Thermal Throttling and Liquid Metal
Given that the 51nb X210 isn't exactly a polished retail product, we wanted to take an opportunity to perform some hardware and software modifications to see if we could improve the lackluster CPU performance metrics.
First, let's take another look at the baseline performance while encoding a 1080P X264 video in Handbrake.
By monitoring both the CPU frequency and temperature during the duration of the video encode, we can start to see two potential culprits providing a significant performance disadvantage compared to other notebooks with these same processors.
We can see the initial Turbo Boost frequency jump to just under 3.5GHz, which is cut short by reaching the thermal throttling cut off of 100 degrees Celsius.
However, even when the notebook cools down a bit to just over 80 degrees, the frequency states relatively stable. This behavior points to throttling due to the turbo boost power limit settings.
Given the poor thermal performance and loud fan noise I saw while using the X210, the first thing I wanted to try was replacing the thermal interface material between the CPU and heatsink. Combined with the fact that we've never given liquid metal a try here at PC Perspective, it seemed like a fun experiment.
Armed with our Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut, we disassembled the notebook, eventually gaining access to the CPU and heatsink. Taking the heatsink off, we discovered a quite poor application of thermal paste.
Once the old thermal paste was wiped off, we applied a thin coat of the liquid metal to both the heatsink and CPU die. NOTE: Please research liquid metal and it's limitations before you attempt to do this on any device. Der8auer's video replacing the thermal interface on a Lenovo X1 Carbon was an excellent reference for us, but there are many great explanations of how to apply liquid metal on the internet.
Once the liquid metal was applied and the machine put back together, I ran Handbrake another time to see if any changes occurred.
Looking at the CPU frequencies and temperatures in the same workload as before, we see not a whole lot of improvement. CPU frequencies remain almost identical, while the temperatures do see a reduction of a few degrees.
Not content with these changes, I installed Intel's Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) to see if there was any improvement to be gained by undervolting the CPU, as well as adjusting the turbo boost power limits.
After some testing, I found that the highest negative voltage offset I could stably run was -.075.
By undervolting the CPU, we can see sustained frequencies of around 100MHz higher, with temperatures mostly unchanged from the liquid metal only configuration.
Still not satisfied, I slowly experimented with increasing the Turbo Boost max power limit. Eventually, I settled at a setting of 22W, compared to the stock 15W configuration.
Once more, I ran the same Handbrake workload.
As we can see, we have substantial clock speed increased, putting the X210 at just shy of 3 GHz across the Handbrake workload. However, with higher clock speeds come higher temperatures, with the processor sitting at the thermal throttling limit of 100C for nearly the duration of the 15 minute or so test.
With the notebook in this configuration, I also saw the Cinebench multithreaded score increase to 618, placing the X210 in the top tier of 8th generation notebook processor performance.
This thermal tuning is a delicate balance between a whole bunch of variables on a notebook including battery life, temperature, fan noise, and performance. For instance, an error in the new MacBook Pro's thermal software configuration caused quite the stir in the past week.
Did we perfect the X210? Not by any means. However, I think it's worth noting that XTU will allow you to undervolt and modify the turbo frequencies on many notebooks. For enthusiasts, it's nice to finally have at least a bit of control over notebook performance parameters.
that’s pretty cool! its
that’s pretty cool! its missing RGB lighting though…and wheres the fire wire?
Might just be my opinion here
Might just be my opinion here but I doubt most people doing this mod are interested in RGB lighting.
That’s pretty cool. I’ve been
That’s pretty cool. I’ve been carrying around my t510 (not quite as old, but still has most of the good stuff) and am really feeling the first gen core i5 at this point… It would be amazing to get a motherboard to upgrade the USB to USB3 and a modern cpu and ram (maybe even replace the charger with a USB type C port…. I tried something like similar by putting a raspberry pi in an old thinkpad chassis once, but I never managed to get the screen working so it was mostly just for fun.
Is it likely that heat and
Is it likely that heat and thermal issues are due to the Engineering Sample or is it more likely that a stock chip would still behave the same? The stock X201s could be configured with a 25W i7-640LM. I’d be guessing that the cooling solution in this custom laptop could properly dissipate heat generated by the i5-8250U because of it’s thicker design and more robust cooling.
I don’t think that’s the
I don't think that's the case, it would be problematic for the design process if the engineering sample chips handled very differently thermally than the retail parts.
However, I do echo your confusion about the seeming lack of cooling ability from the stock heatsink configuration.
I have an Acer laptop with an
I have an Acer laptop with an i5-8250U, which has a 1.8 base and 3.4 turbo speeds, and what I see with handbrake encoding is the exact same curve as the first one, only 100MHz lower.
That–and the TIM change–suggests to me it’s not the Lenovo that’s holding the CPU back here. (I see mention that undervolting produced a good-sized speed boost but I can’t see that chart, just a temperature chart–is the speed one missing?) In any event it makes me want to try out the XTU on my own machine.
Does the ES processor support
Does the ES processor support the meltdown/spectre patches?
That was brilliant.
That was brilliant. Pointless, but fascinating.
Thanks for the review Ken! I
Thanks for the review Ken! I was really waiting for this article ever since you mentioned something in a podcast. It’s a very interesting project. I still use almost daily my X200 configured with a 25W C2D P8600, 4GB DDR2 and an OCZ Agility3 that works like a train despite all the internet is saying. Thermally, the stock cooling solution is borderline for the 25W CPU; I have to re-paste the CPU HSF every few years as any degradation in the contact patch pushes temps high above 80C – yes I had it long enough to do it more than once.
Otherwise from a 90Wh battery it gets 5+ hours, same ballpark as you; it could the components (sans CPU) are not really low power: RAM, SSD (and its lack of LP state) and display.
My base X200 could be more usable if it had more RAM, which your mod achieves (and more). I’ll use your article as a reference point. I’m more inclined to go the “buy motherboard and mod your own laptop” route.
Cool story
I guess everything comes down
I guess everything comes down to it being an engineering sample? Mine reaches 3.39Ghz and it peaks around 80c. Really loving it.
Interesting to hear! Do you
Interesting to hear! Do you know if yours was in the first or the second batch? Maybe there's some deviation on the firmwares. Did you mod it yourself or order the machine from lcdfans?
I bought the second batch.
I bought the second batch. Yup, only the board and put everything else together. One thing that they mentioned is the stock cooler will require a piece of thin metal to make better contact with the processor.
Great story. It’s tragic that
Great story. It’s tragic that we cannot do this in the US. We have 330 million people, but the tinkering instinct seems to have fled. Even RadioShack is gone.
HAHA! I can update my T61p,
HAHA! I can update my T61p, the best notebook ever built.
Can confirm. They should have
Can confirm. They should have just kept producing updates to T61 series. No significant improvements have been made outside of performance/efficiency/weight advances. The T61 had the best usability and ergonomics of all.
Great article! (reading from
Great article! (reading from an X210 :P)
Can I ask where did you find the power manager program that makes a little green battery icon on the lower right corner on the screen?
I think battery life is less
I think battery life is less significant an issue given that the 9-cell can be swapped out, and that the NVME power-saving management (ASPM) has not yet been enabled in the BIOS. Apparently, this will come in a future firmware release.