I Bought A Cheap Lenovo P50 Workstation! Should You?
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- Опубликовано: 9 дек 2022
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Today we're cleaning up and using an old Lenovo P50 Thinkpad Workstation Laptop. I got it pretty cheap from a local auction, was it worth the money and should you buy one? Let's find out! #cheap #laptop #thinkpad
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Laptop specifications:
Lenovo P50 15.6"
Intel i7 6820HQ 4 Core, 8 Threads
8GB DDR4 2166MHz Ram
256GB M.2 SATA SSD
Nvidia Quadro M2000M 4GB Discrete Graphics
1920x1080 IPS Display 
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Thanks so much for watching! Also a big thanks to Ulefone for sending over their tank of a smartphone. Use code "ARMOR18T" for $50 off www.ulefone.com/power-armor-18t.html
That phone looks awesome
What usb do you use? And if you use Time Machine for Mac which usb would you recommend for that?
heyo, maybe bring this up with your sponsor but the webpage isint fully working(cant switch to cad, and i had to download chrome)! although i love the phone itself i cant buy one lol
also keep up the good pc reviews, Love em
Lol the box was upside down 😅
I still use one of these as a daily driver. I pretty much maxed the specs out over the years after getting it second hand, right now it has 56GB RAM, 2*1TB M.2 SSD and a 480GB SATA SSD, along with a i7-6820HQ processor and an Nvidia Quadro M2000M 4GB GPU. Wonderful machine, still very reliable, and even with an old battery, has 4+ hours of battery life. If I replace it anytime soon, I'll surely buy something newer from the ThinkPad P series.
56GB RAM? HOW? 😳
Why the hell would you need that much RAM on a 6th gen i7
I have 3 16GB sticks, and also an 8GB one.
I work with large amounts of textual data, so I often need a lot of RAM. :)
@@jbritain Is there anything wrong with a 6th gen i7 that isn't power limited? In fact, assuming a similar power limit, it's basically as fast as any H series cpu 10th gen and earlier.
Also, for a lot of use cases 56 GB ram is pretty normal. For the work that I do, 64 GB ram is the minimum.
@@vivek_v I don't know enough about the kind of workloads that amount of RAM is used for so I made an assumption, I guess I assumed wrong!
I love that there’s a drainage hole for the keyboard for spills.
Used Thinkpads are always a bargain. Companies buy them in bulk, and when they're no longer needed they sell them in bulk, and for dirt cheap prices. My old company sold off their entire 300+ inventory of used Thinkpads for $100 a pop, and they all cost ~$1k each. Insane value lol.
I bought one for 200 Euros with 2y of guarantee. Looks like new.
Used HP ProBooks and EliteBooks also tend to be good options.
It is kind of shocking how crappy most consumer laptops are when you compare them to business models from the same manufacturers.
I got one for a great deal back in 2016 for college. I got the i7-6700hq, m1000m, 1080p, and upgraded it myself to 32gb of RAM and added a 512gb Sata ssd. I think total then was around 1100 after all the upgrades and it was fantastic for what I needed it for (dual booting with Linux, programming, and 3D modeling). Still have and use today, haven’t had the urge to get a new laptop yet.
This model is my main workstation since early 2017. It was $1.5k at the time. Still kicking, and I have no intention of changing it anytime soon. It’s surprisingly good for casual gaming too.
Does yours have some cracks near the palm rest?
we need more videos like this. Old laptop restorations
Gt 740m
My first laptop was Lenovo e330, and it has similar features: very tough build (it fell several times and still working fine) and same keyboard layout with red joystick. I really liked that laptop, and even though it was way older and less powerful than the one in video, it was still very convinient for work.
I think one of it's greatest feature is how easy it is to upgrade -- I'm not really good with electronics maintenance, but I was able to change the CPU by myself. It would be really cool to see something like that in modern devices.
Interesting how much performance you can get out of an unimpressive looking device.
Well look at it this way, the budget not spent on look is going to the performance. I'll take performance over look anyday.
This laptop was probably not less than 2000$ new. It has a quad core 6th gen i7 when average laptops have 6th gen dualcore.
The money also didn't go to getting a not shit screen this is a 2004 quality screen so if you watch more than 20 minutes of RUclips or Netflix a day on your laptop this is not good.
Good looking laptop normally means sacrificed performance
yap is the most powerful gaming laptop in the world.
Explain to me why I am amazed by each new video.
Each machine is chosen with great attention (history, IT culture, reliability, etc.), it's all so beautiful 🤩
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This is a really interesting rabbit hole. I've been paying attention to these old mobile workstations on the used market. There's not much info out there on how Quadros perform in games though, so I find the value really hard to assess. Would love to see more of these videos! One of these for cheap might be a nice alternative to packing up my desktop for LAN parties.
A Maxwell era machine at that price is a steal! Most options I've seen around that price point have a K2000M at best.
To get a rough idea on how they perform you can compare the chip to their consumer counterpart.
For example, the quadro m2000m has the GM07 with 640 shaders, this is the same as the regular gtx 960m so it performs similarly (clocks speed can vary).
@@zadkielalfano Thank you! I am aware, but info on which GeForce is equivalent to which Quadro is still not that easy to come about. The T2000 on my work machine should perform between a 1050 and a 1050Ti according to my research. I got about 30 fps playing Valheim on it.
Landed a precision 7710 for $136 shipped a couple months back with an m5000m installed and pretty nice so far.
Pp0
its about the equivalent of the laptop version of a gtx 1050
Very interesting, I recently got myself a used P51s, which, is not as good as the P50 or P51 due to the compromises done in the name of slimness. But I got a good deal for my country, given that it had bad RAM, a small SSD, and no external battery. When I got that sorted I now have a machine that I use for studying at home, dabbling in odd computer related projects, and the occasional gaming session when I feel like it. And with the new external battery I am easily getting 10+ hours of general use. Some days I have forgotten to plug the charger in and only notice late in the afternoon after classes, still having 30% left.
Yes, the P50/P51 are better if you find a good local deal, but the "s" versions are pretty stellar in their own way.
I still use these at my company (i7 6820HQ, 48GB RAM, 512 GB M2 SSD, Quadro 2000M) for programming in AI field.
A little note : The USB C port is not just a USB port but a thunderbolt 3 port, so you can use a thunderbolt E-GPU for more graphical power
48 gigs of ram?
@@molotovick 2x16gb+2x8gb
I believed he mentioned it being Thunderbolt 3 in the video.
@@SebisRandomTech glad to see you back and active again
@@TheotanyaSama is quadro capable?
Will love to see an upgrade with case painting and customisation
Consider some thicker paste that locks in place against thermal pumping of heat cycling. Something like Ceramique. When you get it open and the die is almost dry with all the paste off the sides, it was thermal pumping.
Also consider setting 'discrete mode' in BIOS if abailable. It takes nVidia Optimus out of the equation, resulting in a nice boost.
Amazing review love your work true legend never forgot love older tech great stuff keeping the faith 💞
I love your videos so much, becouse you show some old stuff that can still be used and not only the shiny new things
Once again, great vid. Thanks Nathan!
Daily drove this thing for years, and it was quite the workhorse. I still miss the Knub and the amazing keyboard. Mine also had a Pantone color sensor for recalibration, so if you're buying one, keep an eye open for that? It'll be to the left of the touchpad, pretty much in the lower left corner iirc.
The only thing I really wasn't happy with is the fans. When they're clean, they're ok for the most part, but if you have pets, some hairs will inevitably get stuck in the fans. The latter were advertised as "self-cleaning", and opening them up yourself would have voided the warranty (seriously - I asked). As you can see in the video, you can technically do it, but it's a bit of a hazzle.
Still, it was a great machine overall - probably one of the best I've ever worked with.
Edit: those things weigh just as much as it looks, and they sure aren't compact, either, but they did that for a reason. It really is designed as a workstation, and was among the best in its class at the time if memory serves. And if one looks as it may have taken a beating, then it just might have. I think I once watched a video of someone pouring half a bottle of water over theirs and it just kept running. The only weak point on the outside is the bottom cover. I've had multiple parts break off from that...
I agree - older business / worktation Lenovos and Dell laptops are still great value, quite common and easy to open for self repairs or cleaning.
I remember when I had Thinkpads. Glad to see more of them on the channel!
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Love watching these kind of videos
i've never seen such nice lighting. got u lookin majestic
we need more content like this
I have a P51 that's only a year newer. It has a Xenon processor, 64 Gb of ECC RAM and 8Tb of SSD storage. Very few laptops could match those specs. The keyboard is great, the screen is fine and it's plenty quick for anything that I use it for, especially as everything is running from RAM. These are built like tanks, and I expect to be using it for quite a while. Very highly recommended.
I did pretty much the same thing a few years back but with a T440S. Just put in a cheap M.2 SSD and another stick of ram. Still using it to this day.
It's worth noting that this model has a thunderbolt 3 port! if the GPU isn't enough for you, there is always an option for an easy eGPU!
Im still using predecesor, Thinkpad W541, i7 4gen, 16gb of ram, 512 ssd - great piece of tech!
There is some additional performance to be had with machines of this era with the right ram upgrades as they'll use faster ram than what is documented but from personal testing some are not stable with four modules installed. As for gaming on Quadros they are ok have been gaming on them for nearly a decade now and driver issues are pretty rare.
I just bought this same computer refurbed on Amazon for 320. It is a great upgrade from what I was using. I am upgrading again in a couple of months and my nephew has dibs on this one. He will love it too!!
This the most underrated channel
Good job!
They're certainly solid devices and well made for dissembly. Did you record fresh benchmarks are unit temperatures after your cleanup work?
I love this laptop it's the perfect combo of modern and classic laptop and it sorta matches the ulefone not gonna lie perfect video and sponsor
Kindly post more of this content... Very educative
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A psivewri video really hits different!
I've used one of these recently at my engineering class! Brand new! there was 16GB on my unit. it is a snappy laptop.
Watching this video as I just bought a refurbished P52 Workstation, which although I opted to go for a newer model as I found it on a discount, I am still impressed of these old P50 and P51 models.
I use this for schoolwork. Love it.
I have a thinkpad similar to this. It's perfect for my needs. Also the case and hinges don't break, which is nice.
I brought one of these already refurbished with 32gb of ram and use it in my shed/workshop to control things and to run a bigger screen it also has a thunderbolt external drive chassis on it and it performs some file server tasks
As soon as I found out it has 4 ram slots paired with the 4GB dedicated GPU and the keyboard with the number keys, I realised this is an absolute unit.
Though I have seen big Thinkpads before on YT, but this one is relatively new compared to those.
Well I "found" one in my area just by googling. Expensive 3.48 times as much as I paid for my T480 though I sniped that on a auction.
There's a P15 with a i7 10850H for sale for less than it.
Though I wouldn't mind getting a P50.
MX4 is a pretty good paste for desktops but I wouldn't run it on a laptop or other small form factor machines. I've noticed that past 80-85 degrees it kind of cooks itself and loses thermal efficiency.
Good tips, thanks.
I purchase one of these about a year ago for about $400 USD. It had little physical wear and it was the Xeon E3 version CPU, and Quarto 2000M vid card. I picked this unit because my company has a boat load of the older docks for the older X200 laptops. This one was the absolute best unit with that bottom dock connection. Anyways is my primary go to unit. I currently has (2) 2TB NVMe drives, with 48GBs RAM. It flys with everything. Not one issue. Its by far one of the best Laptops I have purchased.
Get yourself a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser - Use it to lightly scrub all over the outer case and after a little bit of time you will see those scuffs and discolored areas will blend back in with the normal colored areas. Great way to bring the finish of the outer case back.
The stock display panels are rather uninspiring, and if you intend to keep using a used P50 for some time you could replace the keyboard to get a "new feeling" and replace the stock poor panel with a better one, like B156HAN01.2. Aliexpress can provide these at reasonable cost. Great job on repaste and disassembly. I did the same yesterday on a P51 with a broken fan. (without separating the display from the frame, just like you did). The P51 can also be a suitable option, similar CPU capacity, but the M2200 is a slightly better GPU compared to M2000M (or M1200 as it is called on P51)
Magic eraser and some water cleans the rubber coating very well! Basically sands off a tiny top layer. Made my 6th gen X1 Carbon lid look brand new.
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I bought a used T series Thinkpad last week. It came with no os or license sticker anywhere, but I was pleasantly surprised it still had a digital pro license tied to the motherboard. No need to use MAS like I was planning.
You make the best pc repair vids
Wow. I love your channel and how detailed the content is. I own a laptop that has some damage sustained on its frame/body. Is it possible to swap the body for one that is in better condition?
These Magic Erasers are really great for removing scratches on the rubber finish.
Your video inspired me to buy a used P50 with xeon processor and M4000 quadro card. I maxed out the ram to 64gb. I use it daily for Meshmixer, Blender and my Einscan scanner. It is an excellent value for today's prices.
Working for IBM I serviced several of these, always a lot of fun to replace system boards in these. Lol very solid laptops though.
damn love the vid mate!
Gotta LOVE these ThinkPads!
Interesting and nice so clean presentation no dull moment.
My P50 runs arch flawlessly. Mainly running i3wm, FireFox Aurora, tmux / vim, mainly for XSLT and server side swift development.
I plan to do the same thing with my old girl (Latitude laptop purchased in 2013). Rather than retire her, I'll pass it to my folks who'll use it for web browsing, a few reports, video calls etc etc.
Folks already have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse; I'll grab a Dell docking station so the folks can turn the laptop on and off at the docking station (rather than opening up the lid).
Spec wise, it's got 16GB ram, 4800MQ processor, 250GB SSD. It's got more than enough grunt to do everything they want, and with a fresh install of W11, new paste and a good clean it'll (hopefully) provide many more years of service.
Thank you very much!
Thanks for the surprisingly informative video.
One question : "is eucalyptus oil good for wiping carbon fiber surfaces?"
i've been looking for a tank portable pc like that for 2 years, and i still haven't found one.
you lucky dog, you!
I just picked a Dell Precision 5530 with a 4k touch screen, 32GB, and a 8th gen i9 for $400 on eBay. $3800 new in late 2018. Off-lease engineering laptops are the best computing deal period.
The feeble 8GB was the "placeholder" spec for people who immediately bought aftermarket RAM in order to avoid expensive Lenovo RAM. Usual for private owners was do what I did and install a more reasonable 32GB or more (my P52 have 96 and 128GB). The spinner hard disk was also a placeholder on those so equipped. If you want to populate all the slots I'd buy used RAM that passed Memtest since Ebay has plenty of takeout SODIMMs.
Best RUclips and content award goes to you
Hehe nice! I paid mine a few hundred bucks 3 years ago. Intel Xeon CPU, upgraded to 32GB RAM and an M2000 GPU. Added some m.2 SSDs and it's a blast working with that thing. Awesome and sturdy Workstation. Yours is optically in very bad condition. Mine looks brand new still today.
Great work.
You should check out the early t400 series ones! they're great! I have a spare one lying around, it just needs a new hard drive and battery
anyone looking for one of these in Australia , a seller on eBay is selling a few of them for $540 in A grade condition, I bought one myself and has no scratches, was advertised as b grade but it is in absolute mint condition ! great video Psivewri
You missed the opportunity to add aditional fins to the heatpipes to aid in cooling and future proofing for potential overclocking!
I bought an old 2015 HP Z440 for $240 in Sydney. E1620v3 16 g ddr4 500 g SSD Quadro K2200. Very good upgrades available.
I have two of them. one from my office and then I got used with Intel Xeon + 40 GB Ram + 512GB NVMe SSD - 3 yrs of ownership and still get software updates..
I didn’t even know this Lenovo existed till ur video
Wow it has MXM-A 3.0 GPU interface.
Which means technically you can use MXM External GPU dock and hook it up to GTX 1080 Ti
I just recently "upgraded" my fully-pimped out P50 (4K with calibrator version bought used for almost nothing) for a cheaply purchased 4K Dell Precision M5530 - also an old clunker - but with a next-gen i7 (8th) that features an additional 2 multi-threaded cores, benefiting my VM's performance. Still trying to figure out what to do with the P50 that is in mint condition.
I’m trying to build a mobile workstation from a dell latitude 3330, I’m excited!
if its not going to the bin then its awesome! well done sir!
Amazingly well built laptop, I remember my T430s , never had one like that ever again. Also, this is the most environmental thing to do, re use the old but functional laptop instead of buying a new one for a few more years!
I bought a Dell workstation with a Quadro and installed a GTX 980m to make a little gaming laptop. It was pretty cheap during the GPU crisis but nowadays you can get an old stock gaming laptop with a GTX 1070 for the same price.
20 minutes after watching this video I bought my P50. Currently waiting for delivery but I'm sure it will cover every need I'll have
Would you recommend buying it?
@@NawfeI_ Yep! Keep in mind it is a workstation, so it is bulky and kinda heavy. But performance-wise is super value. Also the screen is a pleasant surprise
I have p71 thinkpad, has 64 gb ram, 6 gb p3000, 32 gb integrated, 4k display and xeon processor and it works good.
My ex employer had a dozen of service P50, they are probably the best machines I had to care for, when they switched to P51S I got the chance to scoop all the used p50's for absolutely free!
You're awesome buddy, keep up the good work 🤍🖤
Those ThinkPads are pretty solid laptops
Nice Seiko dude 👍🏻
What a great video. What auction houses sell retired Lenovo ThinkPads in Australia?
Check the Bios settings for that USB outlet. Could've already been said in an earlier comment
I'm looking for one but the Zbook 15 G3 from HP looks so tempting. Then again, I have never seen a Thinkpad with a full sized keyboard. If it has backlighting, I'm sold
They do have backlighting on the newer versions.
I've got a kitted out P70 myself, great machine in almost every regard.
The one huge issue is the battery, when it dies, you're stuck with a laptop with no battery.
Lenovo will not sell you the batteries for these, the aftermarket batteries rage from non-working to non-fitting, and if you don't have a working battery in the machine you can't install chipset drivers.
It's actually, really nice, and appears to have had an active and happy life. I cant believe Skylake was almost 9 years ago.
Someone living in the same apartment in which I live had the same laptop but when he was like uhhh... talking to someone (with webcam on) and suddenly the laptop started shutting down even if he did not do anything to it and some days later, when I started it, it did start but 3 seconds later it started shutting down automatically and unexpectedly enough, the same problem was present in all of his work laptops which he used before this one and now he has a windows 11 laptop and I hope that the person would not have to replace the laptop again.
i bought a Dell Latitude 5285 "Surface Pro" aimed for the same target market, so it´s a high quality business like device.
Getting it open is very easy but only upgradeable parts are really the wifi/bluetooth and the m.2 SSD.
It can take NVMe SSDs but they´re limited at PCIe 3.0 x2 (theoretical max. sequential read/write about 2GB/s).
There is also an unused mPCIe Slot where you could put a WAN module inside (or another SSD).
The sim slot however is already present, you only need to route some antennas.
Other than that, it has a Core i5 7300U, 8GB of soldered RAM and various enterprise level features in the BIOS.
Unlike anything in this device category, it even allows to boot legacy MBR so in theory you CAN install windows xp, vista, 7 on it.
I tried windows 7 but i wasn´t able to get a suitable graphics driver to work.
Currently configured as multiboot options are Ubuntu, Windows 11 and Android-x86.
The power and volume keys are capable of opening and navigating the boot menu, no keyboard required to select the boot option.
I really love it especially since you can get older business laptops and tablets for a very decent price.
wow.... this is better than my current rig. just realized how old my 4th gen i5/16/500 is
The horizon benchmark with a 3070 in a good desktop build only gets 70 fps with a 2k resolution, that laptop is pretty damn good!!
About a year ago I found a T460p for 350€ and it is amazing value!
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What needs to be considered in choosing or buying ThermalPaste? Is it a certain brand or is it a matter of price, the more expensive the better?
Great review! Wish I could find a P50 with an i7 at that price point. I'm looking for a new Linux workstation 😉
I just got one of these yesterday for my new year's present and it doesn't get hot like my laptop I got last Christmas, which has a whole lot of problems.
I still use its predecessor, the W540, maxed out, it still runs well
I deal in used ThinkPad's t series and the odd workstation in Australia and used ones sell quite well.
duel battery setups are great worst part is the keyboard change on the T440 to T470. You can get a complete refurbished T460 around $200.
What happened to change the keyboard from the t460 to the t470?
for the Xeon p50 model (not sure about i7 version) - it states the max ram is 64GB, I can confirm from other p50 users that it will happily run 128GB ram