Comments | pavelmachek: X220 to play with

pavelmachek

X220 to play with

Feb 21, 2017 23:21

Nice machine. Slightly bigger than X60, bezel around display way too big, but quite powerful. Biggest problem seems to be that it does not accept 9.5mm high drives ( Read more... )

Comments 9

anonymous February 22 2017, 01:52:51 UTC

I got 3 monitors working on an Intel system with only 2 CRTCs. The trick is that two of the monitors need to be identical as they can both then share the same CRTC. I don't think you can pull that off with those outputs though. My outputs were VGA (unused), DVI, HDMI and displayport. The DVI and HDMI outputs have the same monitors.

pavelmachek February 22 2017, 21:04:33 UTC

I might be willing to sacrifice some resolution to get three screens working... What kind of magic did you do make outputs share the CRTC?

anonymous February 22 2017, 09:19:50 UTC

It seems that the sandybrige integrated gpu doesn't do more than two monitors at a time. Its successor Ivybrige does. I have both x220 and X230. With the same dock and two eternal screens, the internal x220 screen shut off when pluged in while the x230's one stays on.

anonymous February 22 2017, 11:06:47 UTC

can it not run 64-bit kernel?
actually i am on the lookout for an X220 myself (have ancient X40 right now).

pavelmachek February 22 2017, 21:03:09 UTC

It can run 64-bit kernel (everything from X61 up can, AFAICT), but I sometimes run 32-bit for compatibility with X60.

anonymous February 22 2017, 13:26:28 UTC

tried to post from my phone this morning, do not know if comment in reviewing queue or dropped so reposting :

X220 : Sandybridge, gpu supports up to 2 monitors
X230 : Ivybridge, gpu supports up to 3 monitors

I have both and the compatible dock with two external screens. When docked the x220 internal screen shuts off while the x230's doesn't.

pavelmachek February 22 2017, 21:03:25 UTC

Sorry about that, I was slow unscreening the replies.

anonymous February 23 2017, 00:25:07 UTC

It will fit 9.5mm drives, but not through the opening. You need to take the keyboard off and pull up the plastic covering over the drive bay. You can then slip the drive in, install the plastic covering, and keyboard. Alternatives include taking the SSD out of the case and wrapping it in cardboard.

pavelmachek February 24 2017, 12:16:22 UTC

I've seen the wiki at

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/7mm_hard_drive_bay#mSata_SSD

. I have nice 1TB SSHD I'd like to run in X220, but I'm not sure I'm ready for completely dismantling the X220. Taking cover off SSHD is not an option. Harddrives can survive without cover, but not in this kind of conditions :-).