What do owls and ThinkPads have in common?
As I mentioned in my last post, with this generation of ThinkPad notebooks, we’ve significantly improved both our thermals and our acoustics, meaning our systems run both cooler AND quieter than ever before. Usually these have an inverse relationship — you can make a system run quieter, but it will definitely feel hotter to the user. Or, you can make it run cooler, but runs into the danger of making it sound like a blow torch. To do both is a pretty amazing engineering feat.
Did you know that there are vendors that have warning labels on the bottom of their systems? When I mention my competition by name, I tend to ruffle feathers (pun intended), but if you are a non-Lenovo notebook user, turn your system over. Does it have a warning sticker that says “don’t use it on your lap?” Does it have thin felt pads underneath? These are both warning signs that you have a hot running machine.
We want our notebooks to run cooler for several reasons. Of course, we don’t want complaints, but another reason is that we are simply users of our own technology and we want the best user experience possible. This is especially true when you are crammed into a middle coach airline seat with the person in front reclined, the fat sweaty guy to the right and the arm rest-stealing, Blackberry user to your left.
Making these systems cooler required several steps. The first was the easiest. We added more air vents to the bottom of the system. By the principle of insulation by airflow, the air flowing through the system conducts some of the heat from the components before it transfers to the system case. It also serves to cool the components that are already warm.
The second step was more difficult. It required redesigning the cooling fan blades as well as their housings. There are five main causes of acoustic noise inside a system: mechanical noise, turbulent airflow rush into the fan, fan blade noise, fan housing noise, and electrical component noise (the hum you sometimes hear).
A traditional fan blade used in notebooks has a leading edge that is more or less flat. This shape is found on many bird feathers, such as the Goldeneye pictured below. The feather shape allows the bird to move quickly with a good deal of control while in flight. On a notebook fan this shape moves air efficiently and has the advantage that it is inexpensive to produce. The one main disadvantage of the traditional design is that it is rather noisy, especially at higher RPMs. The turbulence of the airflow is the main cause of this.
Here is what a standard fan blade looks like. In addition to the shape of the blades, the bump on the intake also increases noise.
True story…One of our engineers from Yamato was watching one evening as an owl flew by. He noticed that he saw the owl, but did not hear it. An owl is virtually silent in flight. The evolutionary advantage is that it can swoop down to catch prey without alerting them to its presence. What allows this magic is that an owl has a notched shape to its feathers. The air that flows over its wings makes much less noise than with any other feather design.
The engineer studied the shape of the owl’s wing and used it to design a fan blade with notched leading edges. These redesigned fan blades are now starting to be used in our latest generation of ThinkPad notebooks. Oh, and no owls were harmed in the making of these notebooks 
ThinkPad Silent Owl Blade. The notched leading edge is what allows us to move more air at lower RPMs makes our ThinkPads on average 3dB quieter than ever before.
As a side note, you may wonder why all birds haven’t evolved to use this feather shape. What the owl gains in silence, it loses in overall speed. It also requires more energy to fly than an average bird. Saving energy is also why the owl can turn its head completely around. It can look for prey in 360 degrees without having to move its body.
Lenovo Meet the Modder Dean Liou
Lenovo Meet the modder- Chris Blarsky Dairy 2
Lenovo Meet the modder- Chris Blarsky Dairy 1
Lenovo H320 desktop
May 16th, 2007 4:27 pm
Cool pictures, and interesting post in general.
Im currently using a T60, and it seems to be much warmer than the R51 i had before.
Nice to see that this seems to be getting better with the newer generation.
May 16th, 2007 4:37 pm
That is very insightful. Personally I didn’t really think the fan on my old ThinkPad X31 is noisy, but I guess every little helps, especially with the newer faster and hotter processors.
I am glad that the engineers are Lenovo is keen on researching in other areas, other than speed, that makes owning a ThinkPad great.
May 16th, 2007 4:53 pm
Interesting article Matt, looks like the Silent Owl Blade idea is maybe worth some patent, if it generally works as described more economic for computer equipment fans etc.
Maybe we get next year some nano technology based coating on Thinkpad cases and keyboards, which resemble the anti-dirt behaviour of the lotus flower, so the cases and other external parts wouldn’t easily collect fingerprints and dust etc. – AFAIK there are already nano tech coatings available on some notebooks, which have an anti-bacteri effect.
May 16th, 2007 5:09 pm
I’ve forgotten to mention…
…that I’am not sure, if using nano particles on devices would maybe sometime later effect the health of human beeings. In other words, if it would later produce possible health side effects. For example when nano particles would be breathed in or the like. – If it would be risk free, I’am sure such technics will be used soon. – BTW, doesn’t Sony already use something like that on specific devices?
May 16th, 2007 5:11 pm
It looks like the notch in the Owl’s wing is in the trailing edge and not the leading edge.
May 16th, 2007 8:33 pm
A little off topic…
Quote:”but another reason is that we are simply users of our own technology and we want the best user experience possible”
A lot of people are upset that you are ditching the 4:3 ratio displays and not offering hi res panels.
May 16th, 2007 9:03 pm
Interesting concept. I think that fan noise is definitely one of the most annoying things about the laptops I have used in the past. Glad to see continuous improvement from Lenovo.
Actually, the rotating head of the owl stems from the fact that its eyeballs are so large (for improved night vision), that they cannot rotate inside the skull. Therefore, the owl must turn its whole head to look around. Just FYI.
Re: vkyr’s comments:
I used to work for a nanotech material manufacturer. Most of the particles and coatings out there are not really – e.g. they do not contain even an average amount of nano-sized particles. It’s mostly hype – add a few grams of nano particles to anything, and all of a sudden, you can slap a ‘nano’ label on the front. Regarding health risks, yes that is a big concern, and it is scary how little regulation there is in the industry (factories and end products) right now.
Re: lowspeed’s comments:
I am one of the many people (and future customers) who is happier with widescreen rather than 4:3 ratio displays. Good for me!
May 17th, 2007 5:57 am
Okay, cute post, but please, please, get to the part where you say, T61p 15″ Widescreen is coming out today, 5/18 with ALL the bells and whistles you have been patiently waiting for!!!! =)
May 17th, 2007 7:54 am
> We added more air vents to the bottom of the system.
So what happens if you position your notebook on a bed or couch? Airflow will be obstructed, yes, but will this be compensated by the other vents? And what’s more important, are those vents intakes or exhausts? Intakes would suck in lots and lots of dust in the process.
May 17th, 2007 10:19 am
1% quieter and 1% cooler is not an engineering feat. How much cooler does the new Thinkpad /actually/ run? How much quieter?
May 17th, 2007 10:27 am
The other day i was watching a science channel which were showing latest advancements in the fighter plane technology and one of the characterstics discussed was the silent flying mode or stealth by sound mode. They studied owls’ wings/feathers as to how they were able to fly silent and implemented the same in one of the planes. Its interesting co-incidence that i read it here now for a thinkpad which of course is not a plane.
I can equate a bird to a plane easily in my mind, but, studying it for a notebook is the genius of the thinkpad engineer that Matt talks about here. I am just curious how he equated a feather from a flying being to a fan(just a component in a notebook) in a notebook.
May 17th, 2007 1:33 pm
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!
For all the information here given to us (the consumer).
This is one of the reason’s why I only will buy Lenovo Laptops.
I think that this kind of info should be displayed on every Lenovo web page.
Like Lenovo in The Netherlands, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, etc……..
I just simply love you products since they always have the latest gadgets on it.
Cheers,
Antonio De Castro.
May 17th, 2007 1:57 pm
It may also be that ThinkPads are the best solution for those men who want to remain reproductively viable. A recent article reported that men who use laptop computers tend to have lower sperm counts. This finding is due to a combination of the heat from the laptop and heat from the thighs, which are generally held closer together when a laptop is on one’s lap. A cooler running ThinkPad sounds good to me.
May 17th, 2007 2:06 pm
Vkyr, the evolutionary adaptation made by the owl is prior art against the patent.
May 17th, 2007 7:29 pm
This is great – it might finally shut up all the people who moan about noise despite ThinkPads being, and always have been amoungst the quietest around.
I always thought an owl could turn its head because it couldn’t turn its eyes because they were so large, not to save energy.
May 17th, 2007 8:54 pm
Quote:
It also requires more energy to fly than an average bird.
Does it also means that the new ThinkPad’s fan will be more energy-consuming?
May 17th, 2007 9:09 pm
@Tomer,
According to notebookreview, the new cooling system really does help:
T43 (2Ghz P-M): Idle – 57C, Intense – 68C
T61 (2Ghz C2D): Idle – 42C, Intense – 50C
May 17th, 2007 9:52 pm
Can the t60p users get these as well, as an upgrade, I don’t mind shelling some money for this fan.
May 18th, 2007 10:17 am
But my X60 with ThinkPad wifi card also feel me very hot at Palmrest area, I do notice X60t have redeisgn under the palmrest, so the wifi card heat can transfer to the keyboard. Did lenovo can let X60 current user to change the palmrest design as same as X60t?
May 18th, 2007 1:27 pm
I am really hoping this can be manufactured and sell to the
T60P users, because with this and replacing the heat pad,
will definitely reduce both HEAT and NOISE level significantly.
Unless Lenovo is a jerk , and wants us to purchase new
Laptops.
May 18th, 2007 6:41 pm
Roy K:
As the owner of also a T60, I want to ask this question too; But I think that’s related to the question of technical feasibility
If it is workable, I think many Thinkpad owners will do that on their own as soon as they get the corresponding parts – which is not difficult. e.g. Some users changed their 15″ panels from XGA to SXGA+ or UXGA on their own. However, X60/X60x owners are not able to change their XGA LCD to the X60t’s SXGA+ LCD, all because the SXGA+ panel doesn’t fit in X60/X60s
However, I’m assuming that in all the above cases, warranties should have been voided by these acts: simply because these are not just hard drive / RAM / keyboard / battery, these are “surgeries”
May 18th, 2007 10:51 pm
I suppose this is slightly off topic, but it relates to design.
I’ve been pondering over Lenovo for awhile. I currently own a T42p…
I recently read that the R and T series are now ‘virtually indistinguishable’ from each other– on this very blog…
The Z series was designed, supposedly, as a Multimedia wide-screen alternative to Thinkpads…
So you had the Z series which was wide screen and the R series which was the T series but bigger…
But now the R and T series both have wide screen, while the R series is ‘virtually indistinguishable’ from the T series..
You know what that means?
Lenovo has a thinkpad and an X thinkpad…
I think Lenovo needs to more clearly define their design goals. I realize this might just be me ‘missing it’…. But I don’t really believe so…
I’d like to see Lenovo approach the different series more in the way Sony does, making each series have a clearly defined purpose, or role to fulfill… and I’d like to see Lenovo innovate in more interesting ways… I feel like this company should be the industry leader, but often is just following the pack, letting everyone else innovate, and conservatively staying behind. When the blogs posted that their santa rosa laptops were going to be amazing, and everyone else was ho-hum, I actually believed that.. But it seems to me that the exact opposite is the case…
Give us LED Backlit LCDs, give us hybrid drives, give us more modern designs, make the C series not .. stink. Come out with designs and specs directed at Gamers as well as business people..
That’s all I have to say about that… Thanks.
May 19th, 2007 1:03 pm
Keith: I thought in similar ways too
The designs of Sony VAIOs are neat, and their product lines are clearer, although most of them not rock-solid and user experience was not as good as I with the Thinkpad
Comparatively Lenovo’s move on their product line is blurry and confusing:
Killing Z –> Lenovo then has no excuse to participate in the multimedia market
Raising R –> Lenovo made this move in order to fight with cheaper dealers e.g. Dell and HP etc, but in my eye T61 has become another Z-like object and R61 is now more T-like, this will potentially lead to the death of T
Lenovo is getting more conservative, and don’t want to bring some innovative prototypes out, and therefore risking itself in the frontier to test the market
- The form-factor of X series tablet was actually adopted from HP TC1000 in 2003 (as most of the other tablet vendors do)
- People may not care about having “ThinkPad Silent Owl Blade” or not (although it has a very fancy name) as long as the noise and heat issues are both solved (as in X60 tablet)
- Panasonic has long offered magnesium alloy molding frames for their Toughbook series and some of them even comply to military equipment standard: Lenovo offers LCD & motherboard rollage at a much affordable price is a similar move
We will all appreciate that these too are innovations and are showing the very competent aspects of Lenovo too. But the above engineering innovations are mainly IMPROVING user experiences (e.g. reduced heat & noise, more & higher drops endurance, or worry-free spills on keyboard). Users will find innovations that bring CHANGES (instead of just improvement) in advancements in their user-centered experience much more appealing, some of these experience changing innovations in Thinkpad history are:
- The Trackpoint
- Access IBM / ThinkVantage button for system restoration
- Ultrabay interchangeable modules
- ThinkLight
The latest great attempt was TransNote, and then Z series was another attempt that’s more market testing in nature, but they are both dead or dying. However, these attempts will all be appreciated! As it shows that the design team really tried to make technological advancement. ALL Thinkpad fans actually would love to see something as innovative as TransNote to come out
Maybe this post should goes to David’s Design Matters blog, but it’s still relevant in this context
May 20th, 2007 8:34 am
Well, I don’t think that the X60T/X61T form-factor is designed at all after the HP tc1000/tc1100, instead it’s more an adaption of the usual Thinkpad X-Series in order to build a 12″ convertible tablet pc. – HP has it’s own long time style and design experiences here and their new, thin, compact and somehow neat looking, LED based 2710p business convertible tablet pc reminds me more to the former 10″ HP tc1000 slate than a Thinkpad does.
Generally *real outstanding innovations* are somehow rare nowadays in the notebook segment and thus things here are always just approaching in small steps, which go mostly under the hood, hand in hand with the introduction of new Intel mobile CPUs, chipsets etc.
Some of the still most important parts of notebooks, like ergonomical input/output devices (…better TFT-panels, better keyboards and mice like devices etc.) are mostly not much enhanced at all and so for overall production cost savings more degenerating. As said before, finding real new impressive innovations in the notebook segment is hard and actually I don’t see much of them.
May 20th, 2007 5:36 pm
“finding real new impressive innovations in the notebook segment is hard and actually I don’t see much of them.”
I wouldn’t agree with this, really. First I want to say that Lenovo -has- innovated in the past, but I worry they are being left behind, and aren’t changing themselves to better reflect the market. Their business notebooks should stay austere, but they need to improve the design of their clunky Consumer series– there’s no reason that I can think of that they shouldn’t, at the very least, be able to make the outside pretty… And this owl-blade fan is an example of a subtle and very nice innovation… But I don’t think it compares to the innovation of others, quite as well.
Fujitsu has the note-writing pad on one non-tablet PC that I believe is in competition to the Thinkpad.
The design of the santa rosa Acer notebook (Gemstone) is beautiful compared to, and is toward what ThinkPad long since should have moved toward… and it has very nice graphics (8600m)
Sony has much lighter notebooks, though their build quality varies. They also have Blu-ray available, as well as the ability to switch between Discrete and Integrated graphics.
Dell (it seems) will be the first coming out with SSD and Hybrid drives, with HP right there with them (I think)…
I love Thinkpad and its build quality compared to others. The first time I picked up a Thinkpad after using a clunky Gateway, and it just… felt.. so light, and gentle and *balanced*…
I realize I’m saying they should do multiple things at once– but the truth is, they do need to… To catch up with their competitors, and then lead them, as they used to…
But maybe there’s a bunch of innovation in lenovo I’m not seeing. After the teaser they provided earlier, perhaps my hopes were raised too high– this isn’t a complaint, but a criticism and suggestion, cause I want Lenovo to beat the pants off everyone else
May 21st, 2007 3:31 pm
I second what Kim asks. What happens if put on a surface that isn’t hard like a bed of sofa which can partially block the bottom air vents? Are there also more air vents on the sides?
May 23rd, 2007 4:30 pm
The flutings in owl wings break up the vortex turbulence on the top side of the owl’s wing, effectively silencing it. The fan design appears to have a scoop on it, similar to a water wheel, that would allow it to move more air at a lower rpm. The decrease in rpm lowers the sound. The Thinkpad fan is in fact much like a water or paddle wheel in that it doesn’t use an airfoil shape to move the air but rather paddles the air through the heatsink.
May 24th, 2007 4:02 am
When do we get the T61p? I needed T61p 4/13? Any? News?
May 24th, 2007 12:35 pm
Keith,
I’m not saying that other vendors dont innovate but its not fair to say that they innovate more than ThinkPads, I too agree that innovation has slowed somewhat in recent years due to IBM/Lenovo not wanting to take too many risks but the ThinkPad Transnote had a note pad years ago, the acer gemstone design, while ‘pretty’ is not very practical for machine durability and size, sony built quality is generally bad and impractical (for servicing and upgrade), I do like thee thin screens and looks of many of their models but I wouldn’t have one and Dell don’t innovate anything – they simply bring things to market – anyone could offer SSD drives as it takes no engineering changes but most people dont want them yet due to price.
May 25th, 2007 6:40 am
I talked about real innovations *in general* for the notebook segment and thus not only particularly for Thinkpad notebooks. So I meant the wider range of the whole notebook area here.
Sony? Well, they tend to have at least fresh modern designs and also good luminant (maybe the best in the glare segment) *glare* TFT panels with a little antireflection coating on the market. However, on the other side the sturdiness and build quality of most of the Sony notebooks and their support is more questionable with a tendency to be bad and overall expensive. – Dell? Beside their direct marketing system, which it seems they will soon abandon, I also don’t see any innovations from them, beside a good support and to be cheap.
May 28th, 2007 2:49 pm
I would perhaps make the terms innovation and progress synonymous, then. What I mean by innovation does include entirely new things, yes.. but it also, I think, includes *change* of a significant sort. Modernization, if you will…
Those things youd escribe *are* innovation, in that the companies were not doing that 3, 5, 10 years ago. Lenovo, and the Thinkpad in general, has been relatively stagnant– and only recently been playing catchup with the more generalized notebook by including Media card readers…
Including an SSD, hybrid drive *is* innovation in Laptop design. You could reduce *any* addition down to “its just an included option” if you wanted… Having that option at all, being new, is innovative. Applying it in interesting ways, well that’s even better… Changing the laptop shape, color, making it lighter, using higher quality materials, that’s also innovation.. so let’s have at it.
May 29th, 2007 5:52 am
Yes, innovation and progress should maybe be used sometimes in a similar, synonymously manner, even I also thought more of *entirely new things*, when I used this term.
For example the *first* Trackpoint, Thinklight, Transnote, docking station, rollcage, LED backlight etc. were once innovative new things in the notebook segment.
The recently so called Thinkpad Houdini concept from 2003…
http://www.lenovoblogs.com/des.....?s=houdini
…would have been very innovative, if IBM those days would have brought it to market and not instead let it be just a design study. Today and actually others have taken over this concept much faster to market, like Flybook, HPs Dragon and so on.
May 29th, 2007 5:35 pm
The only use of an SSD i’d describe is innovative is Sony’s idea to put both an SSD in for OS and apps and a normal spindle drive for storage – simply selling something does not equal innovation – progress maybe but not innovation, ThinkPads will contain SSD drives once the cost gets to about 2x that of standard hard drives I reckon, before then the business probably just wouldn’t justify the inventory.
I also dont think the additions of memory card readers is progress – this is Lenovo playing catchup but “me-too” is not a reason to do something, the way memory cards change these days (i’ve got devices that take SD, transflash, 3 types of memory stick and compact flash) its not something I’d want built in – this is what PC Card/Express slots are for imho, I have a express card reader and it is the perfect solution and I can easily change it when a new memory card comes out.
I love houdini – I want that to be the new A series (dual optical, 17″, RAID etc) – drop R series and bring back a system that would actually fill a gap in the market
May 30th, 2007 7:43 pm
With all this talk of innovation, I made a quick list of technologies or things that either came out first on ThinkPads, or were a first by a major manufacturer. This is in no particular order:
1. Trackpoint
2. Fingerprint reader
3. Hard drive roll cage
4. Active hard disk protection (accelerometer)
5. Wireless WAN
6. SXGA+
7. Multitouch (active and passive digitizers)
8. ThinkLight
9. Rubberized paint
10. Spillproof keyboard
These are just some of the “innovations” that have come out of IBM/Lenovo recently, just the ones I could think of in a few minutes. There are more I’m sure and there are many others that we wouldn’t even hear about in the past (like maybe the owl fan blades).
I can’t think of any other major manufacturer that can list so many innovative technologies. It’s easy for the small companies that cater to the niche markets to put all kinds of extra stuff on their computers and call it innovative, but for a major manufacturer who caters to large businesses AND to the growing market of retail/home users to innovate in this way, it’s really incredible. Many of these innovations have been adopted by the rest of the market and I can’t think of any other manufacturer that can make that kind of claim. Just my $.02.
May 31st, 2007 6:48 pm
@madcow101333
I visited yesterday a *LenovoLive 2007* event in europe and 9 from the above listed points were also named there as the special goodies for the Thinkpads.
@Matt, the new fans and the second rollcage for the display have also been named among those new goodies. So your Lenovo colleagues in europe were also up-to-date with most new Thinkpad related infos. Maybe no need to say, but standing on a Thinkpad was also demonstrated, in the same manner as Matt showed on one image once. – BTW, before I forget, you have greetings from Lenovo’s “Nico Greiner”!
Did I heard something there at the *LenovoLive 2007* event, which I didn’t already knew from the blogs? – Not really, only that there will be no 15″ 4:3 T61 models and thus instead R61 models with a 15″ 4:3 display. Mening the T61 will be just available with 14″ 4:3 panels.
After comparing the new T61 and R61 models, I realized that the haptics of the T61 are still a top notch better (the palm rest, outer used materials etc.) than those of the R61. Further the T61 display cover was sturdier, rock solid and didn’t flex when pressed from outside, the R61 display cover in contrast did have some little flexing. So I believe there is still some slightly little difference between the two. – All in all I liked the new T61, beside the X61T and other X-Series models I saw at the event.
June 2nd, 2007 10:20 pm
vkyr,
Which of items that I listed did Lenovo NOT list?
June 3rd, 2007 5:26 am
AFAI remember, they didn’t mentioned point 6 (SXGA+) related to so called innovations or first seen in a Thinkpad.
June 23rd, 2007 3:11 am
The specifications of noise levels are 36db for t61 and 40db for r61 which is a huge difference considering the logarithmic power scale. What is the explanation for that?
September 13th, 2007 3:51 pm
Thanks but it is too late for me — already “sentenced to noise
for life” from your Thinkpad R50e model. (Fan never stops except
occasionaly in winter.)
September 20th, 2007 7:19 am
Have your engineers thought about talking to the wind turbine folk about this? One of the main problems with wind turbines is noise so this may help. Just a thought!
September 28th, 2007 6:24 am
[...] man ihn nicht mehr auf die Schoß nehmen kann. Das liegt vielleicht auch Teilweise an den neuen Rotorblättern des Notebooks die von Eulen inspiriert sind. Weitere Goodies die das Thinkpad aufwerten ist die außerordentlich gute [...]
October 1st, 2007 5:35 pm
NOISY FAN CONTROL – Aaargh!
Matt,
there are so many comments on each thread of all the Lenovo Blogs. Are they being read by someone, or just glanced at to get a quick idea what is going on?
FAN NOISE: The MAJOR problem of T4x Series has never been solved, although a lot of people here have complained. At forum.ThinkPads.com ten thousands (!!) of people have enquired help with that “pain in the ass” fan noise on the T4x. And no, the hacking tool “ThinkPad Fan Control” is not really the final solution.
Your engineers have put in only 3 states for the fan: Off, Full Speed, Max Speed. No intermediate levels, no sensitive temperature control, nada, nothing…!
A fan is useless unless it is controlled by some moderately intelligent software. For heaven’s sake, tell your engineers to put in more and better fan levels for the millions of T4x notebooks out there in the wild.
I can not upgrade because I am stuck with corporate purchase schemes.
Does anyone read and listen to customer’s comments here..???
November 21st, 2007 10:05 am
Quick question regarding “owl wing” design – while initially it may be less noisy then traditional CPU fan blades it seem prone to get worse when enough dust will collect on the blade notches… Actually I predict that because of blades end notches dust collection will be worse with such design then the regular… So it will be more quite during the first year of usage – then it’ll turn into some horrible noise (or with enough dust collected – all these carpeting in corporate headquarters..) or even worse – just lock CPU fan to the cover walls and fry the CPU (though corporate notebook users rarely heat up CPU that much).
I have another question regarding CPU fan design – did your guys tried some non-sticky material for fans (like teflon for example) – may be solid piece of teflon would be too expensive for manufacturing on large scale, but some dust-repellent/electrostatic-neutral coating for CPU fan could bring some real benefits at reasonable cost for production.
Neither of my laptops could survive the “doom of CPU fan” – thinkpads a20/21, fujitsu e7110, toshiba m200 – all started quiet and after year became terribly noisy…
July 30th, 2008 12:06 pm
[...] engineers have once again raised the bar on reducing both heat and noise. The X200 has adopted the “owl-like” fan design that was seen in the X300. The fan is amazingly quiet when it runs and does its job well. Even if [...]
August 25th, 2008 4:54 pm
Actually, all the people talking about owl’s eyes being so big that they can’t turn inside their heads, leading to them developing the ability to turn their head all the way around…. are off the mark.
You see, all birds have eyes that do not move within their heads, regardless of size. That’s why parrots and parakeets move their heads so comically to look at you – they need to turn their head sideways to look straight at you (with one eye.) Of course, if they turn their head to look straight forward with one eye, they’re looking almost straight back with the other. This is great for alertness if you’re trying to avoid being eaten.
Owls have eyes that are almost entirely in the front of their face, so both eyes look the same directions. This is good for stereoscopic vision – important for judging distance when hunting. This also means they must turn their heads farther than many other birds to see behind them. Owls do a lot of hunting from perches, so turning the head far is an assets – many other hunting birds hunt in flight, and they don’t need to look behind them all that much.
September 7th, 2008 10:07 am
[...] engineers have once again raised the bar on reducing both heat and noise. The X200 has adopted the “owl-like” fan design that was seen in the X300. The fan is amazingly quiet when it runs and does its job well. Even if [...]
September 17th, 2008 3:01 am
I have two comments.
First, as a longtime Thinkpad user (currently own a 380, T42, SL500, and X61s), I commend the designers’ approach towards robust and reliable laptops. I depend on them daily.
Second, I invite the readers to review US Patent# 4,089,618, entitled “Fan with noise reduction”. I noticed this patent was approved May 16, 1978; just slightly over 20 years ago. Since patent 4,089,618 is now expired, Lenovo is now free to incorporate this design into the Thinkpad without further concern and I am quite appreciative of the expected improvement. Notice the article above claims the leading edge creates the turbulence and a fellow respondent correctly notes above the vortex shedding actually occurs off of the trailing edge. The fact the vortex shedding occurs off the trailing edge is also included in the patent cited above, and I believe it is a more correct way to describe the phenomenon.
February 7th, 2009 1:38 am
[...] have once again raised the bar on reducing both heat and noise. The X200 has adopted the “owl-like” fan design that was seen in the X300. The fan is amazingly quiet when it runs and does its job well. Even [...]
March 11th, 2009 7:05 pm
[...] engineers have once again raised the bar on reducing both heat and noise. The X200 has adopted the “owl-like” fan design that was seen in the X300. The fan is amazingly quiet when it runs and does its job well. Even if [...]
June 26th, 2009 9:59 am
[...] Conversations. Can’t emphasize how large of a ThinkPad nerd I am. My favorite post has to be the owl fan. Who in their right mind would go to such lengths to detail the innovation achieved by mimicking [...]
August 2nd, 2010 5:49 am
Wish there were thinkpads with 4:3 screen and decent thermal design again…
I have A30p (which died of Radeon soldering breakage), T41 (ditto), T43 (*hot* chipset and *crappy* keyboard but nice IPS 1400×1050 screen), X60t (nice cool system but almost the last proper screen — AFFS 1400×1050 — and original battery just stopped charging a year into use).
These days looking at Panasonic Toughbook due to 14″ at 1400×1050 and at Sony notebooks due to build quality — but ThinkLight and convenient pointer do matter.
Hope that Lenovo folks will understand some day that “innovations” like T43 are so substandard for a Thinkpad (fixed Radeon issue, broke almost everything around while trying to improve over IBM), and that crappy “widescreen” resolutions just aren’t that universal for professionals working with text and badly needing those vertical millimeters and pixels instead of horizontal waste…