@@HardwareHaven you know bro, about 10 years ago, 4GB of RAM and a very weak cpu like an intel pentium is already good enough for everyday use, but for today's modern day workloads you need a much more powerful CPU and 8GB of RAM or more
Back in the day I was a little upset when Lenovo bought IBM's PC Business, as I thought IBM was doing a good job offering Athlon based CPU's as a competitor to many of the Intel pc manufacturers out there. I was hoping consumers wouldn't lose a good alternative, but complimentary product manufacturer in IBM. 17 yrs later I think Lenovo buying that arm of IBM was a great option! Glad to see some of their old hardware getting some use, as it didn't seem as proprietary as some of the other systems I've seen, at least from my view. :)
Some of the lenovo stuff has been very "open", but it seems like more recently it's been a bit more proprietary. I also hate their lack of documentation haha
@@HardwareHavenneed advice I'm looking at a 8 core xeon workstation Lenovo p520 it has dual 6 plus 2 pin which is incredibly rare right. Do you know of any other workstations that have dual 6 plus 2 pin.
reusing / refurbishind old or "old" workstations from lenovo is always an amazing thing :D i myself decided to rebuild a P330 Tiny myself - gave it i5-8400T and RX 6400 (originaly it came with i5-9400T and Quadro P620) amazing machine, even with RX being forced to run in PCIE 3.0 mode, it is still hell of a unit! just have to find someone who can make me a 3d printed io shield for GPU since you need to use special lenovo one for that :/
@@HardwareHaven Well, at the moment for a single slot true LP GPU, you only got 3 options. RX 6400, Quadro T600 and Quadro T1000 If you got PCIE 4.0 system, then RX 6400 currently is only proper option - unless you really need encoders / decoders OR uses more than 2 screens... In that case just go for Quadro I would really Nvidia to release a new proper single slot card that is not "workstation only" related and something that is not GTX (more like GT) 1630 :/ Lets hope Intel LP cards will be released
@@Karti200 there's a guy who managed to cram a working rtx a2000 into one of these "tiny" PCs. He designed his own 1 slot cooler and it somehow doesn't throttle! I've tried to do something similar with a slightly bigger heatsink but with the weird 2 screw design I can't seem to get the mounting pressure right.
Dude those RX6400's pack a punch for it size, able to play games on 4790 at 1440p hitting upwards of 60 fps, with lowered graphics quality of course. Its not a good encoder card due to the lack of one, I do recommend these if you wanna game on the cheap.
Great deal, great video. So it is a 1151 socket. Good thing that XEON has integrated graphics and the SSE4.1/ 4.2 set of instructions. I think that PC can be used for virtually anything. Greetings from Panama 🇵🇦
Bro, I swear you stole that eBay listing from me… I ended up getting a Lenovo p710 with dual sockets with Xeon e5 2620s and 16 gb of ram. And same graphics card for $300. I am testing it out today!
Love these kind of builds. I have a hp z420 work station I got last year and upgraded the ram to 32gb and threw a ssd and gtx1060 in it and it’s amazing. 6 core Xeon 1650. Figure I’ll upgrade to another retired work station eventually since they make such good gaming rigs!
Intel XTU can OC that CPU. I have z420 with 1650v2 and it does 3.9ghz all-core turbo. Z440 might be the next upgrade, if you find the whole machine for $100. It moves to DDR4, I put a cheap i7 K in one, or use 16xx processors for overclock.
@@milescarter7803 will have to look into the oc for fun. It doesn’t bottle neck anything I do as is. Actually waiting on my steam deck to come in and I’m going to turn it into a desktop gaming system. It’s very similar score to the Xeon but 1/10th the power consumption:
That's good hardware, HP does put out good stuff from my experience and xeons are generally all purpose kick ass CPU's. That 1060 is a good GPU, hopefully you got the 6 gig version?... I have the 6 gig version and it does great on late titles. I don't run 4k so it'll do just fine for a long time yet.
Just got one of these (without drives or gpu, but with an intel nic card) for $95 delivered. I just moved across the country, and im excited to replace and consolidate my homelab with this machine, possibly using proxmox to virtualize my router, NFS, and container services.
Nice video. I recently repurposed a friend's old Lenovo IdeaCentre with an i5 6400. I ran into a dying hdd and psu as well. Also accidentally broke the mount for the cpu cooler so I used another mobo. Ended up not using most components and gave it a refresh. The thermal paste was completely dried out. For S&Gs, I tested an RX 6600 for gaming. In some instances it was ok but the CPU was obviously bottlenecked pretty hard in others creating constant microstutters. It does fine with OBS recordings with a RX550.
I actually got a system not too long ago with the i7 6700K but no GPU for 130 Euro and it was built by the previous owner so it had a normal power supply and case but also a HDD 😔
I have found these workstations for HALF the price on either amazon or at the goodwill. I bought a workstation for 300 on ebay and saw a few days later the same one for 150 on amazon. Also saw the same one at the goodwill for same price (150) Just some advice. I do the the same stuff.
I think this pc is a good deal. i bought an 200$ pc as well not too long ago, but it only came with an i7 860 8gb of ddr3 sdram and a gts 450 paired with an cheap chinese psu aka a bomb and the hard drive that was clapped out as well so this was a pretty good deal if i do say so myself.
I bought a Lenovo D30 a couple of months ago for 70ukp. It had a pair of Xeon E5-2609's and 16Gb or RAM. I upgraded it to a pair of E5-2667 v2s and 128Gb of RAM and it is pretty powerful considering the CPUs cost me 30ukp and the RAM was 50ukp, so for 150ukp I have a hell of a system.
I have bunch of those as well. Also some thin clients, which are essentially 32_64 bit PCs... I use them a lot for pihole, as they intended to be: thin client alike with an old ThinkCenter proxmox. Fun stuff! Great to watch such channel like this!
I'm currently rocking an amd e-300 desktop motherboard with an radeon hd7770. I know it's a huge mismatch, but i was just interested how it'd handle it
At 4:00, the reason why it doesn't have standard SATA power connectors nor your regular ATX connectors because this is an early implementation of ATX12VO before that even existed. That PSU only supplies 12V, and that's one of the reasons why it has less pins (the motherboard itself will deal with the DC to DC conversion) and why it was able to get an 80 Plus Platinum rating for a 400w PSU. It's just ridiculously efficient!
I am the owner of two Lenovo M58p SFF machines. The thermal paste used in those is horrific. In the case of the second M58p, thermal paste even got in the socket just like your workstation. I know these systems of mine are ancient now being from 2008, but I currently have one of them running a Minecraft server very nicely. When I eventually sort out the local media situation, I'm gonna need a better machine for transcoding video as the GMA X4500 iGPU isn't going to cut it.
I would strongly reccomend going for a used dual cpu Lenovo workstation like the P700 (dual cpu model from that series) or older D30. Usually come with ECC ram, can have much more horses, more standardized ports, and can be racked with a rail kit (afaik). The D30 can be had for that price iirc, and the P700 for $300 to $500 depending on what’s in it.
In general I’ve actually been finding lots of good deals on dual Xeon machines from 2012-2015. Full kitted machines from 300 to 500 depending on ram speed cpu type, etc. and you usually get server level reliability
I have 2 x Lenovo p310 workstations that I got for free from work when they upgraded to newer kit. They both have an i7 6700k with 32GB RAM. I run Microsoft Server 2019 Hyper-V on both, using them to run my Virtual Machines at home. Had them for about 18 months so far, no issues with them at all.
I'm still running on 6th gen Intel from when I bought it new. Still does excellent and, with a decent GPU it has zero issues running the latest games with lower AA on some games. With a M.2 drive and a SSD it even runs windows 11 and updated like it was meant to be. I have no reason to go newer at this point, running 10 and 11 on it with two separate drives why change? I keep my system in good condition and I don't buy cheap stuff so it should easily last another 5 years or more. Looking back at all the PC's I've had upgrading for no reason but for the latest hardware, I could have ran them for years more... I won't make that mistake again. A quality barebones system will last a long time if it hasn't been tortured.
You said you thought that hard drive was failing, however I think your experience was pretty standard for the latest versions of Windows 10 running on a mechanical hard drive. I recently upgraded my dads Windows 7 machine to 10 and had the same experience.
I have recently got myself a yummy deal off of a clueless guy online, too. I got a Lenovo ThinkStation P500 with a Quadro K2200, 256GB SATA SSD, 500GB HDD (which they thought was corrupted, even though it just didn't have any partition table on it), Xeon E5-1630v3, 650W 80 Platinum PSU, 4x 4GB SK Hynix DDR4 2133MHz ECC RDIMM RAM modules, all that for 100$, after negotiating a discount of about 20$. I have upgraded the CPU, GPU, WiFi adapter, M.2 NVMe adapter and got myself a nice budget gaming desktop for about 150$ (net, after selling the old GPU and stuff).
Great video but i'll have to disagree on the conclusion. It is a glorified basic desktop computer with a xeon and a quadro gpu just to call it a "workstation". And it suffers from all the prebuilt defficiencies which makes it a hard pass. On top of that, add the lack of ssd and faulty psu.
Yeah I can totally see where you’re coming from. I think I was approaching my conclusion from the perspective that the PSU was functional still, as I imagine most people wouldn’t have that problem. ECC support is also a nice non-consumer feature, but there are definitely downsides. Appreciate the comment!
BTW I just wanted to answered your question on why Lenovo uses only 12VO ATX PSUs 1. It is better for the environment as it reduces the copper consumption 2. It gives the Vendor leverage on how the components power source quality 3. It is much easier in the supply management and it makes the QA much easier when you are sourcing power supplies from different suppliers. About the Fan rubber you can use Lenovo support channel to check how to replace the fans , it is very easy you just have to pull these rubber bands out longer till they squeeze out.
The inside of that system looks very similar to the ThinkServer TS140 that I still use as my daily driver machine today. Paid $400 for it in 2015 and gave it a RAM upgrade and an SSD and it still functions very well today.
I`ve also got a Thinkstation P310 and I think about replacing the PSU by a new ATX PSU (by the help of an adapter). But new PSUs are built different with the fan up or down. How should I place the new PSU without getting problems with the Lenovo's airflow?? If I put the PSU with the fan upwards there's no headroom for fresh air!? And do you reccomend any PSU for this older workstation?
Only thing to know is Win 7 will not install on this. But fewer people are using it these days. I had a couple and put in a P300 and off we go Win 7 here I come!
I recently bought a HP Prodesk 600 G3 MT and replaced the I3 6100 with a I5 7400 and got the RAM to go from 2133MHz to 2400MHz. Would that be possible with this machine? Replace the v5 with a v6?
I have the ThinkServer variant of this Great machine Having issues with my Raid card unfortunately Hoping to address that I dropped in 10 Gig Intel RJ45 Intel Wifi to get it on my other network And a GTX 1050 for transcoding
Im just looking for any motherboard with Intel network card (really lot of MB using Realtek) to run Vmware ESXI hypervizor. And this looking good, hopint, that Intel NET adapter is not just in this P310 but also in P500. And for 200 bucks its a great deal to almost anything on Linux.
So this Lenovo p310 is socket 1151 and ddr 4. The xeon you show is socket 1150 and will not fit this board. It will fit the p300 which is also ddr3. I had 2 of these and cannot load Win 7, in that it will not read the win 7 DVD
Good stuff! I think I prefer the Dell Precision line to this, built much more like a server than a desktop with quick disconnect PSU, tons of fans and airflow channels for the RAM. Still only 2 drive bays for some reason... I got a free T5810 from my place of work, probably slower and way more power hungry than this, it's got a LGA 2011 E5 Xeon 1620 v3, 32GB ECC RAM and a Quadro K2200. Still haven't figured out what to do with it but it's a nice system and they go for around the same amount.
I noticed you popped a 1650 super in. I bought this for my daughter to play the sims on and was going to drop my old super in. Everything go ok on your end? Also did it have any M.2 slot?
I’m not crazy about proprietor hardware. (I live very near Dell’s home base and find or get lots of Dell hardware). Since you could sell the GPU and make money back it was worth the price you paid for it. Great video.
Idk we’re you live but I feel like you are getting ripped off with buying these used pcs I have been volunteering my local recycling station and have found lots of good ram and even found 2 i5 cpus and a computer with a i7 and a gt1030 you have to take the Hdds out though
If you do make a video moving the system into a new case. Is there any chance you would be willing to sell or give me the case, I have a project in mind with an old motherboard. Thank love your videos btw.
How about trying PeerTube? It will be much more more fun than another boring NAS. I don't know if it can use hardware encoding, but if so, a graphics card would be very helpful.
@@HardwareHaven You mentioned it clearly in the video, and I understand that completely, having myself a Dell T3500 that is huge but not great for cables. Perhaps you can use the 5"25 bays to mount HDD
I have dell optiplex 7020 i7 4790, 16gigs rams with Quadro K2200, PSU FSP HV 550W. NVMe 512Gb using pcie x16 converter adapter. Old but enough for me 😁.
Is this an interesting rig? Sure. Is it worth $200. Probably not since psu died. You could have picked up b450 motherboard and a used ryzen for 200. But what fun is that
While this is a decent find, I feel like someone should look for something with at least an 8th gen CPU or newer. I got a Dell Optiplex 7060 with an 8700 and 16 gb of ram and a 512 gb sata m.2 ssd for $185. With 8th gen and newer you don't need a dedicated GPU bc intel uhd 630 graphics are good enough for transcoding multiple 4k plex on the fly transcodes simultaneously. The downstairs are limited drive storage and a proprietary form factor motherboard and PSU. However if you have a 3d printer and a Dremel, you can make a few modifications to the case. Personally I plan to just buy a case with lots of drive bays and a new PSU and motherboard. I personally see the PSU and case as a long-term investment though since I can easily reuse them in future builds. Great video btw.
That's not only a Lenovo Disease. My Work Fujitsu Celsius+ died a few Weeks ago. The Technician change at first the Motherboard and like so often it's not the Solution. He tried a new mighty 260 Watt PSU and that was the Solution of the Problem. The Fujitsu used also a 10 Pin Connector to the Motherboard. Power for the Drives comes also from the Motherboard.
I just bought and built an old T5810 workstation myself on eBay for $80.82. I needed to add an AMD 8bg FirePro GPU ($60 on eBay) and adapters to boot to m.2 2280 drives ($25). It would have been a better option for you because of the availability of parts, default ram speed for a E5-1630 v4 is 2400. Once you factor in the price of the m.2 hard drive ($45-500gb) I am around the same cost as yours. The Dell T5810 can stock with a 685watt power supply which made it possibly to use the 8gb gpu.
Think about this... it's definitely no worse than a Power Mac G5, without using the 5 1/4 inch bays your limited to two drives only too and surely that thing will consume way more power just at idle. I love my Power Macs, but it's a very inefficient design. The thinkcentre was built this way because it's also a segmented device. While fairly powerful, Lenovo had bigger, meaner workstations at the time then this. For some reason Lenovo is far less gracious to it's professional users over say Dell. If by slight. At least the 3000 & 5000 series precision you could use Nvme Sata, with 5000 series in raid0. Imagine the screaming I/O with two Samsung 960 series SSDs running together as one unit.. wow!
It's a good system if you need a graphics card and storage space. For my own needs it would be too big. I run two websites with some computing needs on an HP office PC (£150). It has an i5 9500, 8GB RAM and a 256GB nvme SSD. The best part is just 7W idle power.
the only product i ever bought that was Actually worth it's money , was a SubPac M1 and S2 when the M1 broke it's cable , which was my own fault by misusing it it's basically a subwoofer in your gaming chair or you can wear it like a backpack the drive these things have , no headphone or ''normal'' desktop speaker could come close to what i feel , and you can even give it some more power with an amp , physical amp or software based or even both to really dial it in how ever you like works with everything , even sends throughput of 7.1 to appropriate headphones , just not the mic signal if you need one your eyes and basically your body can get a descent massage from this woofer , which there are also nice rumbling tracks to listen to and relax in to. people are getting ripped of left and right in this world , but this thing was definitely worth the money i paid for it !!
The one thing I am wondering with this workstation is if the motherboard has 6 SATA connectors but only two mini 4p power connectors for the drives. Does that mean you need to double split the SATA power connectors to saturate the 6 SATA slots, is that safe? or is it just how lenovo intended it to be?
I remember buying retired office/school PCs for $30 or so a pop years ago. Turned them into decent entry level gaming PCs for my nephews. They’ve upgraded since but they worked great at the time.
I died inside a little bit after you said the PSU died, as my main computer has the same symptoms and shuts down after 3-4 minutes. Oh well, kinda expected because it is a Corsair HX520w that was probably released in 2012.
When buying off of Facebook Marketplace, do you usually have a maximum distance you'll willing to travel and maximum budget? Surely at some point the distance to travel becomes too large to still be worth it. I'd love to see a video on your buying process for some of these videos.
I recently picked one of these up for work. It is the SFF version and the new job I went in to let me pick a system. It seems to do well and has the firepro card and the same CPU with 32GB of ram. Seems to do all of my network monitoring tasks and drives 4 monitors just fine.
Various Intel CPUs of this era have critical security flaws in hyperthreading? Does that apply to this Xeon? In theory, if one applies all the security patches one is supposed to, performance will be dramatically decreased, possibly almost crippled?
I purchased 2 NEW Lenovo TS140 about 8 years ago for $200 each with Xeon quad core CPU and 4gb ram. They still work but I don’t use them anymore. But worked great when I was using them with MS-Windows and UNIX. I used an Nvidia GT-710 or 730 for Dual Boot support. I really liked this little mini-tower computer. Never let me down and was rock solid in reliability. These use to sell for cheap NEW on amazon and eBay.
