On September 20th, Lenovo officially released two high-performance portable laptops – ThinkPad X1 extreme and ThinkPad P1.
The ThinkPad X1 extreme uses the 8th-generation Intel Core i7 standard voltage processor and the NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti graphics card.
It supports up to 64GB dual-channel memory and PCle NVMe high-speed M.2 SSD. Compared to the ThinkPad x1 Carbon, this laptop is more focused on performance and efficiency.
The laptop body is made of aviation-grade carbon fiber, which reduces the weight to 1.7kg. At the same time, to meet various working scenarios, ThinkPad X1 has a very rich port and supports fast charging.
In this guide, I will remove the ThinkPad X1 Extreme bottom case to access the battery, M.2 SSD, RAM, CMOS battery, cooling fan, heatsink, hard drive, Wi-Fi card, and motherboard.
First, we need to remove all the screws that secure the bottom case, then slowly remove it. After removing the bottom case, you can see its internal components, including the battery, RAM, M.2 SSD, CMOS battery, Wi-Fi card, speaker, heatsink, cooling fan, and motherboard.
On the right, there are two M.2 2280 SSD slots. In my case, it only comes with a Samsung MZVLB512HAJQ-000L7 PM981 PCIe 3.0*4 SSD and supports the NVMe protocol.
Just below the cooling system are two RAM slots, both of which are covered with black shielding paster. This laptop only has 16GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM. According to official information, it supports up to 64GB RAM.
At the bottom is a 15.36V, 80Wh, 5235mAh lithium battery. Lenovo’s part number is L17C4P72, and the FRU is 01AY969. Above the battery is a CMOS battery with an FRU of 04X0443.
The Wi-Fi card is at the left of the fuselage. In my case, it comes with an Intel Wireless-AC 9560 adapter that supports 2×2 802.11ac and Bluetooth 5.0.
The upper part of the fuselage is the cooling system, which consists of dual fans and double copper tubes. It covers the Intel Core i7 8750H processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q graphics card chip.
As a flagship product, ThinkPad X1 Extreme uses metal plates to reinforce all important ports, which is common in high-end notebooks.
We use AS SSD software to test the M.2 SSD. It reads speed of 2371M/S, a writes speed of 1857M/S, and has a composite score of 4488.
Now, the Keyboard for Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme 01YU756 01YU757 is available in our parts store.
Hi, David,
Is there a lock or trick to removing the bottom case on the x1 extreme like you did?
I unscrewed the 7 screws completely but can’t remove them from their holes.
I tried to gently find a way to remove the case with the screws just resting in the holes, but the bottom case seemed solid.
What am I missing?
Thanks for any help!
You can insert a plastic piece under the bottom case and slide the plastic piece slowly to open the bottom case.
I bought the 16GB option yesterday. There’s only one stick in it, correct? If so, what brand is it? Can you recommend a 16GB memory stick to add? Then!
In theory, any brand of memory is ok, only it is DDR4 2666MHz, but memory often has compatibility issues, so you better buy a brand same as your original memory.
Is 260-pin DDR4 2666MHz what I’ll need?
yes
Hi
Can I add 2 SSD drives and do they have to be identical?
Thanks
Yes, you can add two SSDs, they don’t need to be exactly the same.
Hello, I want to expand the storage on my 1x extreme. should I buy NVMe PCIe Gen 3.0 x 2 or NVMe PCIe Gen 3.0 x 4?
I am not sure if the free M.2 slot supports PCIe 3.0 x 4 NVMe SSD. You can contact Lenovo to confirm.
Hi,
Is it possible to upgrade the Graphics card later on? The only thing that misses this laptop is a real GPU for my line of work 🙂
Thanks
Its graphics chip is soldered to the motherboard, so it cannot be upgraded.
Hi, my friend bought x1 extreme with an FHD screen for me. Is it possible to upgrade the screen to 4K?
Thank you.
is it possible to upgrade the FHD screen to 4K?
thanks
I guess it is not possible because your LCD cable does not support a 4k screen.
Hello! David,
I am hoping to upgrade my X1 Extreme’s SSD in the future, but I have some concerns:
I chose the X1 Extreme with the “256GB M.2 2280 SATA3 OPAL” SSD. Does this impose any limitations on future upgrades? If so, what limitations should I consider? (i.e., I will not be able to upgrade to a PCIe NVMe drive eventually)
Is it possible to add a second internal SSD to the same laptop, or is it physically impossible?
I would be grateful for your advice.
In the overall picture…
1. There’s a slot in the upper right corner above the 2 NVME SSD slots.
What is that empty slot for?
2. Can the wifi card be upgraded later? The X1E Gen 2 appears to have a newer Wi-Fi 6 card.
3. If you don’t do any gaming, shouldn’t the single 16GB RAM be enough for daily productivity work and online activities such as TV/movie viewings? Or is it better to add another 16GB DDR4 1666 memory chip?
Would adding an 8GB chip not provide decent performance since it’ll be 16+8=4GB memory, or should the memory be matched to the first 16GB memory stick?
4. Did the 2nd M.2 NVME slot include its own screw?
Is it correct that ONLY single-sided NVME cards are accepted?
I did read that the X1 Extreme Gen 1 & 2 will support 2TB NVME cards, but they must be Single-Sided.
Thanks!