I have a P520 Brickstation myself. I purchased the tower for $180 and a used GTX 1070 for $100, and reused my old drives and peripherals, all for $300. I later upgraded to a 2TB WD Black SN850X for $120. Obviously, the system is six years old by now and isn't the fastest PC out there, but you can't beat the value compared to a custom build with similar hardware. Also, I enjoy the monolithic case design. Lenovo has always had great design with the old Brickpads, which is why I chose it over an HP workstation.
@playtech71654 ай бұрын
Can't wait for your next LAN party video! The anticipation is real.
@ultragrimx89934 ай бұрын
For people who are not experienced the prebuilt is the best. But I feel everyone who is interested into PC related activities should build their own custom. Learning to build your own has so many advantages than getting a prebuilt such as maintenance and adding new parts. Plus now days we have so many easy accessible guides that will walk you through the entire process.
@MrSamadolfo4 ай бұрын
start with a prebuilt if u have nothing at home as far as spare parts, u will get agravated really quick that u dont have an extra screw, the cable is too short, and on and on 😅
@ultragrimx89934 ай бұрын
@@MrSamadolfo Yea I went through something similar when I built my first PC so yea I get how easy prebuilts can be. But Still most people will lack knowledge
@droson87124 ай бұрын
If you assembled it you know how to take it apart and how everything works, it's always better to learn how to build it yourself and I'd say this goes for any hobby you can do
@sebysebyt124 ай бұрын
Prebuild u pay more than make it urself
@droson87124 ай бұрын
@@sebysebyt12 And this too
@OGbqze4 ай бұрын
Dell Precision Tower 3620 Desktop PC 4.00GHz Core i7-6700K 32GB RAM 500GB No OS This is the computer I bought for my girlfriend and put a GTX 1070 in it with a 1TB SSD and a 240GB SSD for boot drive. I won it on an auction for $97.88, and had the GTX 1070 laying around for years. So for under $200 I was able to give my girlfriend an amazing PC and we we're even able to play Dying Light together without any issues. Seeing the ThinkStation makes me want to build one just because of how insanely good it is for the price. Looking back, if I could choose, I'd build the ThinkSation. Amazing video!
@fabsenbmx4 ай бұрын
yo thats sick! I have the chance to get an office PC with I7 3770 for 40 Bucks and I am going to add a 1070 or 1660 not sure yet. Also for my Girlfriend so we can play AOE2
@KabuteGaming4 ай бұрын
This is definitely one of the best subscriptions I've done, hands down. I'm a dad gamer, and your videos are very informative as well as inspirational across the boards. Keep up the good work, fam! Great content as always
@pbjames4 ай бұрын
LETS GO THE KING IS BACK
@TheRealAlpha2Сағат бұрын
As someone who's first non laptop was a refurbished HP Elitedesk g1 off Amazon, I've already had a Lenovo in my sights for over a year now as my next PC. I've already maxed out the potential of the HP aside from RAM, which isn't going to improve matters enough for me. I could care less about flashing lights, my computer is basically a table to set my keyboard on. The simple nature makes upgrading easy, no random part picking drama, you have a selection of processors and GPUs to decide on, maybe RAM sticks and drives, but that's it.
@stevenwilliams66384 ай бұрын
Great stuff Danny. I really appreciate your consistent content over the years. Hope all is well with you.
@SkywardKing4 ай бұрын
Not much of a looker? Those machines are cleaaaaaaan! lol. Good video.
@abecam2K4 ай бұрын
Have a great weekend everyone
@chilledburrito4 ай бұрын
You have a great weekend!
@NukaOrQuantum4 ай бұрын
You too dude
@MrSamadolfo4 ай бұрын
Happy Mother Days, Sunday here its finally going to be in the 80s 😎
@Critcobain3 ай бұрын
Lets hope this works out well for me. Just spent roughly $390 (some shipping fees) for the Thinkstation, a 1660 6gb, and a 512 gb nvme. Hoping it lives up to the hype. The fact that you say you can stream on it means it'll be a huge upgrade over my HP Victus that I bought for $250 because it was the last one in stock at Walmart LOL
@dragon2knight4 ай бұрын
This base unit combined with an ARC A380 would be a great combo for little cash...I like the design of the Lenovo, very easy to get and more than enough power to not regret buying it as you don't really have to replace anything on it to use it. Of course the usual precautions apply for "refurbed" towers: always re-paste the cpu, maybe upgrade the cooling system while you're at it as the old one is coming off anyway. When totally set up, check out voltages and the like on the power supply to make sure it's working well, and finally, make sure it's clean, as in dust, many refurber's are lousy at that. Great idea Danny, I like this one and I generally hate refurbs. Thanks for the heads up!
@Mr.TechnoWiz-ts3cb4 ай бұрын
You know it’s a great day when Nerd on a Budget uploads
@Ryhillchibulls4 ай бұрын
If you need attention I suggest looking into healthy outlets or maybe therapy.
@Mr.TechnoWiz-ts3cb4 ай бұрын
@@Ryhillchibulls what?
@toufusoup4 ай бұрын
Not a bad choice. I’m under the impression that tech advancements for the average consumer has a gained a lot more longevity in recent years. A PC from 2006 would be obsolete by 2010/2011, or maybe one from 2012 would be pretty much obsolete by 2016/2017, so on so forth, but it’s 2024 and a PC that runs like this one can still go for many years, I’d be daring to say as far as 2027 if not longer.
@MrSamadolfo4 ай бұрын
this motherboard supports chips that are officially Windows 11 ready so its still very relevant 🙂
@pie_stains4 ай бұрын
@@MrSamadolfo Word.
@leerobinson87094 ай бұрын
I still run a HP Z620 from 2012 with dual E5-2590s 16c/32t and an RX590. Runs everything I play. It runs hot, uses much power but I'll run it until it explodes or something.
@njogumaina94303 ай бұрын
6700xt is the perfect GPU for this pc. You can get one for about $250 used. For less than $500 you're getting a 1440p gaming PC..crazy😮
@uatlagh4 ай бұрын
I've always respected the workstation approach, but I think I would still go the custom route. As for why I guess it would just be love of the game. I enjoy deal hunting and mixing things up.
@cecilb79274 ай бұрын
I really like your comparison between starting with a prebuilt and building custom. There really are benefits to each, and even for just me, at different times either one might make more sense to me. If I haven't built anything in a long time I would look forward to the custom build. If I had built three PCs this month, the prebuilt would be a simple, easy and economic means of getting the same results. Also remember, most of us watching this channel are hardware hobbyists, so we are always going to lean towards the custom. The average gamer has only one real concern about the hardware, "will it play what I want it to play", otherwise they are as interested in customizing it as they are in customizing their toaster, they might slap a sticker or two on it, but they aren't worried about hardware.
@nohcam224 ай бұрын
The return of the king!
@pie_stains4 ай бұрын
Wow! This setup will be good for me to compare to what I am building for my sisters family. I am at $356 shipped so far for an 11400f, MSI Z490-A Pro, Gskill Ripjaws 16gb 3600 c16, MSI 1660 ti, Corsair rm750e, 1TB WD SN770, and a Tp-link wifi 6 pcie/bluetooth card. The hard drive and PSU are the only new parts so what I need now is a sale on a decent case. I will keep this tower in mind if anyone asks me about gaming on the cheap but it is more fun to part hunt and build myself. *a pro is the CPU is Windows 11 compatible if that is important.
@KenMrKLC4 ай бұрын
I picked up a 1080ti for $150 used local this would be a perfect system to put it in
@theredspoon17632 ай бұрын
I am currently using the predecessor of this PC, the p510. Has 64 GB of RAM 14 TB of Enterprise HDD storage (almost brand new) 512 GB Enterprise NVME SSD 14c/28t Xeon e5-2690v4 processor Radeon RX580 graphics and the 850W PSU. Cost me a whopping total of 70 USD in this configuration (minus the GPU) about 6 months ago. Popped up on my contry´s equivalent of craiglist with no usable specs so I offered 70 incl. shipping not knowing what I would get and well, turned out to be quite the decent system. It originally shipped with an Nvidia Quadro GPU and came with a Waters BUS card which I managed to sell the for 150 USD. From the money I bought an RX 580 as well as good WiFi card and an IBM Model M (need to jump at the chance if the mainboard still has a dedicated PS2 port). This thing for sure was dirt cheap. Unfortunately, it does only support Broadwell chips, but throwing a lot of cores on newer games worked out pretty well so far. Pretty sure that thing was used in a laboratory of some sort in its first life.
@rmgaminguk70794 ай бұрын
I think the custom build has a much better upgrade path. While you could upgrade the Xeon to one with more cores but the low single core speed will be a huge restriction on performance, where as the B450 motherboard in the custom build allows an upgrade to a 5000 series ryzen cpu which will be a huge upgrade in gaming performance. For this reason I would prefer the custom build but appreciate the ease for a new builder of buying the OEM and adding storage and a GPU.
@cael_13034 ай бұрын
I would personally pick the custom build. I would say the challenge would be in aesthetics but you did pretty good on putting together a good looking custom build at $350.
@TechMatticz3 ай бұрын
Please try using this cpu with quad channel ram configuration and share your results! I'd be willing to bet if it could use all 4 channels you'd see a nice uplift in cpu performance.
@markh3512 ай бұрын
I think the key thing here is that you got a system with a CPU that will support Windows 11 since Windows 10 doesn't have a lot of time left. I would only be worried about being able to replace the power supply if it ever died, but we're not talking about a big $$$ investment overall. Well done. It performs very well especially considering the price.
@marcc5768Ай бұрын
the one aspect many tech tubers overlook in regards to using Thinkcenters or Thinkstations either as a gaming rig or desktop workstation..is the power consumption of the system. If electricity prices are not good in an area..I'd probably swap out that W-2135 xeon for a less power hungry xeon in the same family.
@nohcam224 ай бұрын
I would do this exact build.
@comptvlee4 ай бұрын
🤣 the handle. excellent video! exciting to see that these types of builds are still around.
@comptvlee4 ай бұрын
this guy.
@jzvi124 ай бұрын
Can you make a video using this or similar hardware spec to test AI apps installed locally in the PC such as LocalAI and/or Fooocus?
@Majestic084 ай бұрын
Dropping by to say great video!! I have a $350-400 budget build computer built by someone I know ::wink wink:: and it's coming up on 4 years now. I play league, Madden, stream on discord and it still holds up. I also do a lot of school work and studying with it as well.
@robertlucke49644 ай бұрын
Love the content thanks for sharing miss these kind of videos 😊
@AVworld.4 ай бұрын
Nice! I just got the 1660S for another build for $100 along with some ram
@spoobspoob22704 ай бұрын
I honestly find office pc builds more fun than normal ones. Something about shoving a gpu where it doesnt belong is so fun and satisfying. I love the fact that I have a "sketchy" build that slays performance-wise and looks like a normal office computer, lmao
@Raymond3274 ай бұрын
Hi Danny, I've been watching your channel a while now, and I'm learning a lot. Being older, I'm not an avid pc user. But I'm thinking of building and playing some games. Good channel 👍 Thanks keep. up the good work
@NerfCraft3 ай бұрын
Personally, I'd prefer doing the custom build myself. I have plenty of experience building PCs, so the extra complexity of sourcing each part individually and building it from the ground up isn't a problem for me. Also, I would personally say the upgrade path for the custom build is going to be a bit better over the prebuilt, just because of the proprietary power supply/motherboard setup in the prebuilt. As cool, and ingenious as that power supply design is, it does restrict your ability to install a different power supply, or change motherboards. It is great that Lenovo actually seems to have provided a pretty decent power supply, that can actually handle some pretty power hungry cards, but if you decide you don't like it, you're going to have to choose between upgrading the motherboard and power supply together, or just sucking it up and using the stock PSU. You'd pretty much have to throw away most of the PC and start from scratch if you ever wanted to upgrade. With the custom build, if for whatever reason you don't like your motherboard or your power supply, chances are the parts in it will be pretty standardized, so you can just swap out each part independently without running into proprietary compatibility issues.
@MrSamadolfo4 ай бұрын
🙂 theres a better alternative called the HP Z4 G4, the case is standard size ATX case, its lighter too and the board supports a few more chips, it costs more tho, also keep in mind that this lenovo and the hp version and the dell version all have Xeon chips that support Windows 11 officially, go check the Windows 11 cpu list if your curious, the Xeons are way at the bottom of the list
@mondayhappens4 ай бұрын
i got a deal on fb marketplace it was 300$ last week i7700k io corsair pump 16gbram ddr4 corsar vengance lpx 3600 2 ssds 1 vme gtx 1080ti' asus strix nzxt case and its runs beautifully
@dberube822 ай бұрын
I bought one of these P520s and for about a year it was great. I paid much less than you did at the time I bought mine and I paired it with a 1660S, RX580 and a 1070 and though it ran well for a year or so, it's drastically started to lose performance. I'd upgrade the CPU but the one to upgrade costs $400. So I just built a new PC and use this one for office work only now. I tried to update the Bios but it froze the PC and had I not had Bios flashback on it would have been a brick. Just be aware it's performance degrades over time drastically.
@Pilaspilas9114 ай бұрын
I have no problem with buying used or BNIB pc parts (saves you that hefty 12% uncle sam tax) and therefore I bought a 7500F that came as a package with 5200 mhz 16 gb (2X8 Gb) for $120 and I also bough an BNIB Asus Pro Art B650 for $140 (It's not the cheapest board), Cooler masterbox Q500L + Egva 500W Bronze for $40, M2. Nvme 256 gb new for $20 and I have an existing 1080 Ti, which is probably $100 used. Overall, even though I went over the budget by $70 more, depending on the price of the 1080 ti, I am extremely satisfied. Sure I can sell and upgrade my ram and GPU, but for my use case, I don't think it's necessary. Edit: All of the items were bought from Meta, except for the only new item M.2 Nvme
@EddysTechHubАй бұрын
If you have the earlier revision of the P520 motherboard, then you won't be able to upgrade to Cascade Lake W-22xx. I found out the hard way when I tried to upgrade to the W-2255. I confirmed this by sending a picture of my motherboard to the Lenovo community forum where a Lenovo staff said my P520 motherboard is one of the earlier revisions which won't be able to Support Cascade Lake W CPU's unless I upgrade it to a newer revision.
@MrDvneil4 ай бұрын
that combo, case, cpu, motherboard, ram, psu, cooler, is really nice for 200 dollars, a gtx 1080 or rx 5700xt for 120e, would have increased the overall performance a lot. for not too strong cpus, nvidia requires more cpu than amd gpus, on some games.
@robskitlz43914 ай бұрын
I'd probably choose the custom. That's what I chose when I made my first build which I did at the end of 2023.
@Toxic_Panda974 ай бұрын
Didn't we do this on your live stream a couple + months ago ?
@edge_of_theknife631513 күн бұрын
idk where i live its basically throwing a 580 or 570 on an office pre built
@stevenfawns91984 ай бұрын
Love the content 👌 keep it up
@DengueBurger4 ай бұрын
A lot of it is single core performance. But yeah you could’ve increased the resolution on the 4070S to put more stress on it instead of the CPU.
@yukiskyhawk1014 ай бұрын
red and black bro. looks good
@architgamertag97444 ай бұрын
In India Lenovo p520 is not available😢
@killerinsyncc4 ай бұрын
JayzTwoCentz did a video on the bottlenecking, MSI afterburner can show cpu bottleneck if you set it up right. ( show each individual threads usage instead of the combined cpu usage selection in RTSS.
@michaelfitzgerald52074 ай бұрын
Delta power supplies are top notch quality, especially if it's an 80 plus platinum.....but. the point is Delta makes high quality power supplies.
@Dejaycarter994 ай бұрын
For 350 i got a 2700x and a 1070 on a tomahawk max b450 1tb nvme and 1tb hdd with a nzxt case and watercooling and rgb througgout and 16gb ddr4 ram
@avenger12282 ай бұрын
Can you put a 3060 TI in this? I am new to this whole thing and graphic card confuse me.
@fabsenbmx4 ай бұрын
sick computer. It only takes small NVMEs correct?
@nerdonabudget4 ай бұрын
It also takes standard data ssd/hdds
@learnmodernhebrew712416 күн бұрын
Is it normal to play games for long time at temperatures above 70? i have w-2135 and max temp for this cpu is 64c
@techytech48264 ай бұрын
I think the best "between" gpu you could get for this pc could be a 6700xt or 3060, those go for really good prices used, and you can build a really great 1080 ultra system for about 500 bucks with the 6700xt, even 1440p if you really want.
@MrSamadolfo4 ай бұрын
it also depends on the exact monitor your running, the refresh rates, the resolutions, is it a desk monitor or are we running a 4K TV in the living room?
@josephford81364 ай бұрын
Hey quick question. I’m going to be getting a pc to play rainbow six siege with some friends. I am switching from Xbox over and don’t want to pay a ton for a few games. My question is how well this pc would play rainbow?
@Noseflap-watching4 ай бұрын
Should have tested CS2. This thing could probably get 240 at a typical res for CS players of 1280x960 (low no FSR)
@TheJustPull56414 ай бұрын
I’m trying to add this exact card to my build but struggling with the power. Specifically what cord do I plug into the video card cuz right now my system doesn’t work even back to run original set up.
@Leo-hf9wo4 ай бұрын
i had a build with this until i got a b550 and an ryzen 5700x to pair with my rx6600xt
@pimpsta951174 ай бұрын
When are you coming back to classic wow?
@shockcrew52752 ай бұрын
Suck a powerful CPU would benefit from a much more powerful GPU. I have my Haswell 4c 8t E3-1285L v3 paired with an RTX 4060 and there is still headroom for the CPU at 1440p. The W-2135 could be paired with a 4080 along the way.
@simonlofty16114 ай бұрын
How do you get all the stats in the corner when testing?
@kawaii80884 ай бұрын
COOL PSU 😎 🤙
@Aynek13 ай бұрын
What about operating system for something like this? The Lenovo Thinkstations on Ebay do not come with an OS.
@nerdonabudget3 ай бұрын
They don't come with a drive with an OS, but these units have all had windows at one point. When I installed windows on the SSD, it was automatically activated because its tied to the hardware. I can't say that's the case for every system on ebay, but every OEM I've bought has not needed a windows key
@Aynek13 ай бұрын
@@nerdonabudget Thank you for responding so quickly!
@aku2dimensional2 ай бұрын
The P520 also had Red Hat Enterprise installed by Lenovo, depending on the use case. It also eligible to run Windows 11 if you want to use it, and any Linux distro can be installed as well, which is free.
@Darius-hn4gp4 ай бұрын
So I want to upgrade my components and I want to ask a question. Should I upgrade my Ryzen 5 2400g to a Ryzen 5 5500 (current GPU Rx 480 8gb) and after a while go for a rx 6600 or smth similar for the GPU. My motherboard is a a320m s2h. Is it a good plan?
@JohnnyStashh4 ай бұрын
dude, RTX 4000 series actually run worse at 1080p. redo those last test at 1440p and you see it get way better FPS than the 1080p settings
@stevenpavelski60353 ай бұрын
Would 2080ti be a good match?
@novarevs34664 ай бұрын
When is the next lan my guy?
@hazardzme4 ай бұрын
great video.
@rawfish1234 ай бұрын
Recently got a gtx 780ti that requires 2 8 pin pcie power. Does this thinkstation support this requirement, it looks like the ports are 6 pins.
@johnringgold30363 ай бұрын
Gtx 780ti max draw is 250, this psu supports up to 290, get two 6-8 pin adapters and you will be fine.
@tmhanif64033 ай бұрын
I'm from Malaysia, damn this is so expensive..even a used one.
@Gonzo_5364 ай бұрын
Would this work as a streaming pc maybe?
@MrSamadolfo4 ай бұрын
sure, pickup a xeon with alot of threads and you need a streaming video card
@arcadeslum58824 ай бұрын
$150 1080ti on ebay or $60 rx 580 8gb
@AlexHusTech4 ай бұрын
*Should do more videos instead of lives*
@ruatpuiasailo6344310 сағат бұрын
Love to have one but i'm from india and their rare. Even if i find one, i'm in india so its probable a scam. International shipping is a one way street to spending more than its value with all the custom duties.
@CoalitionGaming4 ай бұрын
Xeons woooo!
@gavinseifert4292Ай бұрын
bros video got de monetized what only 900 likes at almost 300k subs????
@TheBonneter4 ай бұрын
u kinda sound like sid from ice age
@johnsandoval69114 ай бұрын
Lenovo think station, because I have no experience with pc
@Khinh-xq6lx4 ай бұрын
you don't want headaches don't do it
@PsJc_Gamer4 ай бұрын
HEY NOAB
@pearhams24 ай бұрын
The motherboard is a bottleneck somewhat as well as the ram.
@CJWall_rott4 ай бұрын
Sup nerd
@Ryhillchibulls4 ай бұрын
Like the video please Subscribe if you haven't yet
@CoconutCreampi34 ай бұрын
Firsties :D
@Liamflatout4 ай бұрын
second :D
@familyguyshorts35064 ай бұрын
So so annoying
@JacksonFerraroАй бұрын
Would a 6700 xt work in this?
@elusivelectron4 ай бұрын
Can we take a minute to appreciate how good the lighting and focus is on the thumbnail? 🤌