Thinkpads Forum

Hello, I´m an entusiastic of thinkpad T series. Currenlty I use a T420 i5, 16Gb ram, for image processing tasks and sometimes I note the i5 cpu has not enough performance to work fine. I recently acquired a i7-3720QM processor with the intent to install it on a thinkpad T430, ssd, intel HD graphics. Any advice or feedback from experienced users concerning the cooling issues with such performance?
Thanks,
JuanFran

The processor has TDP of 45W so it will have heat issues under load.

- You should use a good thermal paste i.e. Arctic Silver 5
- You should disable Turbo Boost.
- Get a better adapter (if you don't have the 90W one).

one thing you could try, it may or may not work.

try to install the heatsink fan of the nvidia model of the t430 on the t430 with integrated graphics, it may provide much better cooling.

Wait, the heatsink/fan of the T430 NVS is actually better than the regular T430?
I was actually contemplating doing the same thing as OP, so I'm actually wondering this too except I have the NVS T430.

dwrkoa wrote:Wait, the heatsink/fan of the T430 NVS is actually better than the regular T430?
I was actually contemplating doing the same thing as OP, so I'm actually wondering this too except I have the NVS T430.

I am talking primarilly about laptops with integrated gfx only. ... using the heatsink that is designed to cool the processor + nvidia, to cool only the processor, will result in much better cooling efficiency.

However, using a laptop that have nvidia, this may be pushing it a bit,
trying to cool a 45w processor + nvidia is too much.

If you have a board with nvidia, try using a quad core with 35w TDP, like the 3632qm or 3612qm, they produce much less heat than the other 45w quad cores.

I have recently installed on my Thinkpad T430 a i7-3610QM processor (45W) with Intel HD 4000 Graphics. Didn't had time to push it to the limits but I will keep you posted, in idle it stays at 45 degrees C.