I do not see any reason why a any machine to need undervolting. Are you using it on a flat surface? I would also suggest you check lenovo forums (https://forums.lenovo.com) as I briefly noticed that other users facing “similar” thermal issues with the X series and might worth some investigation.
Lenovo had made some recalls due to similar issues in the past. Not sure if this might be your case but worth looking into that.
Lenovo Y530 has a vastly improved cooling and reduced noise levels compared to last year’s Y520 and ThinkPad. For working with Rhino I recommend Core i5 instead of Core i7, as well GTX 1050 instead of GTX 1050Ti or GTX 1060. The latter two GPUs work at considerably higher temperatures and require more frequent work of the fans. Couple of months ago I tried multiple laptops and I noticed that the optimum for low noise and temperaturesis Core i5 with GTX 1050. This is why I bought a laptop with exactly those components. 2/3 of the time my fans will not spin at all when working with Rhino scenes consisting 1-2 million polygons, and they only spin every few minutes to keep the temperatures low enough. GTC 1050 can handle NURBs models rendered with over 10 000 000 polygons with ease. No overheating, nothing.
Have you tried whether MSI Afterburner will allow you to create a custom setting for your cooling fans? This program is widely used by many people even if they use discrete (separate) video cards from other brands. Not sure whether it’s capable to control an integrated video card, though.
I’ve looking around on both reddit and lenovo. It is actually very hard to tell what is hardware firmware, bios etc. I think the computers has become a bit calmer and cooler the last few days, but I have just been idling. I actually don’t now what is the smartest choice. Some say think that an i7 is a better long term investment and that some people are getting it cooler and more quiet. The others say that it doesn’t make any sense to put a i7 or i9 i a small body as this, this many cores will generate heat that the computer can’t handle. I haven’t really thought about these issues before because it was ages ago I owned a computer and than i used mac and didn’t have to bother with these issues - didn’t use cad rhino etc and maybe because apple being apple but that maybe is about to change. I mean everybody seems to follow this trend more slim and higher core count.
I use HVMmonitor to monitor the temps but I actually don’t no what temps one could/should expect or a computer like this.
Unless you have a bad back, I recommend sending the X1 back and get a P52 or P72, with a nice fast GPU, and with Lenovo, you will have to get the top-shelf CPU, with makes sense to their marking departments.
The X series just doesn’t have the cooling capacity that a workstation/gaming class notebook computer has. Even the P52 has 2 fans and heatsinks, but can share thermal loads for short periods of time.
Upgrading the processor will likely make the computer faster, but it will unlikely come with an improved cooling system. In a small way, having a faster processor might marginally reduce the heat-soak placed on the thermal-mass, but likely that will be even less than the increment of your processor upgrade. The fan(s) still have to get all of the heat out of the computer, and the X1 likely only has one, and not as much copper to boot.
Often in notebook computers, it’s not only the highest possible processor clock, but how long that processor can run at the clock over time. Even though the higher Xs have an nVidia GPU, as soon as you start a CAD/Design program, that GPU adds to the heat that the cooling system has to deal with without making the CPU throttle.
[When I start Rhino with the GPU on W540, heat just oozes from the fan across the table. Modern GPUs are much faster than the K2100, but modern CPUs are not much faster per clock. Now, you might have 6 cores, that heat still needs to get out.]
When it comes down to it, there are very few notebook computers that can render using a GPU or export video also using a GPU and CPU for an extended period without throttling, because even gaming laptops, while they are design for heavy GPU, they aren’t designed to also run the CPU at 100% clock, over the hours that it takes to do CPU/GPU animation or HD/4K video exporting using both GPU/CPU.
You likely need or at least want a bigger boat.
With things such as real-time raytracing, the idea that you don’t need much cooling capacity for the GPU on a workstation is no longer true.
For memory, I recommend buying only what you need from Lenovo, but choosing it in big sizes that don’t have to be repurchased. Though, if the RAM sticks aren’t in pairs or quads or whathaveyou, then the memory won’t be able to run multi-channel, dual/quad, respectively.
There are also Dell Precision workstations, and several “gaming” computers such as an Alienware, would also make good design computers, albeit, heavier and a less livable than something like a P52. I would avoid the P52s for the same reasons. Oddly a fast 14 inch with a GPU would have made more sense in the field than the table-hogging p52s.
If you repurchase from Lenovo, and sign up for for their mail-list, even if you have done it in the past, you still might get a small discount coupon number. The Depot warranty is a good selling point that I’ve needed several times.
One of the biggest bottlenecks in mid-range laptops for daily Rhino use could also be Ram. Make sure you also have plenty of ram, you’ll need at least 32 for big models, especially if you are running multiple apps. I notice the 16 GB is what slows down my smaller laptop when working of serious stuff.
Thanks, but I’ve considered the p52 but i think it is a little bit too heavy. P1/extreme isn’t perfect but I think it is the best compromise. I am not going to use it for rendering.
RAM sizing is funny.
Your computer often wants all the RAM slots filled for memory channel efficiency, but if you can’t afford a lot of RAM, this makes things difficult because all the RAM sockets would be filled small sticks, then you would have to rebuy all the RAM, later if you want to add more. The difference between dual and quad channel may not be that great for a quadcore CPU, but might be for and 8 or 16 core.
Extra RAM, other than the channel situation, added RAM will not make a computer run faster–unless it otherwise keeps the operating system from using virtual memory.
If you do not have enough physical RAM, and if your computer has to use virtual memory, then it may be slowed by a hundred, and even thousand times, so sometimes, a slower processor with more memory can be faster than a faster processor with less RAM. Whether or your system has a SSD or a HD, using virtual memory will wear it to some degree.
[Years ago, I used to make game maps, where the binary-space-partition viability tool, would cause my hard-drives to thrash overnight.]
Because my machines usually have enough RAM for Rhino 3D, I have virtual memory shut off on my machines. Windows uses it very carelessly, and before it really needs to. Though, if you shut it off, and you run out of physical RAM, then very bad things will happen to whatever you are working on, such as programs can either crash, or tell you that they cannot save your work. So, if you have to be sure that you have enough memory before shutting it off.
[ Linux uses virtual memory only when it needs to. Windows will often use virtual memory on boot.]
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If you are working on a large project, if you haven’t already done so, it might be a good thing to look over your project, and make sure that every redundant thing that can be blocks is made into blocks. You can also save memory by reducing the mesh quality overall–or on specific things, as Rhino needs to store all of that mesh data.
When Rhino 3D first implemented extrusions, I went through many of my projects, changing every polysurface to an extrusion that I could. There are a few Rhino 3D tools that should produce extrusions, which instead make polysurfaces; the extrude surface comes to mind, yet extrude curve makes a proper extrusion.
In large projects, it’s not difficult to accident crate a few duplicate objects–especially points It might be good to Select duplicates, and see if you really need them.
It also might be worth your while to look at the Task Manager, and see what other programs and services are taking up, if you almost have enough memory.