have been able to convince me that any W520 is fully stable and not throttling while under extreme loads (on GPU and CPU), regardless of configuration.
But maybe a 55w cooler on a 45w CPU would do well enough.

As far as the coolers, I have found that the same coolers are used for both 1000M and 2000M GPU's, I guess Lenovo has a wider selection of vendors for W520 coolers then W510.

So any of these 55w coolers should work:

04W0437 this one looks puny, only two heatpipes, one form CPU to side and upper heatsink, one from GPU to side heatsink.

04W1574 big one, three heat pipes in all, one goes directly from CPU to upper heat sink, one from CPU to both heatsinks, and one from GPU to side heatsink, looks the same as the 45w 04W1576 cooler, maybe the fan is different.

04W1575 unknown can't find a photo.

45w coolers:

04W1576 looks the same as 04W1574, probably has a weaker/quieter fan, but that is guesswork.

04W0438/04W1577 doesn't seem to have GPU cooling, but that doesn't make sense as they are for W520, must be the wrong pics, so these can be considered unknown at this point in time.

All this info is based on pictures supplied by people who are selling on ebay and such, so don't beat me if this info is incorrect.

Thanks for the reply.

I don't plan on installing any of the xm series. I don't need it & I don't want to generate that much heat or suck my battery dry more quickly.

Running 3dmark11 yields ever decreasing scores as I run & re-run the benchmark. It really does show the inability of the cooling solution to do it's job.


I'm wondering if there's a better option out there that's OEM that would fit, even if it's not approved by Lenovo. I can always re-install the HSF if I had to claim a warranty.


I guess if worse comes to worse, I could sand the cpu down, working to 3K or 5K grit sand paper. Should shave off a degree or two. I know most ppl here aren't really willing to do that, but if I find I have the time, it might be worth it.

Another, easier option, is to figure out a way to undervolt through software since there's on bios option. Has anyone tried that?

I don't think there is a way to undervolt Core i series CPU's unless it can be done through bios, so we are out of luck there, at least for the time being.

A way I have found to increase performance and lower temps a bit, is to disable turbo boost while using the GPU.
In windows power manager, set min and max CPU speed to 99%, this should lock the CPU clock at it's max non turbo boosted clock.
This should lower temps some, and have little effect on games and such and might leave a bit of headroom for GPU overclocking.
At least it does for my W510, by locking the CPU clock to 1.6GHz I can run the GPU at 675/900MHz and keep the CPU around 80C and the GPU below 80C.

A neat way of doing this is with nVidia Inspector, it can make shortcuts for setting your custom clocks, bind those to hotkeys and you can switch clocks quick and easy.
Be very very careful doing this though if you haven't overclocked a GPU before, a laptop is not a good first try.

Adda wrote:I don't think there is a way to undervolt Core i series CPU's unless it can be done through bios, so we are out of luck there, at least for the time being.

A way I have found to increase performance and lower temps a bit, is to disable turbo boost while using the GPU.
In windows power manager, set min and max CPU speed to 99%, this should lock the CPU clock at it's max non turbo boosted clock.
This should lower temps some, and have little effect on games and such and might leave a bit of headroom for GPU overclocking.
At least it does for my W510, by locking the CPU clock to 1.6GHz I can run the GPU at 675/900MHz and keep the CPU around 80C and the GPU below 80C.

A neat way of doing this is with nVidia Inspector, it can make shortcuts for setting your custom clocks, bind those to hotkeys and you can switch clocks quick and easy.
Be very very careful doing this though if you haven't overclocked a GPU before, a laptop is not a good first try.

I'll look into it. I've been overclocking for years and years, so none of it's new to me. I'll play with it & see what comes up. I might also run 3dmark11 again tonight when I have a spare 20 min. I can set my laptop outside (gets into the 30s and lower) and i'll see what goes on w/ temps & stuff. If the temps get really high still, I'll wonder. 0C & below should really help.

Was it a success?

I found it pretty annoying that the Windows power manager only has two profiles shown in it's quick menu, so I looked for a solution and came across this:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows- ... wer-plans/

Basically, you can switch power plans with a command, this command can be run by a shortcut, that shortcut can be bound to a hotkey.

Now if only we had a compatible app that could combine nVidia GPU clocks, CPU clock settings, fan control and so on, in a single app with smart hotkey functionality, like IBM_ECW.

Adda wrote:Was it a success?

I found it pretty annoying that the Windows power manager only has two profiles shown in it's quick menu, so I looked for a solution and came across this:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows- ... wer-plans/

Basically, you can switch power plans with a command, this command can be run by a shortcut, that shortcut can be bound to a hotkey.

Now if only we had a compatible app that could combine nVidia GPU clocks, CPU clock settings, fan control and so on, in a single app with smart hotkey functionality, like IBM_ECW.

I haven't had much of a chance, honestly. I might check it out at some point, but, unfortunately, it's a production laptop & I can't just go tinkering with it. If I had a spare, of course! I need to learn how to bend heat pipes & flatten them w/o breaking them in the process.

I really don't want to slow my cpu down very much. Undervolting is one thing. I'm rarely a fan of underclocking.


This will be a work in progress when I get the time.

Ok found another workaround.

If we can't undervolt the CPU then we must undervolt the video card right?

To do this, get PowerMizer Manager, there is a download link in this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gateway ... nager.html

Use it to lock the GPU to it's medium performance setting.

Then use nVidia Inspector to overclock the GPU as much as you can.
My FX880M runs 625/1360/790MHz (same as desktop GT220) in this mode, faster then default at one step down in voltage.
I haven't done much testing yet though, but this looks like a very good solution, only price you pay is lack of automatic frequency scaling for the GPU, you can set different clocks for AC and DC though so battery life should be maintained.

After more testing the GPU clocks have ended up at 600/1330/850MHz for my FX880M in the medium performance mode.
When playing Skyrim, with the CPU fan at speed 7 and turbo boost enabled, GPU temps don't exceed 70C and CPU temps remain below 80C.
When running furmark, the CPU can still get very very hot, but the GPU always stays below 80C.
If I run furmark and use the task manager's 'set affinity' feature to select which core it is run on, and mix some Prime95 in to the mix, I can make core #2 spike as high as 95C for an instant, but if I don't do every thing I can to kill the CPU, temps should remain in the mid 80's (turbo boost enabled).
Without turbo boost CPU temps are usually in the low 70's or less during normal loads, with furmark and Prime95 at the same time, the CPU can reach in to the 80's, but is generally a good 5C cooler if all cores are under heavy load, compared to having turbo boost enabled.