i got a p520 with a 2135 w 6 core 12 thread boost up to 4.7 gigahertz, 32 gigs of ecc ddr 4 2400 ram in quad channle (4 sticks 8 gig each ) 900 watt power supply , 1 terabyte nvme ,amd 6700 xt videocard 12 gig , i built for gaming under $600 , it plays everything game wise great at 1440 p , and does great for work on various projects , im very pleased with what it can do for $600 ya cant go wrong if your a budget minded gamer and dabble with work loads , it be real hard to beat for the price to preformance.
When you look at the quality of that original construction, it's impressive! It was the Mercedes of the workstation PC in its day. Sturdy, toolless and with some pretty powerful hardware. I wonder if Lenovo ever thought that it would develop into such a remarkable expandable platform years into the future?
The design is really nice I agree. The only thing missing would be more cooling/airflow with upgrades. Otherwise you can install some nice Xeon CPU's and really get some work done.
@@HaisteComputerRepair Yes. It has it's limits in that department, but you can always leave the side off and use other fans to push air into it. Similar to what we discussed the other day. I don't have any experience with the 2066 socket; however, that PSU to board connection is quite interesting. I also read that the Xeons pulled some juice from the wall.
@@zingwilder9989 The power draw can at times be notable, for sure. But I don't really have real daily driver experience. I installed a RTX 2080 into the case and though it runs in the 80's (celcius) under load, it's not overheating. CPU temps are stable. I swapped out for a Xeon W-2135, which is one of the 6 core 12 thread options.
@@HaisteComputerRepair I saw that you were upgrading it. It seems that those ThinkStation machines have gained a lot of attention for their upgradability.
yeah that quadro p4000 is quite impressive. I'm thinking of getting this p520, but with a w-2133. Would be nice if that quadro could play some old games before i upgrade. Good video
I have seen where Lenovo also made a 900 Watt PSU for the ThinkStation, but if you've already got a 690 Watt unit, why would it be necessary? It is really a very interesting machine that you have here!
On the product specifications for the P520, they actually offer up to a 1000W PSU. The top GPU being a Quadro RTX 8000 with 48GB of VRAM. Might help for dual GPU setups.
@@HaisteComputerRepair Yes. That ThinkStation was designed for a totally different purpose than general use and gaming. I remember looking at TigerDirect many, many years ago and seeing those professional graphics cards. Their prices were jaw-dropping and they were far beyond my need.
Finally a detailed review! One thing I cannot find is how loud are the fans? Under load and idle. I bought this for music recording and took a risk... can anyone let me now , noise details?
I found most of the fan noise to come from the graphics card under load. Might depend on what you install. The two case fans run pretty low powered and quiet. CPU fan can ramp up, but not obnoxious at all. Keep it clean and lean.
@HaisteComputerRepair Nice, I already got the quad channel ram 4x8gb and have an Rx 6600 fighter I wanna put into mine. My cpu is the w-2135, but I'm thinking about getting a w-2145
@@deeman40 I would have liked to test out that CPU, to see how well it would handle the same tests as in this video. I went with the Xeon W-2135 and RTX 2080 combo for the upgrades.
@@HaisteComputerRepair I am upgrading to a w-2145 in hope that it will help with the bottlenecking on my 6650xt at 1080p. Scaling wise 1440P will show less issues :P
I have the p520 with a w2135, ive got a question for you, have you ever gamed with hwinfo running in the back ground, if so have you noticed strange cpu clock speeds like 4.8ghz?
@HaisteComputerRepair ok, so, I've been on Intel forums and the only thing that people are saying is, "it's up to silicon lottery, some cpus will reach the rated speeds, some won't, and some will go over the rated speeds". I'm not sure if this is an answer though so I'll keep asking around, I did change out my cpu cooler with the noctua nhd9dx i4 so I don't think it'll over heat at these speeds but I want to make sure nothing else is wrong.
Mine has the W-2145, 64GB ram, a 1tb nvme drive, a 10tb hdd, and the RX 7600xt. I truly believe these Thinkstations are the sweet spot in affordability while being a great platform for upgrades.
Definitely. I am using one for a NAS/video player. The only thing I would like more is having the extra places to mount hard drives without having to buy or frankenstein a caddy.
Thanks! You taught me things about that P520. I had no real knowledge of workstations.
Dang, thank you again! Happy to share these things online!
As usual, very useful and informative.
i got a p520 with a 2135 w 6 core 12 thread boost up to 4.7 gigahertz, 32 gigs of ecc ddr 4 2400 ram in quad channle (4 sticks 8 gig each ) 900 watt power supply , 1 terabyte nvme ,amd 6700 xt videocard 12 gig , i built for gaming under $600 , it plays everything game wise great at 1440 p , and does great for work on various projects , im very pleased with what it can do for $600 ya cant go wrong if your a budget minded gamer and dabble with work loads , it be real hard to beat for the price to preformance.
That's a great deal, similar to configurations I was selling them at.
Brilliant review
When you look at the quality of that original construction, it's impressive! It was the Mercedes of the workstation PC in its day. Sturdy, toolless and with some pretty powerful hardware. I wonder if Lenovo ever thought that it would develop into such a remarkable expandable platform years into the future?
The design is really nice I agree. The only thing missing would be more cooling/airflow with upgrades. Otherwise you can install some nice Xeon CPU's and really get some work done.
@@HaisteComputerRepair Yes. It has it's limits in that department, but you can always leave the side off and use other fans to push air into it. Similar to what we discussed the other day. I don't have any experience with the 2066 socket; however, that PSU to board connection is quite interesting. I also read that the Xeons pulled some juice from the wall.
@@zingwilder9989 The power draw can at times be notable, for sure. But I don't really have real daily driver experience. I installed a RTX 2080 into the case and though it runs in the 80's (celcius) under load, it's not overheating. CPU temps are stable. I swapped out for a Xeon W-2135, which is one of the 6 core 12 thread options.
@@HaisteComputerRepair I saw that you were upgrading it. It seems that those ThinkStation machines have gained a lot of attention for their upgradability.
Yes, I am using this (W-2135) with RX 580 8GB in 2024. The prices are right and should give me enough head rooms. when they expire Window11.
Well done!
yeah that quadro p4000 is quite impressive. I'm thinking of getting this p520, but with a w-2133. Would be nice if that quadro could play some old games before i upgrade. Good video
Thanks! The P520 is pretty neat, there is a lot of expansion to play around with. Good luck!
Sometimes there's a plastic plug in the SD slot. just push it in with a thumbnail or a dime and it might pop out of there.
Wow, thank you! That is indeed the case. I will cover this on my next video with the upgrades.
@@HaisteComputerRepair Glad to help! It's handy to have that built-in slot on a video production unit 🖖
I have seen where Lenovo also made a 900 Watt PSU for the ThinkStation, but if you've already got a 690 Watt unit, why would it be necessary? It is really a very interesting machine that you have here!
On the product specifications for the P520, they actually offer up to a 1000W PSU. The top GPU being a Quadro RTX 8000 with 48GB of VRAM. Might help for dual GPU setups.
@@HaisteComputerRepair Yes. That ThinkStation was designed for a totally different purpose than general use and gaming. I remember looking at TigerDirect many, many years ago and seeing those professional graphics cards. Their prices were jaw-dropping and they were far beyond my need.
@@HaisteComputerRepair Yeah. When it comes to a card like that, I'm clueless. I never needed a machine for professional design or modeling.
690,900,1000 are the options for this system, 900 watt seems to be the way to go if you watch eBay closely they go for 50-70$ I just sold a few :P
Drop a Thermalright Silver Soul 110 in helps quite a bit and is a drop on solution more or less.
Thermalright is certainly the budget king in the CPU cooler market.
Finally a detailed review!
One thing I cannot find is how loud are the fans? Under load and idle. I bought this for music recording and took a risk...
can anyone let me now , noise details?
I found most of the fan noise to come from the graphics card under load. Might depend on what you install. The two case fans run pretty low powered and quiet. CPU fan can ramp up, but not obnoxious at all. Keep it clean and lean.
Awesome, I just got a p520 myself. I hope to do some ultrawide gaming on it.
@@deeman40 my next video has a cpu and gpu upgrade for the P520 ;)
@HaisteComputerRepair Nice, I already got the quad channel ram 4x8gb and have an Rx 6600 fighter I wanna put into mine. My cpu is the w-2135, but I'm thinking about getting a w-2145
@@deeman40 I would have liked to test out that CPU, to see how well it would handle the same tests as in this video. I went with the Xeon W-2135 and RTX 2080 combo for the upgrades.
@@HaisteComputerRepair I am upgrading to a w-2145 in hope that it will help with the bottlenecking on my 6650xt at 1080p. Scaling wise 1440P will show less issues :P
bro plzz reply can i install 1gb gpu amd radeon hd 7000 series in this
I have the p520 with a w2135, ive got a question for you, have you ever gamed with hwinfo running in the back ground, if so have you noticed strange cpu clock speeds like 4.8ghz?
I have experienced this before with other setups, but I can't exactly competently explain why it's happening. I will have to do some research on that
@@HaisteComputerRepair thanks
@@Sphinx-19 Let me know if you find out some information
@HaisteComputerRepair ok, so, I've been on Intel forums and the only thing that people are saying is, "it's up to silicon lottery, some cpus will reach the rated speeds, some won't, and some will go over the rated speeds". I'm not sure if this is an answer though so I'll keep asking around, I did change out my cpu cooler with the noctua nhd9dx i4 so I don't think it'll over heat at these speeds but I want to make sure nothing else is wrong.
@@Sphinx-19 Well, maybe it's best to just be happy that the CPU is going a bit faster than advertised! So long as there are no issues of course.
Would a ElGato 4k60 pro work in a system like this?
Yep, I don't see why not. I assume you mean the PCIe card?
Yes, that particular capture card uses a PCIe slot.
@@QuietSt0rm005 I use the same one for my videos. The P520 is like any other motherboard, there should be no issues.
Mine has the W-2145, 64GB ram, a 1tb nvme drive, a 10tb hdd, and the RX 7600xt. I truly believe these Thinkstations are the sweet spot in affordability while being a great platform for upgrades.
Definitely. I am using one for a NAS/video player. The only thing I would like more is having the extra places to mount hard drives without having to buy or frankenstein a caddy.
mine works like dog poop
What's your hardware config?