Best Place to buy the Lenovo ThinkStation P520 PCSP - pcserverandparts.com/build-your-own-custom-lenovo-thinkstation-p520-workstation/ use code F51267SF to save 5%
For 1080p gaming the cpu floor is very low so that even old office pc can run games just fine as long as it has enough cores and the gpu can also handle it. Plus for this esports stuff they test typically have very low hardware reqs on top of it all.
@@rattyxgaming are you gonna get it new or used? If you’re getting it new you should get a 580 2048sp or if your going used get a 4gb 960 if you need the no external power get a rx 460
I've come to appreciate these retired office/workstation PCs, they're so affordable and easy to work on. Currently I'm gaming at 1080P on an upgraded SFF Dell OptiPlex 7010 and have been really impressed, but that ThinkStation takes it to another level. As usual, great video.
As someone with the EXACT same specs other than a bigger ssd and more ram I have to agree with them it's a great budget build the main issue is cooling but if you replace the fans with noctua fans like mine it's great.
@@blademan7671 The fans all use 4 pin so it’s not a issue there and while the stock cooling was good it is a bit loud while benchmarking so putting a noctua fan usually fixes the problem.
One thing alot of people need to take note of about Xeon PCs is they support quad channel memory instead of dual channel so the cpu can use 4 sticks of ram like a i7 benefits from dual channel it makes a massive difference in performance for quad channel
@@bofasofa9399 no? 1080 still has the massive benefit of high FPS which for things like shooters is near mandatory, for shooters I'd much prefer 1080p 240hz over 1440p 144hz
@@bofasofa9399that's a very judgemental statement. Some of us mature folk have to squeeze everything we can out of each precious dollar. 1080p is perfectly fine for a lot of us.
I upgraded my old elitedesk 800G2 with i-6700 to optiplex 7040mt and slapped used RX6600 I got for $160, Corsair SF600 PSU and new Noctua fans. Runs Bordelrands 2 at high settings at 1800p at 100fps! 😊
Awesome build. I just put together my first pc and setup! I have a gtx 1070 8gb, 16gb ddr4 ram, i5 7400, 700w gold rated psu, 2tb hdd, Samsung 60hz monitor, steelseries keyboard and Logitech mouse. Total setup cost me $330usd, all off Facebook marketplace!
PCs like this seem to be a killer deal for those knowledgable on building them. For those just getting into it, it seems highly intimidating, especially with hearing how certain cards can be risky or you how you need to undervolt them. That's why console seems the go to for the average person on a budget. We don't have to worry about sinking money into something that we don't know how to properly test or fix if it doesn't work. If I was confident I could build a system like this for $400-$500, it would be a no-brainer to do so. But my luck, something would burn up or not operate properly, and I'd just be stuck with it.
@@jeanpaultongeren125I can get a 2145 8 core xeon workstation p520 barebone for 220 is that a good deal once I add memory a SSD a copy of windows and a decent GPU like a 2070 super it'll be probably around 399$ in total
Do you think I can get this to power a rtx 4080 super TeamProfitcom 16 AWG GPU VGA PCI-e 8Pin PCI Express Graphics Video Card GPU VGA 8 Pin Female to Dual GPU 8(6+2) Pin Male GPU 8 pin Splitter Power Sleeved Cable 8 Pin GPU 12-inches (4 Pack)
Just bought the Lenovo p520 workstation for cheap 4k gaming. I heard from a Nate zone that did a few p520 videos saying it supports up to a 500 watt GPU so I think I'll be fine and that cable i mentioned is what he recommended but I want a second opinion so I've been asking other commentators here and reddit
The thing with these systems is, as you mentioned in your later video, there is a serious amount of scope for upgrading them. if you manage to get hold of one of the 720 systems, or even a 920, they are dual CPU boards so getting hold of one with a lower end single CPU gives you massive headroom for CPU upgrades over time. Then there is the capacity for 2 x M.2 sticks, 300+ GB of RAM, multiple GPU options, loads of drive bays, you can even get a hot swap backplane upgrade for the drives. Sure they are limited on the PSU options and they are not really built with cooling upgrades in mind, especially the dual CPU models, but I'm sure that something could be done.
This thing can take Xeon W-2295 CPUs, an 18 core cpu, Cascade Lake that can boost greater than 4Ghz. It can support up to 512GB memory. And with all thos PCIe slots, you can take gaming to really high levels. It is unfortunately only PCIe 3, however, so with some of the newest cards you lose some performance.
They are selling through Amazon now also. Ordered one with 64gb of RAM, no video card and no drive for under $200. Adding a video card and an m.2 will be a cheap upgrade.
Funny how I purchased my P520 two weeks before this video came out. I got mine off eBay for $180 from a Texas dealer and they packed it real nice, it had expanding foam custom fit to the case and shipping box. It's a 2019 model equipped with a W-2135, 32GB of 2666 mhz DDDR4, 900w platinum PSU, but no GPU so I purchased a PNY 1070 XLR8 triple fan for only $100 off eBay. This machine will certainly put a stranglehold on budget pre-builds and other PCs that cost less than $800, I had no problems with performance other than slower data speeds that Xeons naturally have. It's also a far cry from what I had before, an HP Z220 SFF and later a Z230 SFF. I found both of them in the trash and only spent $70 on a GT 1030 to get them running decently. Both were equipped with Xeons, an E3-1245 V2 and an E3-1225 V3, they didn't have great performance because they were old CAD workstations but got the job done for some casual gaming. These machines, the p520 and higher models are oriented for graphics design, 3D modeling, and machine learning. They originally came with two Quadro RTX graphics cards, a 6000 with 24GB and an 8000 with 48 GB. I was somewhat blindsided by the overall task difference between my machines, one is for CAD, the other for AI development. I had looked for another HP workstation to upgrade to, but I found this Lenovo for a better price, not to mention that I adore Thinkpads of all kinds. I've had a few Brickpads and a couple of Thinpads and always like their modularity, the P520 suits that need with a lot of options available.
Awesome! I just bought the very same rig except I got the 32gb ram version. I used a dell rx580 and a WD 1 TB nvme. This thing is super slick and I could only imagine what the p700’s or p900’s are like… not to mention the modern Lenovo work stations. How bout that thread ripper p620 tho?
@@bofasofa9399 yeah I’m sure you have a way better rig… but certainly paid for the extra. These are amazing for the price and will serve for a long time to come. Have fun being a comment troll!
I found these Lenovo thinkstations and thought the same thing , for upgrades I suggest 64gb or 32 GB on quad channel 2 m.2 nvme ssds a xeon 2155 w and a rtx 2080 or rx 6700 xt
I'd say for the future 64gb is gonna become the regular and of course a Intel Arc A770 16gb because while it may not beat the cards you specified right now it has enough raw power that with more driver updates can most likely beat even the likes of the RX 6800.
Me: “Yeah man I’m totally gonna get a ps5, I wanted a gaming pc but it’s a bit too expensive ” Also me: “Hold up toasty bros might of changed the game”
I just finished putting one of these together too.Also my first ThinkStation. But w/ a 2145 processor and 32gig of ram to start. I added a new Samsung 2gig NVME and an old Nvidia 1070 .So far it runs v cool [ 28-32 degrees- in the Summer] cruises at 4.7 g and running Linux starts in seconds. These are solid rigs and and a good investment
I'm thinking of buying a refurbished 2145 system it's 220$ but I'll need my own storage memory windows copy and a decent GPU probably going 2070 super I can snag locally for a good price all in all probably 399$ do you think that's a good deal
@@Spencerwalker21 2070s are still $200 where I am, it's nice the 2145s have dropped down to $180. I might build one myself just for lols with a spare 1660super I have.
@@sinosoul yeah great idea I'm actually going at least to 4070 now especially because I have a 4k TV some 1440p Alan Wake 2 sounds great I also got a shit load of Amazon reward dollars but everything short of a 4080 has only 12gb of vram and yes pretty sold on Nvidia
fastest cpu's for lga 2066 are 7980XE, 9980XE, or 10980XE, hyperthreading off and tuned for the highest clocks possible and then pushing the RAM for the lowest latencies.
You don't want the Dual CPU Socket for gaming -- The ones with Dual CPU's they split the 12V rail on the PSU to power the 2nd CPU so that will really limit the GPU (power consumption) you can put into the box, won't be able to use both the 8-pin connectors. Check the for the Lenovo P### Spec Sheet PDF and it explains the 12V split and GPU wattage limitations on the dual CPU boxes.
Ayy supprised to see you here, been watching your vids recently. i picked up a LGA3647 8core+board + RAM combo for £350 on ebay and been using that as a daily driver and its been solid
@@IcebergTech the Xeon Gold / Platinum SKUs are cheaper and cheaper these days! I was thinking of selling it anyway so if you are interested can shoot you a DM/Email?
I know this is a late comment but it bears stating. The whole reason these hit firesale is because of Retbleed. Read up on what it does to 6th and 7th gen Intel Processors. The CPU in this build only came out 3 years ago. They are so cheap because the people that bought them are unable to use them efficiently anymore because the mitigations cost them well needed performance. That being said im in for 1 or 2 because its an easy upgrade to a cascade lake 10c or 12c cpu with tons of home server potential.
Lenovo thinkstation are unmatched by pretty much anythink out there at the moment i have two p500 workstation with xeon 1650 v3 and rx 590 8gb and can play anything with adaptions thrown at it there are top dog to me💯👌🤙
That pc while good for the ultra budget range won't really fair against this pc I had a HP Z440 and switched to this pc because the architecture is very old, the ghz isn't high, and the cache memory sucks. Thus when you get to a LGA 2066 system most of those issues are fixed and you have the advantages of it along with it.
6:00 Honestly, a used SanDisk CloudSpeed Eco Gen II for $45 gets you 2tb. Even after being used in servers; as long as they're in good health I'd trust it more than some no-name 1tb "new" SSD.
Not sure what your problem was exactly with the 5700xt but I do want to mention if you use it for anything else that it will thermal throttle on games like Halo infinite and cod2 (which sometimes creates this odd fan noise), BUT if you undervolt the card to 1999mhz and 1108 volts(t comes out to 1.1 volts rather than the factory 1.2) this card runs great and and relavitely cool. I also put an aggress fan curve as well. Apparently this has to be done with most of these cards now.
I built this pc aswell worth the 5700xt but can’t get it to boot to windows… I’ve tried everything but it will just go to the windows recovery error 0x0000000f I believe and I can’t find out why. I’m about to just throw this thing in the trash
Xeon Workstation on Overclocking board...I had SR-2 Classy, amazing computer had that for 13 years, was playing Cyberpunk 2077 in 1440@60FPS was just fine. Crazy amounts of Cores/Threads, 48 Gigs of RAM, 7x16 PCE lanes and the ability to actually keep the 16 threads per lane when using multiple lanes was insane...SLI Graphic cards anyone, yes please....Sure not a lot of games but the ones that did just in 2015 such as SkyrimSE, Fallout 3,nv,4.....Only problem is good used workstations with Xeon chips that overclock are highly desired by all sorts of enthusiasts not just gamers, so pricing is all over the place and can be high enough that getting a brand new enthusiast PC by selling your old one is a reality. A still working SR-2 Classy board is going to sell for about the same as a z790 Kingpin board if its near mint.
As to what GPU you might use, some of the older Xeons tend to run better with Higher resolutions at lower FPS. Old Xeons make excellent 4k60FPS machines the goal being to push the system load as much to the GPU as possible. That being said if you want a more budget oriented build, I would say RTX2070 or 3060 could be nice. Maybe even an old flagship gtx 1080ti. As for AMD, you could probably get away with a RX6600/ 6650XT.
The issue is even the Nvidia gpus your listing are a bit more pricy than the RX 5700 XT not to mention when it comes to the GTX 1080 TI while it may be a good gpu the architecture is outdated and for newer titles they would prefer RNDA over it. Not to mention the RTX 2070 is a fair bit weaker than the RX 5700 XT and time hasn't made it that much better like the RDNA 1 gpus. So for the price to performance if you don't care about ray tracing the RX 5700 XT is your best bet or if your thinking more long term possibly a Intel Arc A750 for the advantage it gives over the RX 5700 XT and even the RX 6650 XT.
@@Spencerwalker21 The main issue with that card is the vram like all graphics cards nowadays even at 1080p. What type of gaming are you wanting to do and what resolutions/settings.
I have a Lenovo P520 w/ Xeon W-2145 and an HP Z440 with a Xeon E5-1650v4. Both are excellent for gaming. I think both cost around $500-560 CAD inculding Graphics card, NVMe and SATA SSD storage and 64 gigs of ECC runnig in quad channel. I prefer the P520, but the HP Z440 is conventionally easier to work in.
I put a 4gb rx580 jtptc and im getting 50-60 fps in cyberpunk the first time I opened it without changing any settings. Not sure if it auto detects settings but I’m also building another one with an 8gb model next.
I know it's 1 year later but have they ever done videos on the dell precision t5810 as they r pretty powerful and cheap for what they r and I've recently bought one
Aesthetically, inside and out, I prefer this computer to a glass panelled gaming PC. Question: Can I use all the extra connected CPU PCIe channels the chip has for extra NVMe storage?
COD was cpu bound. Not sure why you ran FSR when you had the extra overhead on the gpu. I’d rather be gpu bound than cpu bound. I think you said FSR on balance. Could do quality and not loose much if any fps
i would say this card is the max for this pc as in COD i observed the gpu utilisation was hovering between 80-90% most of the time which means that there's a slight bottleneck. other games were fine.
I have a HP OEM SFF that I setup for my kids. It has an i5-6500, 32 GB DDR4, 1 TB GEN 4 NVME connected via a Saberent NVME to PCI adapter in a GEN 3 slot (it gets full GEN 3 speeds so I’m happy), and a GT 1030 LP. What would be the best GPU upgrade for this setup, that could still fit into a LP PC (it can be dual slot)?
So I do a lot of basic editing 4k in DaVinci resolve. I have a Dell xps15 with 16 GB ram i7 core and a Nvidia 3050 ti. 4gv vram. I want to advance my editing into the studio version and start getting into vfx, masking etc and my current card can't handle it. I was thinking about getting a EGPU and was looking at $600-1k for the enclosure and a new card. I was wondering if doing a build like this would be better or just going for the EGPU for my situation. Thanks!
I'm debating switching from my optiplex setup to one of these, but the 900w just went out of stock. Does anyone know if the 690w version will still do well or is it too limiting?
I bought the Thinkstation p520 and bought a new gpu and ssd but I can unlock the bios menu so I cant download a clean windows instillation because I cant change one setting please help.
I was super interested and bought it with an m.2 nvme 1T and a 3070 but I’m getting around 70 fps in Warzone with both cpu and gpu at around 50% usage. It stayed around 70fps when I put the graphics to ultra/high as well. I also tried Fortnite and the same thing happened with no change in frame rate. Anyone know what could be causing the changes?
You guys should try a similar build with the RTX 2070 Super. May be some CPU bottleneck but that card is definitely looked over right now, you can get it for 180-250 depending on how hard you search.
It's about the same performance as a 5700xt, so it is very similar to the results you get here. And I think you normally can get a 5700xt cheaper than a 2070 super.
@@Daybreak194 Thats true but correct me if I'm wrong i think the 2070s is faster once you get to 1440p and 4k. Also, this isn't important to a lot of people but the 2070s has fairly good RT support while the 5700xt has none at all. You also miss out on NVENC and DLSS which are important parts of a decision for me although I know that to some people raw performance is all that matters. But I get what youre saying though and for people who don't care about the reasons I mentioned you should definitely go for the 5700xt Edit: Looking at a gaming benchmark and from the looks of it they are very close in comparison with one another. In fact, the 5700xt even outperforms the 2070S in a couple of titles. Here's the video for anyone who's curious. This isn't my video or anything, I just looked up a benchmark. ruclips.net/video/FUab8gODsnE/видео.html&ab_channel=NJTech
Searched up the processor and according to the officially supported CPU list for Windows 11, the Xeon W-2135 is officially supported! Might consider that for my next PC.
I searched too, and I don't know if they mention it, but these processors are Skylake. It seems the top dog for this socket is the W-2195... 18 cores, 36 threads, 2.3-4.3GHz, 24.75MB of cache. Closest Core i-series chip equivalent is Core i9-7980XE. Though it's listed as X299 compatible, whereas the W Xeons use a C422 chipset. Same socket, though. IDK. This setup seems not very far behind last-generation stuff, though... the board has m.2 and lots of PCIe (even if it's only 3.0) and quad channel DDR4. And no, ECC doesn't have but one extra chip per row (I think), they're probably thinking of buffered registered DIMMs which have a bunch of chips. I would like to see performance before and after upgrading to quad channel memory.
I wanted to from my HP Z440 the issue is HP is very hard to customize when it comes to cpu coolers and all that on top of that the bios is usually locked down so it really isn't great to tinker with.
I can pick up one of these right now with a 1 tb nvme, 32 gb quad channel ecc ram, 2080 and 950 psu for 550 (can upgrade to 2080 super for another 50 or 3080 for another 150) Do you think its a worthy buy for a 1080p gaming rig?
Best Place to buy the Lenovo ThinkStation P520
PCSP - pcserverandparts.com/build-your-own-custom-lenovo-thinkstation-p520-workstation/ use code F51267SF to save 5%
I was wondering if a geforce 2060 would be an upgrade from the rx 5700
Do another video in this system
Its actually impressive these computers can do what they do just by slaping a good gpu in it and an ssd .
For 1080p gaming the cpu floor is very low so that even old office pc can run games just fine as long as it has enough cores and the gpu can also handle it. Plus for this esports stuff they test typically have very low hardware reqs on top of it all.
i got it with ssd i just need a gt 1030 for now am broke
@@rattyxgaming you and me both :)
@@rattyxgaming Just get a RX 580 or lower. GT 1030 sucks
@@rattyxgaming are you gonna get it new or used? If you’re getting it new you should get a 580 2048sp or if your going used get a 4gb 960 if you need the no external power get a rx 460
I've come to appreciate these retired office/workstation PCs, they're so affordable and easy to work on. Currently I'm gaming at 1080P on an upgraded SFF Dell OptiPlex 7010 and have been really impressed, but that ThinkStation takes it to another level. As usual, great video.
Been preaching this for a long time. The HP Z8* series are my favorite for this.
As someone with the EXACT same specs other than a bigger ssd and more ram I have to agree with them it's a great budget build the main issue is cooling but if you replace the fans with noctua fans like mine it's great.
Have you measured total system power draw? CPU itself has quite the TDP, I suspect chipset is also very hungry
@@netiturtle Yes it does take quite a bit of power some people to like to put low tdp gpus instead of high tdp gpus in it for that reason.
Was it not cool enough with the stock fans? Easy fan swap, no proprietary connectors?
@@blademan7671 The fans all use 4 pin so it’s not a issue there and while the stock cooling was good it is a bit loud while benchmarking so putting a noctua fan usually fixes the problem.
@eliezyt I ordered one. Do you recall the fan size or the Noctuas you ordered? I may as well look at options for replacement.
One thing alot of people need to take note of about Xeon PCs is they support quad channel memory instead of dual channel so the cpu can use 4 sticks of ram like a i7 benefits from dual channel it makes a massive difference in performance for quad channel
Doubling the memory bandwidth aids frame rate conscience gamers a lot more than people think.
@@Longbowgun only if they play at 1080p in the year 2023, which is only for poor people
@@bofasofa9399 *Sad poor noises*
@@bofasofa9399 no? 1080 still has the massive benefit of high FPS which for things like shooters is near mandatory, for shooters I'd much prefer 1080p 240hz over 1440p 144hz
@@bofasofa9399that's a very judgemental statement. Some of us mature folk have to squeeze everything we can out of each precious dollar. 1080p is perfectly fine for a lot of us.
The 5700XT is probably drawing too much amperage from a single 12v rail... Check the PSU label... and try a slight undervolt.
Yeah I had a similar issue, had to put wattage down to like 140ish
Totally
@@AlexHusTech Odd I have had no issue with my Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 XT?
@@EliezYT Were you running full 225W?
I was testing on my Dell T5810, 685W PSU.
@@AlexHusTech Yes I was I don't know if it's a issue with some peoples hardware or if I won the silicone lottery.
I would love to see this system with a 6700xt or 6800 since prices for those are very reasonable now.
If I can get my hands on one of these for around $100 I think I would toss at least a 6600XT into one of these.
@@MrKherman84 very hard nowadays those are on 190$
I’m running a 6800 with my set up. Can run
Tarkov 1440 mid settings at about 60 fps.
Red Dead Redemption 1440 ultra 80FPS
I upgraded my old elitedesk 800G2 with i-6700 to optiplex 7040mt and slapped used RX6600 I got for $160, Corsair SF600 PSU and new Noctua fans. Runs Bordelrands 2 at high settings at 1800p at 100fps! 😊
Awesome build. I just put together my first pc and setup! I have a gtx 1070 8gb, 16gb ddr4 ram, i5 7400, 700w gold rated psu, 2tb hdd, Samsung 60hz monitor, steelseries keyboard and Logitech mouse. Total setup cost me $330usd, all off Facebook marketplace!
PCs like this seem to be a killer deal for those knowledgable on building them. For those just getting into it, it seems highly intimidating, especially with hearing how certain cards can be risky or you how you need to undervolt them. That's why console seems the go to for the average person on a budget. We don't have to worry about sinking money into something that we don't know how to properly test or fix if it doesn't work. If I was confident I could build a system like this for $400-$500, it would be a no-brainer to do so. But my luck, something would burn up or not operate properly, and I'd just be stuck with it.
When I started buildings pc's I just did it. ye I made mistakes but nothing very big. Just watch videos on howto and then do it yourself :)
@@jeanpaultongeren125I can get a 2145 8 core xeon workstation p520 barebone for 220 is that a good deal once I add memory a SSD a copy of windows and a decent GPU like a 2070 super it'll be probably around 399$ in total
@@jeanpaultongeren125I dont know much about pc specs but would a rtx 2060 be an upgrade from a rx 5700 xt?
@@kariizmo1761it would be a downgrade a 5700xt is better
Okay thank you
I got this same setup with 32GB. Swapped out the GPU for Radeon 6800 XT. It barely fits. I am not seeing any bottle neck caused by CPU
Do you think I can get this to power a rtx 4080 super TeamProfitcom 16 AWG GPU VGA PCI-e 8Pin PCI Express Graphics Video Card GPU VGA 8 Pin Female to Dual GPU 8(6+2) Pin Male GPU 8 pin Splitter Power Sleeved Cable 8 Pin GPU 12-inches (4 Pack)
Just bought the Lenovo p520 workstation for cheap 4k gaming. I heard from a Nate zone that did a few p520 videos saying it supports up to a 500 watt GPU so I think I'll be fine and that cable i mentioned is what he recommended but I want a second opinion so I've been asking other commentators here and reddit
The thing with these systems is, as you mentioned in your later video, there is a serious amount of scope for upgrading them. if you manage to get hold of one of the 720 systems, or even a 920, they are dual CPU boards so getting hold of one with a lower end single CPU gives you massive headroom for CPU upgrades over time. Then there is the capacity for 2 x M.2 sticks, 300+ GB of RAM, multiple GPU options, loads of drive bays, you can even get a hot swap backplane upgrade for the drives. Sure they are limited on the PSU options and they are not really built with cooling upgrades in mind, especially the dual CPU models, but I'm sure that something could be done.
This thing can take Xeon W-2295 CPUs, an 18 core cpu, Cascade Lake that can boost greater than 4Ghz. It can support up to 512GB memory.
And with all thos PCIe slots, you can take gaming to really high levels. It is unfortunately only PCIe 3, however, so with some of the newest cards you lose some performance.
They are selling through Amazon now also. Ordered one with 64gb of RAM, no video card and no drive for under $200. Adding a video card and an m.2 will be a cheap upgrade.
Do they come with the wires to power it on?
@@voidcr215 They did but like all bargains now they sold out quickly. Still a few complete HP elite desk 800 G3C and G4 refurbished desktop deals.
@@voidcr215Not surprised, they do! I got one some months ago and decided to slap a 1660s on it, runs beautifully.
Finally a great build👏👏👏 Keep up the good work!
Funny how I purchased my P520 two weeks before this video came out. I got mine off eBay for $180 from a Texas dealer and they packed it real nice, it had expanding foam custom fit to the case and shipping box. It's a 2019 model equipped with a W-2135, 32GB of 2666 mhz DDDR4, 900w platinum PSU, but no GPU so I purchased a PNY 1070 XLR8 triple fan for only $100 off eBay. This machine will certainly put a stranglehold on budget pre-builds and other PCs that cost less than $800, I had no problems with performance other than slower data speeds that Xeons naturally have.
It's also a far cry from what I had before, an HP Z220 SFF and later a Z230 SFF. I found both of them in the trash and only spent $70 on a GT 1030 to get them running decently. Both were equipped with Xeons, an E3-1245 V2 and an E3-1225 V3, they didn't have great performance because they were old CAD workstations but got the job done for some casual gaming. These machines, the p520 and higher models are oriented for graphics design, 3D modeling, and machine learning. They originally came with two Quadro RTX graphics cards, a 6000 with 24GB and an 8000 with 48 GB. I was somewhat blindsided by the overall task difference between my machines, one is for CAD, the other for AI development. I had looked for another HP workstation to upgrade to, but I found this Lenovo for a better price, not to mention that I adore Thinkpads of all kinds. I've had a few Brickpads and a couple of Thinpads and always like their modularity, the P520 suits that need with a lot of options available.
Awesome! I just bought the very same rig except I got the 32gb ram version. I used a dell rx580 and a WD 1 TB nvme. This thing is super slick and I could only imagine what the p700’s or p900’s are like… not to mention the modern Lenovo work stations. How bout that thread ripper p620 tho?
??? Bro you have a cheap, low power PC. Stop hyping it up lmao... it MIGHT have been impressive in 2016.
@@bofasofa9399 yeah I’m sure you have a way better rig… but certainly paid for the extra. These are amazing for the price and will serve for a long time to come. Have fun being a comment troll!
What gen nvme does it support??
@taneesh pradyumna yes
@taneesh pradyumna sounds like their power is well known. I hope you can find yourself one soon!
The shiping price is around 1,706 usd ...
Max that thing out. Totally interested in seeing another video with it.
You should show the power draw of the gpu, would be nice to know
Total power draw from the wall would be nice
I found these Lenovo thinkstations and thought the same thing , for upgrades I suggest 64gb or 32 GB on quad channel 2 m.2 nvme ssds a xeon 2155 w and a rtx 2080 or rx 6700 xt
I'd say for the future 64gb is gonna become the regular and of course a Intel Arc A770 16gb because while it may not beat the cards you specified right now it has enough raw power that with more driver updates can most likely beat even the likes of the RX 6800.
I did not know this great of a pc was possible under $1000. Awesome video guys! Thanks for sharing this build!
Under $1k?
5600 and RX 6600 build or even better easy.
Man what are you talking about, for $1k you can build an rx 6800 and 5700x pc
Me: “Yeah man I’m totally gonna get a ps5, I wanted a gaming pc but it’s a bit too expensive ”
Also me: “Hold up toasty bros might of changed the game”
I just finished putting one of these together too.Also my first ThinkStation. But w/ a 2145 processor and 32gig of ram to start. I added a new Samsung 2gig NVME and an old Nvidia 1070 .So far it runs v cool [ 28-32 degrees- in the Summer] cruises at 4.7 g and running Linux starts in seconds. These are solid rigs and and a good investment
I'm thinking of buying a refurbished 2145 system it's 220$ but I'll need my own storage memory windows copy and a decent GPU probably going 2070 super I can snag locally for a good price all in all probably 399$ do you think that's a good deal
@@Spencerwalker21 2070s are still $200 where I am, it's nice the 2145s have dropped down to $180. I might build one myself just for lols with a spare 1660super I have.
@@sinosoul yeah great idea I'm actually going at least to 4070 now especially because I have a 4k TV some 1440p Alan Wake 2 sounds great I also got a shit load of Amazon reward dollars but everything short of a 4080 has only 12gb of vram and yes pretty sold on Nvidia
wow the performance is amazing!! no doubt a console killer!
fastest cpu's for lga 2066 are 7980XE, 9980XE, or 10980XE, hyperthreading off and tuned for the highest clocks possible and then pushing the RAM for the lowest latencies.
Can you put a non xenon in this motherboard ? Ie i7 or i9 that are also lga 2066 socketed
You don't want the Dual CPU Socket for gaming -- The ones with Dual CPU's they split the 12V rail on the PSU to power the 2nd CPU so that will really limit the GPU (power consumption) you can put into the box, won't be able to use both the 8-pin connectors. Check the for the Lenovo P### Spec Sheet PDF and it explains the 12V split and GPU wattage limitations on the dual CPU boxes.
I've been tempted to look into one of these old 2011v3/2066 workstations for a while, but I don't think I have the room!
They weight a ton aswell lol
Go with the LGA 2066 in the future if you have the room it will be much more future proof than the LGA 2011V3 socket.
Ayy supprised to see you here, been watching your vids recently. i picked up a LGA3647 8core+board + RAM combo for £350 on ebay and been using that as a daily driver and its been solid
@@dylan-xq1qh Noice. I haven't even begun to research the newer Big Xeon platforms yet, I wasn't even aware they were that affordable!
@@IcebergTech the Xeon Gold / Platinum SKUs are cheaper and cheaper these days! I was thinking of selling it anyway so if you are interested can shoot you a DM/Email?
I know this is a late comment but it bears stating. The whole reason these hit firesale is because of Retbleed. Read up on what it does to 6th and 7th gen Intel Processors. The CPU in this build only came out 3 years ago. They are so cheap because the people that bought them are unable to use them efficiently anymore because the mitigations cost them well needed performance.
That being said im in for 1 or 2 because its an easy upgrade to a cascade lake 10c or 12c cpu with tons of home server potential.
Lenovo thinkstation are unmatched by pretty much anythink out there at the moment i have two p500 workstation with xeon 1650 v3 and rx 590 8gb and can play anything with adaptions thrown at it there are top dog to me💯👌🤙
Toastybro upload during math class. Great timing ❤
as a math teacher I approve
Even a 5700 non XT is still pretty good for 1440p for this
No
@@lizard9350 He is right but it isn't the best I will have to admit the regular xt is the way to go for 1440p.
@@EliezYT yes
Maybe try and undervolt that RX 5700Xt?
It works great for a undervolt.
Can the Lenovo P520 run Windows 11?
1:58 that made me spill my water
4:26 more chips on the ECC RAM is due to being Registered ECC , where the one you have there is Unbuffered ECC.
i love how the cheapest p520 in my countrys ebay is 700 dollars with a quadro in it
You guys should do a Dell 5810 $200 1080p PC. It's 2011v3, DDR4, and comes with 2x 6pin.
That pc while good for the ultra budget range won't really fair against this pc I had a HP Z440 and switched to this pc because the architecture is very old, the ghz isn't high, and the cache memory sucks. Thus when you get to a LGA 2066 system most of those issues are fixed and you have the advantages of it along with it.
This is the perfect budget build bro. It supports win 11, it’s future proof and the case looks pretty good in my opinion.
a Quatro M6000 would look awesome in this case.
6:00 Honestly, a used SanDisk CloudSpeed Eco Gen II for $45 gets you 2tb. Even after being used in servers; as long as they're in good health I'd trust it more than some no-name 1tb "new" SSD.
Windows 10 or Windows 11 Operating System installed?
Not sure what your problem was exactly with the 5700xt but I do want to mention if you use it for anything else that it will thermal throttle on games like Halo infinite and cod2 (which sometimes creates this odd fan noise), BUT if you undervolt the card to 1999mhz and 1108 volts(t comes out to 1.1 volts rather than the factory 1.2) this card runs great and and relavitely cool. I also put an aggress fan curve as well. Apparently this has to be done with most of these cards now.
I built this pc aswell worth the 5700xt but can’t get it to boot to windows… I’ve tried everything but it will just go to the windows recovery error 0x0000000f I believe and I can’t find out why. I’m about to just throw this thing in the trash
Does anyone know how to fix this? All is appreciated dearly
Xeon Workstation on Overclocking board...I had SR-2 Classy, amazing computer had that for 13 years, was playing Cyberpunk 2077 in 1440@60FPS was just fine. Crazy amounts of Cores/Threads, 48 Gigs of RAM, 7x16 PCE lanes and the ability to actually keep the 16 threads per lane when using multiple lanes was insane...SLI Graphic cards anyone, yes please....Sure not a lot of games but the ones that did just in 2015 such as SkyrimSE, Fallout 3,nv,4.....Only problem is good used workstations with Xeon chips that overclock are highly desired by all sorts of enthusiasts not just gamers, so pricing is all over the place and can be high enough that getting a brand new enthusiast PC by selling your old one is a reality. A still working SR-2 Classy board is going to sell for about the same as a z790 Kingpin board if its near mint.
here in NZ the prices range from $700 to $2000 for that
As to what GPU you might use, some of the older Xeons tend to run better with Higher resolutions at lower FPS. Old Xeons make excellent 4k60FPS machines the goal being to push the system load as much to the GPU as possible. That being said if you want a more budget oriented build, I would say RTX2070 or 3060 could be nice. Maybe even an old flagship gtx 1080ti. As for AMD, you could probably get away with a RX6600/ 6650XT.
The issue is even the Nvidia gpus your listing are a bit more pricy than the RX 5700 XT not to mention when it comes to the GTX 1080 TI while it may be a good gpu the architecture is outdated and for newer titles they would prefer RNDA over it.
Not to mention the RTX 2070 is a fair bit weaker than the RX 5700 XT and time hasn't made it that much better like the RDNA 1 gpus.
So for the price to performance if you don't care about ray tracing the RX 5700 XT is your best bet or if your thinking more long term possibly a Intel Arc A750 for the advantage it gives over the RX 5700 XT and even the RX 6650 XT.
@@EliezYT 2070 is slightly faster on average.
@@EliezYTI can get a rtx 2070 super for 160$ is that a good deal I'm leaning towards Nvidia for dlss any suggestions or do you think I'm solid.
@@Spencerwalker21 The main issue with that card is the vram like all graphics cards nowadays even at 1080p. What type of gaming are you wanting to do and what resolutions/settings.
@@EliezYT 1080p bg3 Alan Wake 2 starfield but I'm mostly going to stream it to the deck so usually 720p.
Could you do a video on atlas os?
Would a 1070ti blower card fit in the lenovo p520?
Bought this and slapped a 6800 GPU.
Runs Tarkov at 1440 Mid settings 60-70FPS
Red Dead Redemption 2 1440 ultra settings 80-100fps
I have a Lenovo P520 w/ Xeon W-2145 and an HP Z440 with a Xeon E5-1650v4. Both are excellent for gaming.
I think both cost around $500-560 CAD inculding Graphics card, NVMe and SATA SSD storage and 64 gigs of ECC runnig in quad channel.
I prefer the P520, but the HP Z440 is conventionally easier to work in.
Forgot to mention, I game 1080p in Cyberpunk 2077 no problem and up to 4k on less demanding titles (RPGs etc...).
How's the power consumption?
How would a RX 580 8gb work on this build
I put a 4gb rx580 jtptc and im getting 50-60 fps in cyberpunk the first time I opened it without changing any settings. Not sure if it auto detects settings but I’m also building another one with an 8gb model next.
Proves how the last decade of pc tech hasn’t budged much.
toasty bros turned into a budget gaming pc channel💀💀
I know it's 1 year later but have they ever done videos on the dell precision t5810 as they r pretty powerful and cheap for what they r and I've recently bought one
Can you make a cheap 4k gaming machine
Is it smarter to do what skerb did or what you guys did? Wondering cause I would like to build this myself
Bro got rizz at 3:06 😂
8:02 you guys should get an Adam Driver as a fedex driver shirt for the next time you install a driver
360$ is a great deal for 1080p, let alone 1440p.
These are the build videos that we all love. 😊
Ikr
max it out with a M.2, quad channel ram, better GPU, upgrading the CPU is not worth the cost.
Board may not have the slot
@@ggzyt_livitup3898 it has 2 I’m running the same machine.
@@johnringgold3036 oh ok in the video they explain why they use the ssd
I agree when it comes to anything beyond the W-2145 or the W-2235 for the price it's just not worth it to upgrade the cpu.
4k pc gaming for $270 is insane
Looks like the Stadia dev kit
never be worried about a xeon for gaming I have been selling them now for 4 plus years without issues complete systems
nice solid budget build
I’m assuming the bios is locked like most pre builds, so no enabling XMP? Would another nice gift with this PC if you can!
i got amd vega 56 card reflashed bios n it works fine
Aesthetically, inside and out, I prefer this computer to a glass panelled gaming PC. Question: Can I use all the extra connected CPU PCIe channels the chip has for extra NVMe storage?
Thanks this is gonna help alot
I'm also on a budget of $400 for a pc
So thanks alot
yeah idk about a literal FUCKING 1000€ SHIPPING FEE ON THE THINKSTATION(to finland)
Impressive what that xeon can do. The boost on the cpu very impressive.
COD was cpu bound. Not sure why you ran FSR when you had the extra overhead on the gpu. I’d rather be gpu bound than cpu bound. I think you said FSR on balance. Could do quality and not loose much if any fps
i would say this card is the max for this pc as in COD i observed the gpu utilisation was hovering between 80-90% most of the time which means that there's a slight bottleneck. other games were fine.
where i live i could barely get the gpu second hand for 360 dollars let alone everything else
The over heating card seems really common on these. I’m trying some better fans
The 5700XT is drawing a lot of power on the 12v rail guys.
No problem for my Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 XT and mind you it has RGB and it's overclocked.
arm or leg? answer is obviously non dominant leg. this way you can do racing sim with hand toggled clutch as well as all other types of games.
I have a HP OEM SFF that I setup for my kids. It has an i5-6500, 32 GB DDR4, 1 TB GEN 4 NVME connected via a Saberent NVME to PCI adapter in a GEN 3 slot (it gets full GEN 3 speeds so I’m happy), and a GT 1030 LP. What would be the best GPU upgrade for this setup, that could still fit into a LP PC (it can be dual slot)?
Either a 1650 lp or a rx 6400 lp
Put a scammy "590" in it, it would be interesting pairing 😁
So I do a lot of basic editing 4k in DaVinci resolve. I have a Dell xps15 with 16 GB ram i7 core and a Nvidia 3050 ti. 4gv vram. I want to advance my editing into the studio version and start getting into vfx, masking etc and my current card can't handle it. I was thinking about getting a EGPU and was looking at $600-1k for the enclosure and a new card. I was wondering if doing a build like this would be better or just going for the EGPU for my situation. Thanks!
do a 6700xt or a 6650 xt in the next one
I wonder if u can use the motherboard with a server power supply/breakout board......Miners know what im talking about
I'm debating switching from my optiplex setup to one of these, but the 900w just went out of stock. Does anyone know if the 690w version will still do well or is it too limiting?
What setup did scurb have to get some 4k gaming?
could you guys do a dell optiplex 7050 review
Does it support rebar?
I bought the Thinkstation p520 and bought a new gpu and ssd but I can unlock the bios menu so I cant download a clean windows instillation because I cant change one setting please help.
Use 4090 or 4080 or 4070 ti or 4070 or 7900xtx and also test one of the gpus with that cpu and with a 13900k
I was super interested and bought it with an m.2 nvme 1T and a 3070 but I’m getting around 70 fps in Warzone with both cpu and gpu at around 50% usage. It stayed around 70fps when I put the graphics to ultra/high as well. I also tried Fortnite and the same thing happened with no change in frame rate. Anyone know what could be causing the changes?
You guys should try a similar build with the RTX 2070 Super. May be some CPU bottleneck but that card is definitely looked over right now, you can get it for 180-250 depending on how hard you search.
It's about the same performance as a 5700xt, so it is very similar to the results you get here. And I think you normally can get a 5700xt cheaper than a 2070 super.
@@Daybreak194 Thats true but correct me if I'm wrong i think the 2070s is faster once you get to 1440p and 4k. Also, this isn't important to a lot of people but the 2070s has fairly good RT support while the 5700xt has none at all. You also miss out on NVENC and DLSS which are important parts of a decision for me although I know that to some people raw performance is all that matters. But I get what youre saying though and for people who don't care about the reasons I mentioned you should definitely go for the 5700xt
Edit: Looking at a gaming benchmark and from the looks of it they are very close in comparison with one another. In fact, the 5700xt even outperforms the 2070S in a couple of titles. Here's the video for anyone who's curious. This isn't my video or anything, I just looked up a benchmark.
ruclips.net/video/FUab8gODsnE/видео.html&ab_channel=NJTech
There is no cpu bottleneck as long as you stay within 1080p if you go beyond that then the graphics card is actually the issue not the cpu.
@@EliezYT I doubt it because the 2070 Super can handle 4k gaming and 1440p gaming with no problem.
@@Hankerang I was talking about the RX 5700 XT you are correct there isn’t any bottleneck at 1440p but it seems anything higher will be.
Searched up the processor and according to the officially supported CPU list for Windows 11, the Xeon W-2135 is officially supported! Might consider that for my next PC.
It's technically X299, so yeah. But make sure whatever you get actually has an up to date BIOS with TPM functionality
@@b0ne91 This pc has all that as a owner myself I can confirm.
I searched too, and I don't know if they mention it, but these processors are Skylake. It seems the top dog for this socket is the W-2195... 18 cores, 36 threads, 2.3-4.3GHz, 24.75MB of cache. Closest Core i-series chip equivalent is Core i9-7980XE. Though it's listed as X299 compatible, whereas the W Xeons use a C422 chipset. Same socket, though. IDK. This setup seems not very far behind last-generation stuff, though... the board has m.2 and lots of PCIe (even if it's only 3.0) and quad channel DDR4.
And no, ECC doesn't have but one extra chip per row (I think), they're probably thinking of buffered registered DIMMs which have a bunch of chips. I would like to see performance before and after upgrading to quad channel memory.
thats so cool Seth Rogan started working with you.
What’s the memory did you use and a link. Did you have to use ecc 2666 ?? Can you use any DDR 4 memory
whats a good budget monitor to go with it?
Did a really similar build with a used HP Z4 G4.
I wanted to from my HP Z440 the issue is HP is very hard to customize when it comes to cpu coolers and all that on top of that the bios is usually locked down so it really isn't great to tinker with.
@@EliezYT yeah I added an extra pcie USB 3.1 card and it's really mad about not having a front pcie fan lol. I'll probably not go hp next time
I can pick up one of these right now with a 1 tb nvme, 32 gb quad channel ecc ram, 2080 and 950 psu for 550 (can upgrade to 2080 super for another 50 or 3080 for another 150) Do you think its a worthy buy for a 1080p gaming rig?
side note, its the 2145 8/16 instead of the 2135 as well.
@@dalehammers4425yeah
i got a dell 3090
You cant say its 1440p when using FSR. FSR on balanced is like 1080p when using 1440p monitor.
You can get even better performance in Halo Infinite by putting the minimum framerate to 144 through the settings files.