Is the T61 really cool and quiet?

Greetings everyone

To those T61 users out there are you satisfied with amount of heat and sound it emits?

Also I've noticed from some post people noting the T61 14.1 standard screen as running too hot. I would love to get some comments from all you T61 standard screen owners on this matter.

Thank you for your time I look forward to all your input.

 

i have had my t61p for a week now. i can't even hear it when it's running under load. the new fan design does wonders. don't know about heat though, don't use it on my lap

 

It's very quiet, can't hear anything while running. The bottom, especially the left side toward the rear (where the processors are sitting?) gets quite heated even just browsing the Internet or doing word processing. The palmrest stays cool.

 

yes, i agree, the back of the computer where the vent is located gets really hot, which indicates the cooling system is doing it's job.

 

I can play F.E.A.R. Combat on my T61 for an extended period of time (with the power manager set to maximum performance) and the fan will still be silent. The touch pad and the air it vents can get warm, but nothing scalding...

Just browsing the internet though, it's as cool and quiet as you'd ever want it to be.

 

lenovo designers really did a good job on minimizing the heat and fan noise.
yay for them studying owls...haha

 

When doing nothing it's cool, but the fan is running... always. .. too loud. I have it next to my bed at night. So I want it to be quiet, but it isn't.

 

The noise issue depends a lot on ambient noise. In my apartment at school (by a major street), I never notice the fan, but at my parents house (quiet bedroom suburb), it gets quite loud. It's the only place where I ever notice the noise; the house must be really quiet.

In a room with A/C, I don't notice the heat on my lap. Summer days without A/C, the heat gets annoying (but so does everything). It is limited to the back left, like everyone says.

Compared to the limited other computers I've had, it is the coolest and quietest, but it's not saying too much. I am reasonably satisfied with the cooling and noise of the T61.

 

My T61 (non-p) runs very, very quiet even under heavy load, and the palmrests and bottom never get noticeably hot. I'm very pleased with these aspects, but the actual core temperature of the processor suffers for it - I've reached as high as 78C under continuous full load (Orthos Multi-threaded stres test). As for noise, while the fans are quiet, the irritating "Core 2 Duo whine" (MacBooks and T60s having been especially notorious for it) is there, which is far more irritating than any fan, even if it is fundamentally quieter. I hear the p doesn't have that issue - why, I'm not sure, but it is theoretically fixable by a BIOS update (at least it was on the MBP).

 

Those temps are normal.

 

My entire computer, inside and out, remains pretty cool under load.

Very quiet, too.

 

Sounds like you've never stressed it.
Your processor cores will get as hot as 85F when running TAT (Intel Thermal Analysis Tool) on both of them.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/392/mirrors.php

 

BTW, if your machine gets heated "even just browsing the Internet or doing word processing" make sure you turn your AC power setting to be ADAPTIVE for the CPU.

There's absolutely no reason to have it run at full speed when it's only needing 7-800mhz to be effective. Keeps mine running cool enough for me.

 

would that be in the BIOS settings?

 

Nope, it's in the power manager/scheme in Windows. Like the Max Performance, Max Battery Life, etc. Just make up your own and set the AC CPU to Adaptive. It'll show the speed as 1 notch less than maxxed out, but when your machine needs it it will indeed run at full speed.

 

oh cool, thanks!

 

I think its the quietest laptop ive ever used, even with the 7200 rpm drive, but it gets as hot as any other laptop

 

i had the thinkpad t61 for about 2 months and all i can tell you is that noise and heat is very good on this laptop. it is really awesome it doesnt get hot and the good think about it is that i treat this like a desktop. and trust me man i love to abuse my desktop. this laptops is always on. i listen to music, read news, c++ compiler, and also autoCad no buddy can beat that and it is on 24/7

 

impressive....you autoCad with integrated graphics?

 

with Intel Thermal Analysis vostro 1400(T5470) CPU core temperature reach maximum 72C(CPU1)/70C(CPU2) when CPU loads keep 100% for both core, any data from T61?

 

well, ran the same tool, Intel Thermal Analysis for 10 minutes. The max temperatures I got for either core was 60C. Idle temp was around 49C when I booted up the computer and 57C average when running the workload test under the program. So much cooler than the dell =]

 

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=18613&PageId=1

taking the desktop core 2 processors ( E6600 2.4ghz 4mb cache conroe VS 2.13ghz 2mb cache conroe, 270mhz difference ) as an example and both with the same 65W TDP, we can see the power consumption of the E6600 is higher by 12 watts from the link below. It also means E6600 runs hotter?

http://www.behardware.com/medias/photos_news/00/19/IMG0019149.gif

your vostro 1400 is using a [email protected] with 2mb cache. and wusertheloser has a [email protected] with 4mb cache on his thinkpad t61p. both having the same 35W TDP but has a clockspeed difference of 600mhz.

we can infer that his T7500 runs hotter than your T5470 in the first place?

 

but the tests show that it doesnt. his temps are 70C while mines are 60 max under load. better cooling system on the lenovo perhaps then?

 

vostro 1400 core idle temperature:36C(core1)/34C(core2), much cooler than T61, only higher when under full load(even in full load, the base bottom and surface of keyboard and palmset is still cool).

 

hmm...yes...so idle temps on the vostro are much cooler. i wonder why my idle temp is so high then, yet under load temps don't increase by much.

the t61 has no heat anywhere except the left rear side where the heat sink is. everywhere else is cool to the touch.

 

yeah. thats my point.

what profile are you using? go check your power manager.

 

i'm using max performance profile.

 

when i run the Thermal analysis tool my T7500 will go past 85, even getting dangerously close to 90! After only 2-3 minutes of running the cores at 100%. I think there may be something wrong with the either my thermal paste, fan, and /or heatpipe/heatsink cooling system. Can anyone else with a T7500 run this test for me and tell me your max temp after running the test for about 3 minutes.

 

Then you didn't do what I was talking about.. Max performance runs your cpus at MAX even at idle. They're not processing anything, but they're still getting all the juice. Just change that CPU to adaptive and you'll see temps drop

 

Saneless, I don't quite understand what you're saying.
Thermal Analyis tool is designed to stress the processor like no other application out there.
We want to stress it at the absolute max in order to see how good the computer's thermals are.

stevensol, 85C is normal.
Try to run it for at least 15 min.
Even if the temps go past 90C, nothing bad will happen to your processor.
My T7300 settles around 82-85C after 15 min with TAT, 80F ambient.
Prime95 couldn't get the temps past 74C even after 30 min running at 100% load on both cores simultaneously.

 

i'll try that tonight. i think they do idle down because when i was running the tool, at idle, they were running at 800Mhz each.

 

see my post.
i only get at max up to 60C under load after 10 minutes.

 

On TAT?
I'd say something is not quite right.
It's impossible to have such a low temp under full load, at full speed.

 

yes...on TAT....i'll test again tonight....i wasn't using the laptop on a flat surface....it was propped up on a deck of cards so that might have contributed to heat distribution. will post results later today.

 

You may also try CoreTemp for a comparison:

http://www.thecoolest.zerobrains.com/CoreTemp/

 

Another test with TAT, CoreTemp and Everest.

 

wow,horrible hot for T60, how's T61 in reality?

 

unhooked: That's why I said during idle, I know what you're trying to do for the max heat test.

 

Horribly hot?
What do you mean?
It's normally hot, as far as I'm concerned.
Other laptops will run the same temps, if not higher.
It's a T61 btw.

 

My T61 (with T7300 processor) runs very cool.

During heavy hard drive usage, virus scanning for example, the right palm rest gets mildly warm but not in a substantial way. I have manually turned off Vista services that keep the hard drive running for no reason ... thus, it runs cool just about always.

Fan noise is negligible. You can definitely hear it operate but it is a consistent and even outflow sound so it is not distracting.

 

alchemy, would you mind run TAT for a while and see how two cpu core's temps could reach, then publish the max temps?

 

When I try to run TAT it says I need to be on an administrator account to run it, but I am on the only account on this computer and it is set to Administrator in the windows user accounts window. What gives?

 

Right click on the TAT icon, then "run as administrator".

 

That was quite helpful thanks. I'm running TAT on my T61 for 10(15?) mins, i'll report back with my findings.

 

Run as long as it takes for the temps to stabilize. Usually no longer than 20-30 min.

 

At this temp they were going back and forth after 20 mins or so. This is in the 14.1" standard model T61.

Lets see some TAT numbers from the vostero guy.

 

no problem to publish mine

 

acpi thermal zone temp made another 10C difference as you could see, much cooler from vostro~~ (btw, my room temp:23.9C)

 

I have a so that is a 2GHz processor vs a 1.6GHz processor.. Do you think the difference is reasonable?

 

T5470, same thermal design power as T7100-7700: 35W