Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Lenovo X1 Extreme
- Thread starter lcseds
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I have not heard or seen anything that would indicate that this is particularly an issue. But with that in mind, anytime you perform a BIOS or firmware update on a device, there is an inherent risk that something could go wrong during the process.
Usually this risk is low and we consider it an acceptable risk. But things can and do go wrong in some cases.
That said, I thought the X1 E was now up to 1.15 BIOS version now?
Also, I thought you had returned it?
Yes, I returned it. I ordered X1 Yoga Gen 3 on BF. It was supposed to be devlivered in 7-9 days but after I paid, it changed to mid December. Meanwhile, I keep an eye on X1E and P1 as I am considering to give them another chance. However, in Reddit, more and more people post about QC issues and BIOS bricking their devices.
I planned X1 Yoga + eGPU. When I tried to order the Nvidia 2080 Ti after waiting for half a year, I found that it also has high failure rate. Same thing as 2070. So everything is on hold and I am back to MBP 2010 17".
Don't know if any new Thinkpad X series will be announced in the first week of January. Perhaps just wait for the X1 Yoga to arrive and see how it goes or just get a SB 2 from Costco and see if there is anything change in the situation during that 3-month return period. They don't have the 15" model nor 13" model with 1TB SSD.
I never saw any issues with 1.12 posted to the Lenovo forum, so they may have been isolated. I had a look on Lenovo's site and they are definitely now on 1.15 for the X1 Extreme, so apparently have moved through 1.12 long ago.
One of the fixes reported in 1.15 is (New) Improved thermal function. Whether that means it runs any quieter or perhaps cooler, I don't know. They also added support for (New) Support Intel Smart Sound Technology. I have no idea what that is
I am personally not a huge fan or Reddit. I think things tend to get magnified and blown out of proportion. But that's me
Costco has a very user-friendly return policy. It is still 90 days for computers. You could always try the SB2 for an extended test and see if within the 90 days you feel you really need 1TB. Return it and order one with 1TB if you feel you really do need it and otherwise like the machine. But you may find 512GB is fine by itself or in combination with an external SSD, NAS solution or even a something like one of the BaseQI adapters and a 512GB Micro SD
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Could you link us to these reddit threads? I've been trolling around that thinkpad reddit and not seen any
I would doubt if you were to order an X1 Extreme today it would come with anything less than 1.14, and likely 1.15 since the latter has been out since Nov. 18.
OK. Now a couple of these don't seem to mention which BIOS version was in use. I can't tell from the first Reddit link or the Lenovo link unless I am missing something. I am not going to read that entire Reddit thread, because after the first post it goes off into a million different directions about how the new Lenovo isn't like the old Lenovo and things aren't the same since Steve Jobs died... oh wait no that last bit is Mac Rumors
But it appears that some people were having issues, not with the 1.12 BIOS in general, but with switching to discrete graphics only mode which somehow resulted in bricking the BIOS.
I can tell you from my own experience that I did just what the poster in the first Reddit link did and switched the mode to discrete graphics only and ran several benchmarks in that mode. Those included Cinebench, Geekbench, Prime, 3D Mark, Ungine Heaven. I ran it with the setting both on and off to see if it improved performance with it set to discrete graphics only (hint: it did) and it never bricked the BIOS.
What I cannot recall is what version of the BIOS I was using at the time. But again, I think it is often the case of a few isolated instanced being blown into "Don't do that or you will brick your machine" and likely resolved in BIOS 1.13 and beyond.
Sorry, I am a little confused about it as well. It seems to be links to threads about an issue that was possibly isolated and 3 BIOS versions ago. Dunno
Sorry, I am a little confused about it as well. It seems to be links to threads about an issue that was possibly isolated and 3 BIOS versions ago. Dunno
I never saw any issues with 1.12 posted to the Lenovo forum, so they may have been isolated. I had a look on Lenovo's site and they are definitely now on 1.15 for the X1 Extreme, so apparently have moved through 1.12 long ago.
One of the fixes reported in 1.15 is (New) Improved thermal function. Whether that means it runs any quieter or perhaps cooler, I don't know. They also added support for (New) Support Intel Smart Sound Technology. I have no idea what that is
I am personally not a huge fan or Reddit. I think things tend to get magnified and blown out of proportion. But that's me
Costco has a very user-friendly return policy. It is still 90 days for computers. You could always try the SB2 for an extended test and see if within the 90 days you feel you really need 1TB. Return it and order one with 1TB if you feel you really do need it and otherwise like the machine. But you may find 512GB is fine by itself or in combination with an external SSD, NAS solution or even a something like one of the BaseQI adapters and a 512GB Micro SD
Is this the best way now? Even X1Yoga arrives, I can only test the screen resolution and thermal and silver colo6 look. I can't test eGPU because 2080ti has big issue and 1080ti is no longer in production. Even there are still some 1080ti, they are very expensive.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Well if you thought the X1 Extreme was noisy with the fans, do you really want an eGPU? If so I think only the Black Magic ones are relatively quiet. Apparently, they make more of a "gurgling" noise than flat out jet engine fan noise.
Maybe your best bet is a two-forked approach of fanless laptop and a full desktop machine rather than the hybrid answer of Laptop+eGPU?
The Black magic is not upgradeable at all.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/201...al-gpu-review-a-very-apple-graphics-solution/
Black Magic is an AMD eGPU coming with either a Radeon Vega RX 56 or Radeon 580 card. Non-upgradable, but the only one that is relatively quiet. But taking your complaints about the X1 Extreme fan noise into consideration, I am not sure you will like the Razer Core, HP Omen, OWC Helios, Gigabyte AORUS or the like any better.
https://binged.it/2SqGY5D
Even if you did find one with acceptable noise levels, you still have the issue you mentioned above...
Last edited:
It definitely is. But it really depends on what you want to do with it. What is your main objective? Gaming or video/creative?
If you are looking for high frame rates for gaming you could always look at the Razer Blade 15", Gigabyte Aero, or Asus Zepherus with the 144Hz refresh rates and crazy low latency.
If you are looking for video/photo/creative there is the Razer 15 4K, Gigabyte Aero 4K, Dell XPS 15, Surface Book 2.
But you have to accept that every single one of them will have trade-offs without exception.
You just need to decide which ones you can live with, because there isn't a single laptop made by anyone that will check every single box without trade-offs.
rMBP15" 2014 suits all my needs.
Since Apple does not support Nvidia nor Linux anymore, I want 15" high res displays (above FHD) with 8+ hours of battery life and below 1.8kg. Very quiet like those pre-2015 mbps. The lighter the better. Probably need to build a workstation for Cuda stuffs.
Last edited:
So you want workstation that is slim and light, but also really silent?
I want one of those unicorns as well, so if you find any, please let me know
P.S.
All jokes aside, please try out SB2 already. It's not 45w CPU, but it CAN be 30W. And it has 1060 GPU. And it's more silent than any MBP ever.
So you want workstation that is slim and light, but also really silent?
I want one of those unicorns as well, so if you find any, please let me know
Me too man! I also want it to have a Lenovo keyboard, an Apple Trackpad, a 600 nits brightness, run 4K with a refresh rate of 144Hz and cost under $1000. No problem right?
So you want workstation that is slim and light, but also really silent?
I want one of those unicorns as well, so if you find any, please let me know
P.S.
All jokes aside, please try out SB2 already. It's not 45w CPU, but it CAN be 30W. And it has 1060 GPU. And it's more silent than any MBP ever.
Given my experience, X1E without noisy fan is good.
If Steve were around, he would make our dreams come true.
I guess people will still be saying stupid **** like that well into the next millennium
No Steve, Apple and macrumors and your account here would not have exited.
[doublepost=1543724482][/doublepost]
So you want workstation that is slim and light, but also really silent?
I want one of those unicorns as well, so if you find any, please let me know
P.S.
All jokes aside, please try out SB2 already. It's not 45w CPU, but it CAN be 30W. And it has 1060 GPU. And it's more silent than any MBP ever.
Even the ones with new Vega chip?
[doublepost=1543725615][/doublepost]
So you want workstation that is slim and light, but also really silent?
I want one of those unicorns as well, so if you find any, please let me know
P.S.
All jokes aside, please try out SB2 already. It's not 45w CPU, but it CAN be 30W. And it has 1060 GPU. And it's more silent than any MBP ever.
There is no progress update with my yoga. If Lenovo is going to delay further, maybe I just cancel and try SB2. I do hope to see how the screen and silver yoga is like.
An online agent from Lenovo told me that if I don’t want noisy laptop, I have to stay away from any Thinkpad with a GPU. Is that really true?
If I am willing to tolerate the butterfly keyboard and run Linux as a virtual machine (will need to build a workstation with nvidia GPU in this case), will a MBP 15" with new Vega GPU be better?
@SDColorado I read about your experience with Lenovo customer support. I don’t know if it is better in Canada. If it is also bad, perhaps stay away from them?
Am I correct that Apple has less issue with bios firmware updates ruining the MBP? It seems that this happens often among the Thinkpads.
Last edited:
On sight support is going to be localized by region, not state or country. Lenovo will contract with 3rd party companies to do the on site service, as will Dell and others who do on sight service. In my area it may be the same company who does service for both Lenovo and Dell or maybe not. I have no idea who the local service company for this region actually is, since they never came out or how many mile radius they cover. There are several Lenovo service providers near me. Not sure which one was supposed to do the job.
Apple doesn’t have a BIOS in the sense you are used to seeing from a PC. They instead use EFI or Extensible Firmware Interface. However probably the main reason it has less issues than a PC BIOS is because Apple for the most part prevents the user from accessing it and changing any settings within it. The PC BIOS would likely have fewer problems as well if users where prevented from making changes
As far as your question above about whether the Surface Book 2 runs quieter than even the Vega MBP’s, the answer is yes. The Vega models don’t run any quieter than the non-Vega ones. Buddy of mine just purchased one. If got pretty noisy just doing some web browsing when the temps ramped up to about 90c.