Lenovo X1 Extreme

[CE3]

I'm not a heavy duty LR user, by a long shot, but everything I've read is that LR and PS run faster in windows. I usually run LR with an external monitor and for me, the performance has been excellent on my X1E. I have no complaints, of course as I mentioned I'm not really pushing LR, and my image sizes are rather small compared to most full frame cameras - I'm using a Oly OMD EM5 and so images not that large.

I primarily work with larger 42mp Sony RAW images, and both the MacBook and iMac handle them much better with Camera Raw, Photoshop, and Luminar than Windows. Yes, 24mp and lower resolution jpeg files would probably fare better.

Performance wasn’t awful on Windows, but brushes often lagged when masking, opening a new b&w adjustment layer and turning it on and off (which I often use to check my color edits) would lag, zooming in and out was choppy, and using Luminar as a plugin within Photoshop took more time to open and export. I’m saving a good 10-30 seconds each way on the MacBook Pro, which adds up when you use the plugin a lot. That said, Skylum continues to up its plugin game, and this new flex plugin looks like it could speed up workflows within PS on both operating systems.

I really don’t use LR, but ACR is the same RAW engine, and Bridge is used daily for sorting, rating and opening my images.

 

[hajime]

Am I correct that according to that notebookcheck article on X1E, after the 1.19 upgrade their unit became nosier?

 

[Queen6]

Am I correct that according to that notebookcheck article on X1E, after the 1.19 upgrade their unit became nosier?

To be honest, I don't get why you don't just pick up a passively cooled notebook for lighter usage. They can playback 4K, deal with productivity workloads easily and are relatively well priced.

I'm on my third passively cooled portable as a secondary and it's a 2in1 with most being available with i3 - i7 CPU's. I've had 12" Retina MacBook, Huawei MateBook and now an Acer Switch 5 all being very obviously dead silent in operation. The performance was adequate with the MateBook & Switch 5 being i5/i3. The Switch 5 being only an i3, equally it will hold 2.7GHz all day long even with Prime95 Small FFT stress test running, zero throttling, and it only cost $650 US...

Multiple systems the stumbling block was always synchronising data/files etc, however now it's all very easy. My solution is fully automated so what whatever I do on this system will update seamlessly on the others, it only a question of selecting the required folders as not everything needs to be synchronised.

Q-6

 

[jrichards1408]

To be honest, I don't get why you don't just pick up a passively cooled notebook for lighter usage. They can playback 4K, deal with productivity workloads easily and are relatively well priced.

I'm on my third passively cooled portable as a secondary and it's a 2in1 with most being available with i3 - i7 CPU's. I've had 12" Retina MacBook, Huawei MateBook and now an Acer Switch 5 all being very obviously dead silent in operation. The performance was adequate with the MateBook & Switch 5 being i5/i3. The Switch 5 being only an i3, equally it will hold 2.7GHz all day long even with Prime95 Small FFT stress test running, zero throttling, and it only cost $650 US...

Multiple systems the stumbling block was always synchronising data/files etc, however now it's all very easy. My solution is fully automated so what whatever I do on this system will update seamlessly on the others, it only a question of selecting the required folders as not everything needs to be synchronised.

Q-6

What do u use to sync stuff?

 

[Queen6]

What do u use to sync stuff?

I use MEGA as it does exactly what I want, in that I have granularity over the folders I want to sync, and they are located where I want them to be. Is very easy to set up as long as you know what you want synchronised across various systems.

Some systems I don't want everything to be synchronised as the data is only relevant to that machine, with MEGA I can simply pick and choose the folders irrespective of the location on the drives. MEGA is very privacy focused, so you need to be very certain of your password as without the key it's impossible to access your data.

Q-6

 

[jrichards1408]

I use MEGA as it does exactly what I want, in that I have granularity over the folders I want to sync, and they are located where I want them to be. Is very easy to set up as long as you know what you want synchronised across various systems.

Some systems I don't want everything to be synchronised as the data is only relevant to that machine, with MEGA I can simply pick and choose the folders irrespective of the location on the drives. MEGA is very privacy focused, so you need to be very certain of your password as without the key it's impossible to access your data.

Q-6

Cloud based? I use nextcloud

 

[maflynn]

Am I correct that according to that notebookcheck article on X1E, after the 1.19 upgrade their unit became nosier?

The article states that the bios updates delays the fans from kicking on, it does not remove the use of them. When the laptop gets to a certain temperature threshold the fans will kick on. You're kind of hung up on fan noise, so I would say as others have, that you ought to get a passively cooled laptop because no matter how you slice it, you will be unhappy with the X1E.

I'm still on 1.17 and since my laptop is working just the way I want it too, I'll not mess with success.

I've seen posts in reddit and lenovo support site, complaining that the laptop now runs warmer, which makes sense, since Lenovo delayed the fan start up, so less fans equals more heat.

Yeah, my fans kick on, whether I'm watching a video, or doing some tasks, its not something that bothers me. I totally understand how everyone is different and this an issue for you, so why try to make a tool work for you when it has a number of facets that you really don't like.

 

[Queen6]

Cloud based? I use nextcloud

Yes, has to be. I've never had an issue with it and I've used it since the service started up. I also like their stance on privacy and free for a basic account 50Gb. I simply don't care for all the intrusion on the internet and much of it is unwarranted IMO. Some others I would consider, equally nothing based in US, EU etc. basically the Five Eyes...

Q-6

 

[LindsayD]

Am I correct that according to that notebookcheck article on X1E, after the 1.19 upgrade their unit became nosier?

As I said earlier, my X1E has bios 1.19 and the fans are pretty much dead silent. I could work for days without hearing them, with only the odd very brief burst (about 20 seconds) when running a slideshow in Lightroom. That's with performance set either in the middle or leaning slightly to better battery, and turbo disabled in processor power management (you just set it to 99% then set it back to 100% if you're gaming or doing something highly demanding). I later applied a -0.125v under volt and after that I could watch 4k videos with no fan noise whatsoever - prior to the undervolt the fans would kick in briefly a couple of times in an hour which in itself is very good. But even without re-doing the undervolt following a clean install of Win10, it was just as quiet. I'd advise not leaving HWMonitor running in the background as that definitely made my fans kick in a little more. It was just as quiet on battery as on mains.

My Thinkpad L390Y is also virtually silent (it kicked the fan off following the most recent bios update and then it went quiet again after a reboot) with the same parameters as above (but a 0.070v undervolt). Mine has a nice bright screen too, despite being FHD, and a full range of ports. I don't remember hearing the fan at all over the last few days and I've watched tonnes of videos etc.

Both the above machines are i5 versions.

When I get my replacement X1E (I might go for the i7 to help mitigate the slight lag I'm getting in 4k, but I don't think a different processer will make any difference to that) I'll report back.

 

[Queen6]

Simple solution to fan nose

Or whatever takes your fancy

BTW Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless well recommended, two thumbs up

Q-6

 

[jrichards1408]

Yes, has to be. I've never had an issue with it and I've used it since the service started up. I also like their stance on privacy and free for a basic account 50Gb. I simply don't care for all the intrusion on the internet and much of it is unwarranted IMO. Some others I would consider, equally nothing based in US, EU etc.

Q-6

Diddnt fancy Dropbox?

 

[Queen6]

Diddnt fancy Dropbox?

Nope tried, used and dropped it, several times. MEGA has proven to be more reliable, has versioning and solid privacy...

Q-6

 

[Never mind]

Am I correct that according to that notebookcheck article on X1E, after the 1.19 upgrade their unit became nosier?

Mine is not noisier with the update. Don’t know where you heard that, that is complained about by others

 

[maflynn]

Mine is not noisier with the update. Don’t know where you heard that, that is complained about by others

My post has a link to the article in question, and let me first say the title is completely click-bait. It seemed one of the earlier reviews that this site ran had a relatively quiet laptop, and comparing their original unit to later units have shown later units with more aggressive fans.

However, the result is not very convincing. The fans kick in a little bit later compared to 1.17, but the situation is still worse compared to our initial review. It does not matter what setting of the performance slider you select, even a couple of browser tabs or 2-3 running applications (Word, Outlook, Chrome) are sufficient. Sometimes, there is no apparent reason at all and the fans kick in while idling on the desktop.

 

[Queen6]

Simple solution to fan nose
View attachment 830509
Or whatever takes your fancy

BTW Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless well recommended, two thumbs up

Q-6

For perspective the background noise in this hotel is greater than my ROG notebook under average productivity workloads at around 40 - 45 dbspl

Q-6

 

[AppleTrap]

Did anyone here check out the mesh removal discussion on reddit to reduce the fan noise from the X1 Extreme? I am looking to buy an Extreme but will probably wait for gen 2 and a good sale (perhaps Back to School sales here in Canada)

 

[c0ppo]

@AppleTrap

I've seen the discussion. And it seems to help a lot. I will probably try it down the road, but I have to put something else in there to replace the default mesh. Still, I will try it out when I take a vacation time from work.

 

[SDColorado]

My post has a link to the article in question, and let me first say the title is completely click-bait. It seemed one of the earlier reviews that this site ran had a relatively quiet laptop, and comparing their original unit to later units have shown later units with more aggressive fans.

Is their more silent original unit likely a pre-release press unit?

 

[maflynn]

Is their more silent original unit likely a pre-release press unit?

No idea, I really didn't follow that review too much. No machine is perfect but overall this machine is a better fit for me then the MBP

 

[SDColorado]

No idea, I really didn't follow that review too much. No machine is perfect but overall this machine is a better fit for me then the MBP

Leo Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina, "If you look for perfection, you'll never be content." There is definitely no such thing as a perfect machine. You will drive yourself crazy if you keep looking for one that is perfect in every way. But there are machines whose imperfections we can best live with

 

[LindsayD]

It's subjective - imperfections which might niggle one person may well have no effect on somebody else, and vice versa.

I am the only person who could hear the coil whine on the X1E I sent back. So I was considered to be unusually picky by my husband, and others. But to me, the high pitched whine was like nails on a blackboard - beyond what I could tolerate. An inconsequential imperfection to most, but a deal breaker to me.

I think loud and overly active fans is a pretty big imperfection, but that assumes 'overly active fans' can be measured in some way and applied to a consistent scale of annoyance. There are people out there who can easily tolerate fans kicking in every two minutes and there are others who are annoyed if the fans kick in once every two days. The latter category of individual is frankly unrealistic but the former has good reason to be irked.

I've proved that there are very quiet machines out there (fan-wise) so I wonder about the degree of variance from one machine of the same spec to the next. Luck of the draw, in other words. Badly applied thermal paste? Badly seated heat sink? CPU silicon profile variance? The first two are inexcusable in my view and should never become the problem of the end user, and certainly not in a high value computer.

A tendency to attract fingerprints however definitely falls into the 'minor imperfection' bracket and can be remedied once a week with a non-toxic environmentally friendly potion which treats screens and keyboards ....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DX7E...olid=2ZSXJTXFJTKC0&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

 

[Never mind]

My wife could hear a silent alarm in a department store where I could not, so I do understand that some people are more sensitive than others.

 

[LindsayD]

My wife could hear a silent alarm in a department store where I could not, so I do understand that some people are more sensitive than others.

A doctor once told me that females are more prone to high frequencies than males (but he offered no explanation). Nor has it got better with age (and I am well into middle age). Lightbulbs irritate me quite a bit.

How does an alarm work if it's silent?

 

[SDColorado]

A doctor once told me that females are more prone to high frequencies than males (but he offered no explanation). Nor has it got better with age (and I am well into middle age). Lightbulbs irritate me quite a bit.

How does an alarm work if it's silent?

Probably something to that. My wife gets driven nuts by those "mosquito ring tones" or whatever they are that supposedly only teens and younger can hear?

I was listening to some tone test thing and a couple beyond what I could hear all of a sudden from the office adjacent room I hear my wife ask "What the heck is that noise? It's driving me absolutely nuts."

 

[Never mind]

A doctor once told me that females are more prone to high frequencies than males (but he offered no explanation). Nor has it got better with age (and I am well into middle age). Lightbulbs irritate me quite a bit.

How does an alarm work if it's silent?

You’re right, but U know what I mean Sonic alarm