I remember coming across these systems when looking for a cheaper workstation to do some experimentation with. The prices are actually up from what they usually are, back when I bought it they were around $87 for the barebones one. These things are such good machines, they even get BIOS updates still from Lenovo actually funny enough, so these machines are still in full support. With something like a 5700XT these things are easily great gaming machines.
Any advice is greatly appreciated are there any other workstation PC that have dual 6 plus 2 pin for the PSU for a higher end gpu. This Lenovo does but I'm curious if anything else that's budget does the hp z440 and dell t5180 are have only dual 6 pin
@@Spencerwalker21 t5810 power breakout board uses the same pin out as EVGA GQ power supplies, incidentally (and I'm sure many other modular PSUs share that pin out). I have a 6+8 in my 450w T5810
I too have fallen under the veil that is workstation whacko. I'm 2 weeks into it this binge. Possibly an aftereffect of some recent CME, My Lenovo barebones arrives tomorrow. Got a Dell P3610 couple of years ago. That was my first . I could almost sleep in it.. My main computer is a Dell P5820. Then I stumble on your channel and my fate is sealed. life has digressed. You Sir are a hoot- a thorough delight. Thank you.
A lot of people hated it when Lenovo bought all the IBM hardware rights or whatever you call it, but they have done some great things with it. I'm not much for laptops, but I do own a Lenovo Thinkpad T61 from 2010 and with Linux Mint it's still incredibly useful.
I use the P500, the P520's older brother with more 2 more 3.5 drive bays, and wind baffles. The red markings inside are all tool-less indicators, anything marked red can be removed by hand with little to no effort, one of my favorite things about this series of Lenovo devices
The Lenovo p529 has it but Do you know of any other budget workstations that have dual 6 plus 2 pin for higher end gpu. Z440 and dell t5180 and others all have only dual 6 pin
Your enthusiasm shines through, especially on this video. I love Xeon systems, my primary gaming PC is an old dual Xeon Mac Pro (my main computer is 'better' - but I really dig the vibe, helped by the CRT and 980ti). I'm going to start looking at these more deeply, as the Pro is starting to show it's age with its x5680 CPUs - even a Titan Black has to wait on it in cRPGs...
I just ordered one of these P520s on Ebay, and I too have a GTX 1080 laying on the shelf that I plan to pair it with, at least for now. Thank you for testing out the 1080.
I love large mechanical HDDS, both for network storage (I run a jellyfin server for the house) but also my laptop dock has a 4tb built into it. I picked that strictly for videos, books, pictures, ect that I didn't want to lose.
Very nice. I'm right there with you, they are great for backup. Especially for a lot of files that I only access once in a while, then the speed thing is really not even a factor.
I've heard of the Man in the Hugh Castle, but kudos to the Man in the Low Castle. Like the video, looking forward to seeing mire of this platform. Thank you.
Was looking at this OEM vs some kind of hp z440 motherboard build for a bit, and honestly this machine is insane for the value. The cpu is basically an i7 8700 with better multi core performance, and the 900 watt psu included is also great. All that for $140 shipped is great for a highschool senior working part time. Thanks for helping find a good replacement for my optiplex 3010. Going from the i3 3240 i've been using for years to a skylake xeon is kinda crazy.
Absolutely, definitely better spec'd that the z440 and close to the same price (depending on components and whatnot). It's probably on par with the HP Z4 G4, but it seems like those are always way more expensive. Sounds like you got a good deal on yours too, and definitely a step up from 3rd gen i-series 🙂. And thank you, I appreciate you checking out the video!
I'm looking at one on Amazon renewed for $150 shipped to replace my optiplex 7010 with the zeon e3 1230v2 (i7 3770ish) . I'm also rocking a Gigabyte RX580 8GB, so I'm excited to grab one and experience the upgrade! It seems like these older workstations are, for some reason flying under the price hike radar, but I would imagine that it won't be for long if it starts being recognized on UA-cam more and more.
@@GodSaveTheUnitedStates definitely go for it, my rx 580 has been running like a champ in its new home. And these cpus are able to easily keep up with stuff like the gtx 1080 ti and rx 5700 xt in case you wanna upgrade later.
What I like about the P520 aside from he obviously better CPU/RAM and onboard NVMe slots is that that fans actually ramp up to prevent hitting the CPU thermal max and without needing to set a minimum fan speed in the BIOS. I'm running a W-2145 w/ 64 gigs. Love the fan speed POST.
The fans are pretty legit. I was messing with the speeds in the BIOS, when they are turned all the way up it sounds like there is a mini hurricane ripping through the case. 🙂
@@lordpelvis63954 yeah. I bit the bullet though. My daily driver is a Z440 and my poor GTX 1660TI isn't cutting it anymore. Going to actually build a Ryzen 9 7900 build this time. Bern doing a lot of photogrammetry and the core counts and my GPU needs are a bit more than what I have.
@@lordpelvis63954I'm liking the Lenovo p520 because it has dual 6 plus 2 pin. I'm doing a cheap gaming build but di you know of any other workstations that have dual 6 plus 2 things like z440 and dell t5810 all have dual 6 only.
Thank you for posting this video. I bought one for $150 on Amazon. It is exactly what I was hoping for. It plays the Ps3 emulator perfect. My HP Z420 was nowhere near this good
We need a Workstation Deathmatch! HP vs Lenovo. Hopefully you can find a couple of good mechanical HDDs for your video archiving purposes. That motherboard looked to have over 1200 (slight exaggeration) SATA connections, so as an editing workstation, I think you can build to your heart's content. I'll cross my fingers that you find a good lot of DDR4 ECC 2933 at a good price. Might make a good video to compare slower vs faster RAM, and see if the difference is stellar, or just meh.
Lenovo sells tons of accessories for these. I got an extra hdd bay so it can hold 4 in total. Add an icy dock to those two 5.25 bays and you have 7 drives and a great nas case as it’s pretty quiet.
Yeah it nice to see a youtuber who shares my view on 3.5in hdd yeah I dont run my os on them, and super demanding games I keep on ssd's but crap like photos, music, word documents and older video games dont need to clutter up my systems heckin expensive memory.
Absolutely! Especially if you have a lot of extra files, it gets way too costly to put it all on SSD. On top of that there is so much stuff that I only access every once in a while, not like I'm using it every day where the speed would even be significant.
Replaced my Dell T3500 I bought when I was shit broke at 17 with one of these, it's a killer although I did have one issue. The power supply that came with the unit was DOA however after reaching out to the seller (PCSP) (and buying a spare just in case) they sent me another PSU and I haven't had issues since. I've pulled the old PSU apart and am going to be recapping it so I have two spares in the house.
I got the HP version of this, a HP Z4 G4 and put a w-2145 with 3070ti in it. It games extremely well. Not even much fan spin up after I undervolted the GPU. It went from 320W consumption to 240W max with no loss of performance at all. I like the look of the Lenovo more than the HP on the inside but the HP looks great from outside. Great computer you got there. Make sure and get dual rank RAM if you upgrade. It helps with gaming with these xeons for some reason. Probably easier on the memory controller for some reason. 2 sticks of dual rank RAM is the best, quad is slightly slower sometimes from my research. That would be an interesting video idea.
She's a beaut for sure. I was thinking of getting an OptiPlex 7060 for my next build but not now. I already have a Lenovo T480s laptop so why not a p520 thinkstation. That thing will be amazing with unlimited possibilities.
Any way you can show Afterburner when you are testing gaming, with fps, frametimes, GPU and CPU usage? Also, would be cool to see some Cinebench scores. Thanks for the videos man, good stuff.
I can look into that. A lot of the testing I've done is more on the quick/practical side, but it would be good to have some more detail. Also, thank you, I appreciate you watching!
I’m building a budget video editing / gaming rig based around Ryzen 3700x with resizable bar. I’m going to see if I can get one of these and put it head to head with pound to frame cost comparison and work out a metric to test the pound to performance video editing on davinci resolve. Great video.
10:09 Look into getting a Viotek GF127DBXA. Wendell from Level1 Techs sold me on it about a year ago. 1440p high refresh, good color gamut. It should be pretty reasonable. I went through one monitor in one month, but RMAd that one, quick turnaround, and I've been using the replacement for a year or so now. I highly recommend it.
The price on these second hand actually went up a bit but bang for buck they are still great systems. Almost grabbed one of these but decided to get myself an Epyc system as a homelab machine.
Is this Lenovo workstation the only thing that has dual 6 plus 2 pin. I'm wanting to do a cheap but high end 4070 rtx gaming PC. Z440 And dell t5810 all have dual 6 pin only.
By only thing I mean good budget I might be able to get that Lenovo p520 for 230$ with a 8 core 3.7ghz CPU it's barebone si I'll have to get ram SSD and windows copy but I'm hoping there are other alternatives out there. Most everything else has dual 6 like hp and dell systems z440 and dellt5810 are all dual 6 only.
Ive got that same ws with same cpu, i noticed something interesting and i was wondering if you can confirm, while gaming I always have hwinfo64 running and its been a few times the the cpu read up to 5ghz, am i crazy or is something wrong with hwinfo64?
My main machine is a Dell T3600 with 64 GBs of DDR 3 in quad channel. It runs circles around my newer i5 6500 based system even with 32GBs of DDR 4. These old workstations have way more longevity than consumer based parts.
I don't know what happened but these machines sell for $400-$900 CAD on ebay as of today when I checked... :/ I guess people caught on and they've become more popular.
That is rough. I imagine people are catching on, depends a lot on the kind of specs it comes with too though. The one I'm messing with was pretty much barebones with the lower end CPU and upgrades were relatively cheap. But even at the time I was browsing this one, I saw some of them priced super high. Usually, the expensive ones have one of the higher end processors, more RAM, sometimes a GPU. Hopefully there will be some more popping up at a reasonable price in the future. Solid machines, but probably not so great in that higher price range.
I like my P520, it's equipped with a W-2135, the 900W Platinum PSU, and came with 32GB of DDR4. I purchased a used PNY 1070 XLR8 for it and transferred my three drives; a 120GB BX500 for Windows, 1 TB MX500 for games, and a WD10EZEX for an additional 1 TB of storage. The performance is great for spending less than $300, the most intense game I play is Witcher 3 on Ultra with a few HD graphic mods and it uses about 30-50% of the CPU. GPU is about 100%, not a Lenovo problem but I think it would do better if it used all 8GB of RAM. It's certainly better than my 10-year-old HP Z230 sff with a GT 1030, I was looking at another HP workstation but I've always loved Lenovo Brickpads. The 520 just stood out to me as the best looking with great hardware for the best value. The only problem I have is that it takes longer to boot up and I can't figure out why because my Z230 was nearly instant on a BX500, I could make a sandwich while waiting for my 520 to boot and repaint The Sistine Chapel on HDD. Maybe it just prioritizes an NVME drive instead, or the CPU is a little slower to boot than what I had before.
Very nice, sounds like a solid setup. I actually noticed the same thing with the boot time. Maybe it has something to do with how the system POSTs? I'm not really sure, might just be a Lenovo thing if you're experiencing it too. Otherwise, runs really well though.
@@LowcastleTech I'm starting to think that it's a design feature, these kinds of workstations don't have to turn off and on as much as a regular office PC like my Z230 or something so maybe boot instructions are delayed. I'm not a technician so that's my guess, but it runs great for gaming and doing Audio/Video editing.
@@aku2dimensional Good point! I'm not sure either, but that does make a lot of sense. They're often used as servers and things like that so you're right, they would be constantly running and not restarting that often.
@@LowcastleTech I asked on the Lenovo support forums since I was curious and Lenovo staff answered the question that makes sense. They replied: "Workstation systems typically have longer boot times than standard desktops for a variety of reasons. And I also would add that it's not unusual to see boot times actually get longer generation to generation mainly because of the larger number of tasks BIOS is handling in the background during boot and new features being added. Security has become a big focal point for BIOS, and as such there has been numerous changes introduced over the years that make for a more secure platform, but also has impacts on boot time as a side effect." Sounds obvious when pointed out but I've never used serious hardware before to understand, I was just using an Xeon desktop that I found in the trash.
Two strange things... no IGP and all the slot plates in. Did somebody bother to add a matching plate after removing a GPU, or is there a way to run headless with no GPU or IGP? Also, strange mounting of M.2 screw to the case, means recasing is not an option
That's a good question. I'm assuming they reinserted the original plates or just pulled them from another machine of the same type. From what I've seen, the system isn't compatible with any processors that have integrated graphics, so there had to be a card in there at some point. Also a fair point about the m.2 mounting, I didn't even think of that.
I got quite excited about this untill I checked eBay and found the cheapest available in the UK 3 months later is 400gbp. Admittedly these are for full systems though.
I didn't really have to clean this one. Buying used PCs is pretty hit or miss in that regard, sometimes they are covered in dust, sometimes not so bad. But yeah, this one showed up in nice shape.
I know! That is definitely something that sets this one apart from other workstations I've covered. Much higher potential for future upgrades. I might be waiting a bit for the CPUs to come down in price, but the faster 2933 mhz RAM is already starting to pop up for pretty cheap.
This one didn't unfortunately, which is def one of the downsides. It seems like a lot of these Workstations don't have a key tied to the motherboard, whereas the office type PCs often do.
We don't have many of those over here, but the cheapest one I've found is 770 euros. With prices like that, I'll end up importing one in the end. Or ten.
Just join. 700 s I have 3 . 520 is there a power adapter now ? So need use mounting points they have? With is one. ? What cpu what ram are using. Not to much info? I have parts only buy at auction. And got running. No numbers available. From a sever rack. It is possible. To much to say. God bless. Next one more info
Hey do you think you could try using the Dell T7910 mobo and 2 E5 2699 v3s or E5 2696 v3s? 36 cores and the potential for 512 gbs of ram feels very pointless but also very fun lol
Hopefully you see this and maybe try it..... The design of the motherboard looks like hp z440. Will the hp's 700 watt power supply work in this thinkpad? If so be a great upgrade 🤔🤔🤔
Not sure if your question was answered by now but no, Lenovo uses a proprietary PSU and motherboard for this machine. You might be able use an adapter that would switch the onboard connection to use a standard power supply, there are holes in the case that look like they will mount either an ATX or SFX unit.
Great video man, these machines definitely get slept on alot and I ended up getting an HP Z440, partly because of you. Id like to pick your brain on some GPU info. My HP z440 came with 32gb Ram, 6core 12thread 1650 v4 and a Quadro M2000 4gb card. I do video editing, 3d animation and graphic design and I also do some light gaming when time allows. Im trying to get a GPU upgrade and planning on a cpu upgrade later on. My main applications are Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator, Davinci Resolve, Blender, and Cinema 4D. The Questions: 1. For GPU upgrades, which card are you most likely to get for this Lenovo as you think about uprades? 2. Im stuck between trying to get 1 of 3 cards i.e Quadro P5000 16GB, Quadro M6000 24GB and an Nvidia RTX 2070 Super (looking at an RTX 3060 or 3070 if budget allows). Which in your opinion do you think I'd benefit from the most for work?
That is awesome, and I'm glad you liked the video! As far as the GPU you go with, it mostly just depends on what you want to focus on the most. If you want to center on gaming, one of the RTX would probably be the way to go. But if you want the emphasis to be on video editing and the other types of work you mentioned, then Quadro is probably the right choice. Once you've made a decision about which path you want to take it will mostly just come down to budget. I've been looking at similar cards for editing and the couple Quadros you have picked out seem pretty solid. The P5000 looks like a good budget card, but I might wait until I can save more for 24GB M6000 (or something similar) because those are looking beast mode. One other thing to note if you go for a gaming card though, sometimes those cards are more likely to have 2 8pin connectors which the PSU might not have the ability to feed, so be on the lookout. Some of the HP z440s have the dual 6 pin cables, and you can use a dual 6 pin to 8 pin adapter to power a single 8 pin. Which actually pans out pretty well for most of the Quadro cards. There are other types of power adapters or PSU swaps and stuff so it may or may not matter. Again, just something to keep in mind. Anyway I don't want to hit you with like a whole novel, hahah I realize this is getting kind of long. Hope that helps and thank you for watching! 🙂
@@LowcastleTech thank you so much for your response. This has definitely helped alot and I know what I must do now. Gaming is secondary for me so I don't want to base my gpu decision on gaming. With the games I play, even the M2000 I have is handling them quite well at 1080p. My Z440 has dual 6 pin gpu connectors so I'm good there. The P5000 and the M6000 have 8 pin connectors so the dual 6 pin to single 8 pin is the plan on those. I really appreciate your breakdown. I've been struggling to make a decision on what to upgrade to and now I have a focus. Anymore info you can give is very welcome.
@@RumbaniNdhlovu No problem, glad I could help out! And I think you are on the right track, the Quadro cards you mentioned seem like really good options.
I believe this one was just listed as "used" and not refurbished. You always have to be careful, but a few things that I try to look out for are - ratings for the actual seller and not the product, actual pictures of the device as opposed to stock photographs, and if seller does returns and all that type of stuff. It is also good to generally research the product since each listing might have different components. So I try to know what components the device could potentially have, which ones I'm hoping to find, and then what the listing specifies, in regard to CPU, RAM, etc.
I didn't notice any noise issues with the PSU specifically, but when the fan settings in the BIOS are turned up it does get crazy loud. Sounds like there is a little mini hurricane ripping through the case. That is more from the CPU and case fans though. Seems like as long as I keep the setting on the lower end (around 2 or 3) the noise seems pretty average compared to other workstations.
My only concern with Lenovo products is long term support. From my experience HP and Dell have a better track record on this. I'll still buy cheap Lenovos when I can.
This build seems to run Star Wars Jedi Survivor better, but Doom Eternal just a smidge worse than the Z440 build with the 1080 Ti. Weird how tech just decides to do what it wants sometimes.
At retail, I sell almost exclusively Lenovo, and this is why. I straight up tell customers 'get this one, there is nothing else worth looking at' because the difference in quality between them and HP/Dell (Hell? Might as well be one in the same) is stupid. Asus makes some good stuff, but for the average user, Lenovo is where it is at. I actually feel gross when customers go with an HP to save like $20 and I have to ring it out. I'd actually like to see an Asus workstation and how it compares to the Lenovo. Also, if you can get your hands on a Japanese workstation (NEC, Fujitsu, etc)...highly recommended.
Heck yeah, I'm starting to realize there is some serious quality there. I've never worked with any of those Japanese brands, that would definitely be interesting. Will have to keep an eye out!
I haven't tried it personally, but if I had to guess I'd say it likely wouldn't without some degree of modification. It has an OEM power supply and generally speaking these stock machines have a lot of proprietary type stuff that prevents a simple case swap. I'm not 100% sure, but that would be my guess.
Lenovo's workstations tend to be cleanly built. The Eastern European country I live in don't have most of the workstations readily available for a cheap price, though. For example, 370 dollars can get a P500 (no 510s, no 520s) with a 490W PSU (don't think they even have dual 6-pins), an E5-2640 v3, 16 GB of DDR4, and a 256 GB SSD. 503 dollars, still a 490W PSU (think this seller is a cheapskate, asking 30 bucks to change it to a 650), E5-2667 v3, 16 GB DDR4, 256 GB SSD and a K2200. Then again, it has the 27% VAT but it's still ridiculous. The W series have a lot of good optios for later indeed. Higher models might require better cooling, though, the HP Z-s kick into "requires liquid cooling solution" on 150+W TDP processors. Likely Lenovo ThinkStation P-s do this as well. Also UA-cam, I think I subscribed for Chairdesk goodness, I had to subscribe again - don't take it away from me!
Yeah sounds like the prices are up on the higher end there, no fun 😐. And you might be right about the cooling, but I was messing with the fan settings in the BIOS for the p520, and they kick up pretty hard. Sounds like a storm inside the case 😄. So could be ok, would probably just depend on the processor. Also, I don't know why UA-cam does that nonsense, but I appreciate the resub! Thank you! 🪑
As far as I know, it only takes Xeon W- series processors. Lenovo has a pretty thorough spec sheet on it, including compatible processors. It is a little weird to get to, but if you google "lenovo p520 psref" it should be like the first result. The CPUs are listed on the 2nd page if you're interested.
howdy 🤠, the m2 nvme port works without problems to boot at what speeds. I was thinking to buy the same model but with 32 gb of ram and 2 3.5 storage hard drives for the extra data, I want to use it for design 2d, 3d rendering and some gaming too, i hear it even works with windows 11 the bios, but with POP OS must really fly maybe some dual boot for those pesky anticheat games, your channel is a true hidden gem thanks for all the content bro, can't wait to see the performance test in later videos
wheres graphics card we need a high end of this lenovo rtx 4070ti if you have im from egypt and this pc nobody knows ithink its a treasure for the budget you found
I've thought about doing that in the past, I am a little concerned though because I really like a lot of these older machines. I want to advocate for them, but I'm afraid if I sell them online people might think I'm over hyping them or something. Who knows what the future may hold though. And I appreciate the comment!
@@LowcastleTech yeah i can see that, I think it depends on if you're promoting it, if you promote it super subtly people won't think you're shilling it
I remember coming across these systems when looking for a cheaper workstation to do some experimentation with. The prices are actually up from what they usually are, back when I bought it they were around $87 for the barebones one. These things are such good machines, they even get BIOS updates still from Lenovo actually funny enough, so these machines are still in full support. With something like a 5700XT these things are easily great gaming machines.
I actually have one of these with a 5700xt in it. It's fine, does it's job
Any advice is greatly appreciated are there any other workstation PC that have dual 6 plus 2 pin for the PSU for a higher end gpu. This Lenovo does but I'm curious if anything else that's budget does the hp z440 and dell t5180 are have only dual 6 pin
@@Spencerwalker21 t5810 power breakout board uses the same pin out as EVGA GQ power supplies, incidentally (and I'm sure many other modular PSUs share that pin out). I have a 6+8 in my 450w T5810
After careful review of studies I just made up, I have found that RGB does in fact increase overall performance by as much as +/- 1.5%.
😄Can't argue with statistics!
more like +/- 150000001 %
Especially with the 0.1 percent lows
I'm pretty sure it's more than that. Also, if you combine it with the rgb ram you download it's insane performance
There’s an indian youtuber “indian gamer”, who sarcas says rgb increases your fps to 55 lakhs (5.5 million) 😂😂
I too have fallen under the veil that is workstation whacko. I'm 2 weeks into it this binge. Possibly an aftereffect of some recent CME, My Lenovo barebones arrives tomorrow. Got a Dell P3610 couple of years ago. That was my first . I could almost sleep in it.. My main computer is a Dell P5820. Then I stumble on your channel and my fate is sealed. life has digressed. You Sir are a hoot- a thorough delight. Thank you.
All excellent machines! 😃 And I appreciate that, thank you for watching!
A lot of people hated it when Lenovo bought all the IBM hardware rights or whatever you call it, but they have done some great things with it. I'm not much for laptops, but I do own a Lenovo Thinkpad T61 from 2010 and with Linux Mint it's still incredibly useful.
try zorin os if you like mint, i like it much better as a windows-like alternative
@@swiiishgin1515 I've tried it, and I much prefer Mint. I've been using Linux on and off since about 2005, and Mint MATE is always my choice now.
@@JeffWaynee cheers, have you tried fedora? i kinda like and its amazing in older machines!
Just picked one up a month ago,, extremely impressed.. built very well and very upgradable!! Thanks for covering it!
I use the P500, the P520's older brother with more 2 more 3.5 drive bays, and wind baffles. The red markings inside are all tool-less indicators, anything marked red can be removed by hand with little to no effort, one of my favorite things about this series of Lenovo devices
The Lenovo p529 has it but Do you know of any other budget workstations that have dual 6 plus 2 pin for higher end gpu. Z440 and dell t5180 and others all have only dual 6 pin
@@Spencerwalker21 the p500 also has it, if you get a model that comes with the 650 watt power supply or higher
Still really love your content! Glad to see that Lenovo workstations are getting some attention. Thanks brother!
Appreciate that. Thank you for watching!
Your enthusiasm shines through, especially on this video.
I love Xeon systems, my primary gaming PC is an old dual Xeon Mac Pro (my main computer is 'better' - but I really dig the vibe, helped by the CRT and 980ti). I'm going to start looking at these more deeply, as the Pro is starting to show it's age with its x5680 CPUs - even a Titan Black has to wait on it in cRPGs...
the Lenovo Thinkstation P900 is a dual cpu variant
I just ordered one of these P520s on Ebay, and I too have a GTX 1080 laying on the shelf that I plan to pair it with, at least for now. Thank you for testing out the 1080.
Heck yeah. They are proving to be a really solid budget combo so far, have definitely been enjoying it. Thank you for watching!
keep making videos man. you're doing an awesome job
🙂Thank you!
Interesting set specs on the Lenovo. Glad to see that Chair Desk can support the system.
ChairDesk compatibility is definitively THE most important feature of any device! 🙂
Nothing to be ashamed of. I also use 3.5 inch HDDs - I think they're fine. And I wish I had a GTX 1080 :).
🙂 The 1080 is legit, I'm really liking it.
Huge problem to watch out for with those Lenovos: they are extremely addictive. And that's before you start upgrading ThinkPads.
I'm starting to realize that! 😄
Ive got a t430 laptop a ddr3 workstation and a ddr 4 workstation now. lol
Loved this - honest fun presentation. I am a Lenovo nerd too P410……
Thanks! Love your style. Keep going...
Thank you so much, that is really cool of you.
I love large mechanical HDDS, both for network storage (I run a jellyfin server for the house) but also my laptop dock has a 4tb built into it. I picked that strictly for videos, books, pictures, ect that I didn't want to lose.
Very nice. I'm right there with you, they are great for backup. Especially for a lot of files that I only access once in a while, then the speed thing is really not even a factor.
I've heard of the Man in the Hugh Castle, but kudos to the Man in the Low Castle.
Like the video, looking forward to seeing mire of this platform.
Thank you.
Was looking at this OEM vs some kind of hp z440 motherboard build for a bit, and honestly this machine is insane for the value. The cpu is basically an i7 8700 with better multi core performance, and the 900 watt psu included is also great. All that for $140 shipped is great for a highschool senior working part time.
Thanks for helping find a good replacement for my optiplex 3010. Going from the i3 3240 i've been using for years to a skylake xeon is kinda crazy.
Absolutely, definitely better spec'd that the z440 and close to the same price (depending on components and whatnot). It's probably on par with the HP Z4 G4, but it seems like those are always way more expensive. Sounds like you got a good deal on yours too, and definitely a step up from 3rd gen i-series 🙂. And thank you, I appreciate you checking out the video!
@@LowcastleTech quick update:
got the p520 and it's running smooth. my old rx 580 isnt being bottlenecked anymore!
@@Black_Trollface Heck yeah. That is awesome 🙂
I'm looking at one on Amazon renewed for $150 shipped to replace my optiplex 7010 with the zeon e3 1230v2 (i7 3770ish) . I'm also rocking a Gigabyte RX580 8GB, so I'm excited to grab one and experience the upgrade! It seems like these older workstations are, for some reason flying under the price hike radar, but I would imagine that it won't be for long if it starts being recognized on UA-cam more and more.
@@GodSaveTheUnitedStates definitely go for it, my rx 580 has been running like a champ in its new home. And these cpus are able to easily keep up with stuff like the gtx 1080 ti and rx 5700 xt in case you wanna upgrade later.
Great system, thinking about getting one to make solid budget build for me or my GF to have. Hope this PC serves you well my friend :)
What I like about the P520 aside from he obviously better CPU/RAM and onboard NVMe slots is that that fans actually ramp up to prevent hitting the CPU thermal max and without needing to set a minimum fan speed in the BIOS.
I'm running a W-2145 w/ 64 gigs. Love the fan speed POST.
Forgot to mention, I have 3x HP Z440's and a P520.
The fans are pretty legit. I was messing with the speeds in the BIOS, when they are turned all the way up it sounds like there is a mini hurricane ripping through the case. 🙂
I just bought a p520 too. Ive had several dell and HP workstations.
These things are like tanks. I used to build all my systems, not anymore.
@@lordpelvis63954 yeah. I bit the bullet though. My daily driver is a Z440 and my poor GTX 1660TI isn't cutting it anymore.
Going to actually build a Ryzen 9 7900 build this time. Bern doing a lot of photogrammetry and the core counts and my GPU needs are a bit more than what I have.
@@lordpelvis63954I'm liking the Lenovo p520 because it has dual 6 plus 2 pin. I'm doing a cheap gaming build but di you know of any other workstations that have dual 6 plus 2 things like z440 and dell t5810 all have dual 6 only.
Loving your videos.
Thank you, I appreciate you watching!
Thank you for posting this video. I bought one for $150 on Amazon. It is exactly what I was hoping for. It plays the Ps3 emulator perfect. My HP Z420 was nowhere near this good
No problem, thank you for watching! And I'm glad it panned out for you!
We need a Workstation Deathmatch! HP vs Lenovo. Hopefully you can find a couple of good mechanical HDDs for your video archiving purposes. That motherboard looked to have over 1200 (slight exaggeration) SATA connections, so as an editing workstation, I think you can build to your heart's content. I'll cross my fingers that you find a good lot of DDR4 ECC 2933 at a good price. Might make a good video to compare slower vs faster RAM, and see if the difference is stellar, or just meh.
Lenovo sells tons of accessories for these. I got an extra hdd bay so it can hold 4 in total. Add an icy dock to those two 5.25 bays and you have 7 drives and a great nas case as it’s pretty quiet.
Yeah it nice to see a youtuber who shares my view on 3.5in hdd yeah I dont run my os on them, and super demanding games I keep on ssd's but crap like photos, music, word documents and older video games dont need to clutter up my systems heckin expensive memory.
Absolutely! Especially if you have a lot of extra files, it gets way too costly to put it all on SSD. On top of that there is so much stuff that I only access every once in a while, not like I'm using it every day where the speed would even be significant.
Replaced my Dell T3500 I bought when I was shit broke at 17 with one of these, it's a killer although I did have one issue. The power supply that came with the unit was DOA however after reaching out to the seller (PCSP) (and buying a spare just in case) they sent me another PSU and I haven't had issues since. I've pulled the old PSU apart and am going to be recapping it so I have two spares in the house.
I got the HP version of this, a HP Z4 G4 and put a w-2145 with 3070ti in it. It games extremely well. Not even much fan spin up after I undervolted the GPU. It went from 320W consumption to 240W max with no loss of performance at all. I like the look of the Lenovo more than the HP on the inside but the HP looks great from outside. Great computer you got there. Make sure and get dual rank RAM if you upgrade. It helps with gaming with these xeons for some reason. Probably easier on the memory controller for some reason. 2 sticks of dual rank RAM is the best, quad is slightly slower sometimes from my research. That would be an interesting video idea.
She's a beaut for sure. I was thinking of getting an OptiPlex 7060 for my next build but not now. I already have a Lenovo T480s laptop so why not a p520 thinkstation. That thing will be amazing with unlimited possibilities.
Any way you can show Afterburner when you are testing gaming, with fps, frametimes, GPU and CPU usage? Also, would be cool to see some Cinebench scores. Thanks for the videos man, good stuff.
I can look into that. A lot of the testing I've done is more on the quick/practical side, but it would be good to have some more detail. Also, thank you, I appreciate you watching!
I’m building a budget video editing / gaming rig based around Ryzen 3700x with resizable bar. I’m going to see if I can get one of these and put it head to head with pound to frame cost comparison and work out a metric to test the pound to performance video editing on davinci resolve. Great video.
That does sound pretty sweet. And I appreciate that, thanks for watching!
6c/12t and a 1080, pretty decent gaming rig actually.
10:09 Look into getting a Viotek GF127DBXA. Wendell from Level1 Techs sold me on it about a year ago. 1440p high refresh, good color gamut. It should be pretty reasonable. I went through one monitor in one month, but RMAd that one, quick turnaround, and I've been using the replacement for a year or so now. I highly recommend it.
The price on these second hand actually went up a bit but bang for buck they are still great systems. Almost grabbed one of these but decided to get myself an Epyc system as a homelab machine.
Is this Lenovo workstation the only thing that has dual 6 plus 2 pin. I'm wanting to do a cheap but high end 4070 rtx gaming PC. Z440 And dell t5810 all have dual 6 pin only.
By only thing I mean good budget I might be able to get that Lenovo p520 for 230$ with a 8 core 3.7ghz CPU it's barebone si I'll have to get ram SSD and windows copy but I'm hoping there are other alternatives out there. Most everything else has dual 6 like hp and dell systems z440 and dellt5810 are all dual 6 only.
you think that there's a better cpu cooler that i can get for my p520? if so, any suggestions?
Niccee ... I saw this on toasty Bros.... Id love to pick this up!!!
HEDT platforms also used this socket s2066 the 7xx0,8xx0,9xx0 and 10xx0 i.e. 10980XE being the top (W-2295). 48 PCIe lanes!
Ive got that same ws with same cpu, i noticed something interesting and i was wondering if you can confirm, while gaming I always have hwinfo64 running and its been a few times the the cpu read up to 5ghz, am i crazy or is something wrong with hwinfo64?
3:57 OOOOOH YEAH BABY!
How do you successfully boot up this beast? I have a windows 11 USB but it ends up saying it couldn't find any drives.
Swolle, Levono is king of OEM! Great vid, Funny and fo real!
🙂Thanks for watching!
My main machine is a Dell T3600 with 64 GBs of DDR 3 in quad channel. It runs circles around my newer i5 6500 based system even with 32GBs of DDR 4. These old workstations have way more longevity than consumer based parts.
Prices over the pond are really sweet. Can't buy all this stuff here for the same amount. Guess I'll keep my Z400 :)
Hey, not too shabby. I'm a fan of the older HP zXX Workstations as well🙂
I don't know what happened but these machines sell for $400-$900 CAD on ebay as of today when I checked... :/ I guess people caught on and they've become more popular.
That is rough. I imagine people are catching on, depends a lot on the kind of specs it comes with too though. The one I'm messing with was pretty much barebones with the lower end CPU and upgrades were relatively cheap. But even at the time I was browsing this one, I saw some of them priced super high. Usually, the expensive ones have one of the higher end processors, more RAM, sometimes a GPU. Hopefully there will be some more popping up at a reasonable price in the future. Solid machines, but probably not so great in that higher price range.
I like my P520, it's equipped with a W-2135, the 900W Platinum PSU, and came with 32GB of DDR4. I purchased a used PNY 1070 XLR8 for it and transferred my three drives; a 120GB BX500 for Windows, 1 TB MX500 for games, and a WD10EZEX for an additional 1 TB of storage. The performance is great for spending less than $300, the most intense game I play is Witcher 3 on Ultra with a few HD graphic mods and it uses about 30-50% of the CPU. GPU is about 100%, not a Lenovo problem but I think it would do better if it used all 8GB of RAM.
It's certainly better than my 10-year-old HP Z230 sff with a GT 1030, I was looking at another HP workstation but I've always loved Lenovo Brickpads. The 520 just stood out to me as the best looking with great hardware for the best value. The only problem I have is that it takes longer to boot up and I can't figure out why because my Z230 was nearly instant on a BX500, I could make a sandwich while waiting for my 520 to boot and repaint The Sistine Chapel on HDD. Maybe it just prioritizes an NVME drive instead, or the CPU is a little slower to boot than what I had before.
Very nice, sounds like a solid setup. I actually noticed the same thing with the boot time. Maybe it has something to do with how the system POSTs? I'm not really sure, might just be a Lenovo thing if you're experiencing it too. Otherwise, runs really well though.
@@LowcastleTech I'm starting to think that it's a design feature, these kinds of workstations don't have to turn off and on as much as a regular office PC like my Z230 or something so maybe boot instructions are delayed. I'm not a technician so that's my guess, but it runs great for gaming and doing Audio/Video editing.
@@aku2dimensional Good point! I'm not sure either, but that does make a lot of sense. They're often used as servers and things like that so you're right, they would be constantly running and not restarting that often.
@@LowcastleTech I asked on the Lenovo support forums since I was curious and Lenovo staff answered the question that makes sense. They replied:
"Workstation systems typically have longer boot times than standard desktops for a variety of reasons. And I also would add that it's not unusual to see boot times actually get longer generation to generation mainly because of the larger number of tasks BIOS is handling in the background during boot and new features being added. Security has become a big focal point for BIOS, and as such there has been numerous changes introduced over the years that make for a more secure platform, but also has impacts on boot time as a side effect."
Sounds obvious when pointed out but I've never used serious hardware before to understand, I was just using an Xeon desktop that I found in the trash.
@@aku2dimensional That's cool that you followed up. Definitely makes sense. Also, Xeon trash desktop, I like your style 🙂
Good video as always where do you get your great deals from on used? thanks :)
Thank you! And I pretty much get everything from eBay. I spend like a ridiculous amount of time on there watching for deals 🙂
@@LowcastleTech Thank you! 😀😀
is it possible edit 4K videos P520 2135 & GTX 3060 12gb GPU ?
Two strange things... no IGP and all the slot plates in. Did somebody bother to add a matching plate after removing a GPU, or is there a way to run headless with no GPU or IGP?
Also, strange mounting of M.2 screw to the case, means recasing is not an option
That's a good question. I'm assuming they reinserted the original plates or just pulled them from another machine of the same type. From what I've seen, the system isn't compatible with any processors that have integrated graphics, so there had to be a card in there at some point. Also a fair point about the m.2 mounting, I didn't even think of that.
I got quite excited about this untill I checked eBay and found the cheapest available in the UK 3 months later is 400gbp. Admittedly these are for full systems though.
Would be a great budget gaming PC 😊
Definitely!
Is it possible to case swap the p520?
Great vid
I appreciate that, thank you for watching!
Good purchase...Did you clean it or it came that way?
I didn't really have to clean this one. Buying used PCs is pretty hit or miss in that regard, sometimes they are covered in dust, sometimes not so bad. But yeah, this one showed up in nice shape.
that xeon list makes me want one :O
I know! That is definitely something that sets this one apart from other workstations I've covered. Much higher potential for future upgrades. I might be waiting a bit for the CPUs to come down in price, but the faster 2933 mhz RAM is already starting to pop up for pretty cheap.
When a good day is not enough, make it a Chair-Desk day.
I like it! 😃
I might have to find one of these to replace my dell r7910. Did it come with a windows license key?
This one didn't unfortunately, which is def one of the downsides. It seems like a lot of these Workstations don't have a key tied to the motherboard, whereas the office type PCs often do.
for the price this machine is really good the processor should be able to keep up with something like RTX 3060 Ti just fine.
We don't have many of those over here, but the cheapest one I've found is 770 euros. With prices like that, I'll end up importing one in the end. Or ten.
😃 10 is usually the way to go, I like your style
I always thought Lenovo was a no go but this looks like a good deal.
Just join.
700 s I have 3 . 520 is there a power adapter now ? So need use mounting points they have? With is one. ? What cpu what ram are using. Not to much info? I have parts only buy at auction. And got running.
No numbers available. From a sever rack.
It is possible.
To much to say.
God bless.
Next one more info
Hey, you took up my advice! *enabler mode ....enabled*
😂The enabling is out of control... and I like it!
Is it a 3 fan
5:13 We get ChairDesk (TM) AND a sweet pool noodle beat down??? Lucky us!
Hey do you think you could try using the Dell T7910 mobo and 2 E5 2699 v3s or E5 2696 v3s?
36 cores and the potential for 512 gbs of ram feels very pointless but also very fun lol
That does sound pretty sweet. I will have to see what the prices do in the future, I like to keep it on the budget side, but that would be awesome. 🙂
Preach the Cheap Brotha!
USE ALL THE BAYS!
I love mine.
Can it be overclocked?
Hopefully you see this and maybe try it.....
The design of the motherboard looks like hp z440. Will the hp's 700 watt power supply work in this thinkpad? If so be a great upgrade 🤔🤔🤔
I'm not totally sure. They might have different types of connectors. But I haven't delved in that much, I will have to look more into it.
Not sure if your question was answered by now but no, Lenovo uses a proprietary PSU and motherboard for this machine. You might be able use an adapter that would switch the onboard connection to use a standard power supply, there are holes in the case that look like they will mount either an ATX or SFX unit.
curious will that board/CPU combo run ECC-DDR4?
Yeah glad you brought that up. I blanked on mentioning that, but it is ECC RAM, and DDR4.
I am running it with DDR4-3200 ECC Rdimm without problem, it will auto clock down to CPU speed. I pair 128GB 3200 with W-2135 right now
Great video man, these machines definitely get slept on alot and I ended up getting an HP Z440, partly because of you.
Id like to pick your brain on some GPU info. My HP z440 came with 32gb Ram, 6core 12thread 1650 v4 and a Quadro M2000 4gb card.
I do video editing, 3d animation and graphic design and I also do some light gaming when time allows. Im trying to get a GPU upgrade and planning on a cpu upgrade later on. My main applications are Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator, Davinci Resolve, Blender, and Cinema 4D.
The Questions:
1. For GPU upgrades, which card are you most likely to get for this Lenovo as you think about uprades?
2. Im stuck between trying to get 1 of 3 cards i.e Quadro P5000 16GB, Quadro M6000 24GB and an Nvidia RTX 2070 Super (looking at an RTX 3060 or 3070 if budget allows). Which in your opinion do you think I'd benefit from the most for work?
That is awesome, and I'm glad you liked the video! As far as the GPU you go with, it mostly just depends on what you want to focus on the most. If you want to center on gaming, one of the RTX would probably be the way to go. But if you want the emphasis to be on video editing and the other types of work you mentioned, then Quadro is probably the right choice. Once you've made a decision about which path you want to take it will mostly just come down to budget.
I've been looking at similar cards for editing and the couple Quadros you have picked out seem pretty solid. The P5000 looks like a good budget card, but I might wait until I can save more for 24GB M6000 (or something similar) because those are looking beast mode. One other thing to note if you go for a gaming card though, sometimes those cards are more likely to have 2 8pin connectors which the PSU might not have the ability to feed, so be on the lookout.
Some of the HP z440s have the dual 6 pin cables, and you can use a dual 6 pin to 8 pin adapter to power a single 8 pin. Which actually pans out pretty well for most of the Quadro cards. There are other types of power adapters or PSU swaps and stuff so it may or may not matter. Again, just something to keep in mind. Anyway I don't want to hit you with like a whole novel, hahah I realize this is getting kind of long. Hope that helps and thank you for watching! 🙂
@@LowcastleTech thank you so much for your response. This has definitely helped alot and I know what I must do now. Gaming is secondary for me so I don't want to base my gpu decision on gaming. With the games I play, even the M2000 I have is handling them quite well at 1080p.
My Z440 has dual 6 pin gpu connectors so I'm good there. The P5000 and the M6000 have 8 pin connectors so the dual 6 pin to single 8 pin is the plan on those.
I really appreciate your breakdown. I've been struggling to make a decision on what to upgrade to and now I have a focus. Anymore info you can give is very welcome.
@@RumbaniNdhlovu No problem, glad I could help out! And I think you are on the right track, the Quadro cards you mentioned seem like really good options.
Was the P520 that you ordered refurbished? And any advice to not get scammed? Thank you ❤
I believe this one was just listed as "used" and not refurbished. You always have to be careful, but a few things that I try to look out for are - ratings for the actual seller and not the product, actual pictures of the device as opposed to stock photographs, and if seller does returns and all that type of stuff. It is also good to generally research the product since each listing might have different components. So I try to know what components the device could potentially have, which ones I'm hoping to find, and then what the listing specifies, in regard to CPU, RAM, etc.
@@LowcastleTech thanks for the information! Glad to support your channel :)
Does the PSU seem extremely loud to you? I have one of these and it is audible from a different room. Any fix work for you guys?
I didn't notice any noise issues with the PSU specifically, but when the fan settings in the BIOS are turned up it does get crazy loud. Sounds like there is a little mini hurricane ripping through the case. That is more from the CPU and case fans though. Seems like as long as I keep the setting on the lower end (around 2 or 3) the noise seems pretty average compared to other workstations.
@@LowcastleTech I stopped all other fans and turns out to be the psu. Gonna buy one. The noise level on my system was set to 1.
@@nastronomical Yeah does sound like it is probably just an issue with that part. Hopefully things will go smoothly with the new one.
try set the fan speed lowest in BIOS
My only concern with Lenovo products is long term support. From my experience HP and Dell have a better track record on this. I'll still buy cheap Lenovos when I can.
I picked one up and paired it with a rtx 3060. I should be set for a few years
Very nice 🙂. That is an awesome combo.
7:24 I have a box of older GPUs my birthdad sent me, they're all untested, but I can swap a couple for a prebuilt if you like. Trade is good.
This build seems to run Star Wars Jedi Survivor better, but Doom Eternal just a smidge worse than the Z440 build with the 1080 Ti. Weird how tech just decides to do what it wants sometimes.
Way to go, Ab Lincoln.
...more like a scruffy Vulcan.
3:56 beautiful voice 😢
At retail, I sell almost exclusively Lenovo, and this is why. I straight up tell customers 'get this one, there is nothing else worth looking at' because the difference in quality between them and HP/Dell (Hell? Might as well be one in the same) is stupid. Asus makes some good stuff, but for the average user, Lenovo is where it is at.
I actually feel gross when customers go with an HP to save like $20 and I have to ring it out.
I'd actually like to see an Asus workstation and how it compares to the Lenovo.
Also, if you can get your hands on a Japanese workstation (NEC, Fujitsu, etc)...highly recommended.
Heck yeah, I'm starting to realize there is some serious quality there. I've never worked with any of those Japanese brands, that would definitely be interesting. Will have to keep an eye out!
We are ready for more thinkstation 520 videos!!!
Can this be transferred to a different case?
I haven't tried it personally, but if I had to guess I'd say it likely wouldn't without some degree of modification. It has an OEM power supply and generally speaking these stock machines have a lot of proprietary type stuff that prevents a simple case swap. I'm not 100% sure, but that would be my guess.
7:59 OH no, he likes *THICC* slots you guys.
🤣
Boban Marjanović? Not hate, you just actually really look like him xd love
This dude gives me Keanu reeves vibes. I like him!
Lenovo's workstations tend to be cleanly built. The Eastern European country I live in don't have most of the workstations readily available for a cheap price, though.
For example, 370 dollars can get a P500 (no 510s, no 520s) with a 490W PSU (don't think they even have dual 6-pins), an E5-2640 v3, 16 GB of DDR4, and a 256 GB SSD.
503 dollars, still a 490W PSU (think this seller is a cheapskate, asking 30 bucks to change it to a 650), E5-2667 v3, 16 GB DDR4, 256 GB SSD and a K2200. Then again, it has the 27% VAT but it's still ridiculous.
The W series have a lot of good optios for later indeed. Higher models might require better cooling, though, the HP Z-s kick into "requires liquid cooling solution" on 150+W TDP processors. Likely Lenovo ThinkStation P-s do this as well.
Also UA-cam, I think I subscribed for Chairdesk goodness, I had to subscribe again - don't take it away from me!
Yeah sounds like the prices are up on the higher end there, no fun 😐. And you might be right about the cooling, but I was messing with the fan settings in the BIOS for the p520, and they kick up pretty hard. Sounds like a storm inside the case 😄. So could be ok, would probably just depend on the processor. Also, I don't know why UA-cam does that nonsense, but I appreciate the resub! Thank you! 🪑
will a i9 10900x work in this?
As far as I know, it only takes Xeon W- series processors. Lenovo has a pretty thorough spec sheet on it, including compatible processors. It is a little weird to get to, but if you google "lenovo p520 psref" it should be like the first result. The CPUs are listed on the 2nd page if you're interested.
You're so swole, I bet you rip pool noodles in half! 💪🏻
😂 BEAST MODE
Is your name Jason?
6:18 because it’s not the HYPE NEW STUFF or, TOO SLOW! I CANT TAKE IT! GRANNY FEETS! AHHH!!
ok im subbed now with the jokes. lol. keep it up man.
Thank you 🙂
howdy 🤠, the m2 nvme port works without problems to boot at what speeds. I was thinking to buy the same model but with 32 gb of ram and 2 3.5 storage hard drives for the extra data, I want to use it for design 2d, 3d rendering and some gaming too, i hear it even works with windows 11 the bios, but with POP OS must really fly maybe some dual boot for those pesky anticheat games, your channel is a true hidden gem thanks for all the content bro, can't wait to see the performance test in later videos
wheres graphics card we need a high end of this lenovo rtx 4070ti if you have im from egypt and this pc nobody knows ithink its a treasure for the budget you found
You should start an ecommerce store or something so subscribers can buy your old pc builds
I've thought about doing that in the past, I am a little concerned though because I really like a lot of these older machines. I want to advocate for them, but I'm afraid if I sell them online people might think I'm over hyping them or something. Who knows what the future may hold though. And I appreciate the comment!
@@LowcastleTech yeah i can see that, I think it depends on if you're promoting it, if you promote it super subtly people won't think you're shilling it
LMAO That's the most SWOL beanstalk I've ever seen.
especially not expecially there is no word like that
ENABLERS!!! ALL OF YOU!
classic😹😭
Doom is always optimized better than other big studio trash.
What are these high pitch cymbal knocking noises in the background, for torturing yourself and your viewers?
Punishment? What is this 'punishment' you speak of???!!!!
Now you're cooking with gas. I'm not a fan of HP workstations, but the Lenovos are seriously sexy.
I'm digging them too. Slept on Lenovo in the past, but I'm liking a lot of what I see.
HP: I sleep 🛌
Dell: I sleep 😴
Lenovo: Real shit? 😎😳
Lenovo is good, Dell so far so good, just say no to HP.......