Does the T410s overheat?

I'm a prospective T410s buyer and I think it's an excellent laptop in a league of its own, but a review by Notebookcheck got me concerned about the T410s overheating. According to the review ( http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Lenovo-Thinkpad-T410s-Notebook.27112.0.html), the T410s can get hot as 50.3C at the central keyboard location. Before I make the purchase in the future, I wanted some real user feedback as to whether your laptop gets this warm. I'm curious because I don't understand why the upper right corner gets warm. If I remember correctly, the CPU is located on the upper left area and the testbed was an integrated GPU so there should be no reason for that area to be that hot. The only reason I can come up with is the lack of air circulation on the right side. This then makes me worried about how the ultrabay battery will lose charge quicker due to the heat. So it would be even better if T410s users with the ultrabay battery can let me know if the battery gets super warm.

 

I'm sure there are quite a bit of T410s users on this forum who can give me some feedback.

 

My T410s stays quite cool during regular use. I haven't yet let it run at full load for multiple hours, but I believe the notebookcheck results. Since you aren't going to run full load off battery (for long), that is a non-issue.

Lenovo STILL has not shipped my replacement ultrabay battery after sending it originally to the wrong address (thanks guys).

The power plug is in the upper right corner, so there is probably some power circuitry that gets warm there under load.

 

I'm pretty sure that photo is wrong, it seems like it was inversed for some reason. The 48.3C corresponds to the location of the DVD drive which for me at least is always cold to the touch. The top left corner gets warm under normal use but nothing uncomfortable.

The only time I noticed heat coming out of the T410s was when I was running it under full load on battery (passive cooling -> fan off). Even at that point the right side of the laptop was cool so I really don't understand what they are showing in the photo.

p.s. check the whinning noise problems associated with the T410s

 

notebookcheck picture of the temp profile, corresponds to the keyboard side and underside of the laptop, with the underside recording the high temperature during usage.

 

my t410s stays cool and is very very quiet
i do not have the cpu whine that others have reported, so it is certainly possible to get a t410s that doesn't have it

 

Either that, or your ears simply aren't sensitive to that frequency. To my knowledge almost all modern Intel based laptops can suffer from whine, it's just most noticeable on machines that are otherwise extraordinarily quiet (like the T410s or my x200T).

 

Thank you for that explanation. It makes alot more sense now.

 

I have owned a T410s for six months now. The keyboard never gets hot under any conditions. It doe snot even get warm. Overall it is a very cool running laptop and the fan makes very little noise. Under INTENSE STRESS the area below the processor (the bottom of the rear left side) does get hot. A wet paper towel to the outside is an effect way to prevent overheating. THe memory bay may also get warm. Even under these condition the keyboard and palm rests remain very cool.

I do not have the discrete graphics card, and I would not recommend it unless you really need the graphics power as it increases heat and substantially reduces battery life. I would buy the T410s soon before it is replaced by the awful T420s (16:9 screen).

I must emphasis, 99% of the time the entire unit is very cool. Gaming and long full-blown calcs will cause the processor to heat up, but it does not create a functional problem unless it is laying on your lap. Definitely runs cooler than the 2nd generation MacBook Air.

 

Ditto. My T410s is one of the coolest running machines I own. Mine is the Optimus model set to run discrete only. Still runs very cool.

 

If there is one thing I can say about most thinkpads (minus some 2006-2008 nvidia based) is that they run pretty darn cool.

 

nvidia gpu were okay in terms of heat produced. ATI GPU from the T60 era run hotter... From personal experience, for mobile gpu of the past, the ATI produced more heat than the equivalent classed Nvidia GPU. Not sure about the latest gen ATI GPU though.

 

My T410s only gets slightly warm in the upper left corner, and I only notice that if I put my hand in front of the vent. The keyboard doesn't get noticeably warm.

Mine has Optimus but heat is definitely not a problem for me. What is a problem is noise -- the computer makes noises that sound just like a mechanical HDD (but I know its not because the computer has an SSD) and the AC adapter makes noises that sound like morse code. The HDD noises don't bother me so much, but I have to play a music CD to mask the AC adapter noise.

 

What do you guys with Nvidia normally run? Is it just word/flash/web? Do you guys run any games, 3d apps, etc.? I'm just curious because one reason I'm hesitant about choosing a T420s is I remember reading alot of complaints about overheating on both the normal and the Optimus T410s.

 

I used to run Starcraft2 and Burnout when on vacation with the nvidia 3100m and it run well for hours placed on a desk. Before it with earlier BIOS I used to play Settlers and after some time the frame rates dropped for a while. Never played that game after so can not confirm if this issue has been solved. However in the last days I played some Transport Tycoon 3, which is a really old game but on discrete after like 3 hours the game started lagging. Switching off the game and waiting a few minutes solved the problem. The fan was not loud running at max, maybe using tpfancontrol and making it run faster would have solved this issue as well.

I just turn on my discrete when going to run a game. Otherwise I use the integrated graphics which is enough to run everything else(even the super high resolution videos on youtube). No CAD programs here, so there i can not comment.

 

I own a T410s for work and love it!!

 

My t400 even at full tilt gaming on the ati 3470 mixed with some multittasking runs cool. Never would even truly classify it as a warm computer at that point.