Lenovo IdeaCentre T540, too good to be true?

[garrickC]

There's a sale on lenovo official website featuring a pre build system with i5-9400F, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD and GTX 1660ti for just 700 USD, is it too good to be true?

[Radium_Angel]

3 minutes ago, garrickC said:

too good to be true?

Only if you want to upgrade anything. My experience with Lenovo systems is nothing inside is industry standard, especially not the power supply or connectors to the mobo.

 

[garrickC]

4 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Only if you want to upgrade anything. My experience with Lenovo systems is nothing inside is industry standard, especially not the power supply or connectors to the mobo.

 

The only thing I would want to upgrade is the storage, is it complicate to upgrade?

[goto10]

too good to be true? is a prebuilt sold by lenovo, i don't see anything wrong there

 

remember that as a prebuilt, the psu might be small so future upgrades will be limited, otherwise, seems like a decent machine

 

about the storage, add a ssd shouldn't be a problem, these machines usually come with space for 2 hard disks, also cables for those to connect to the psu

 

i don't know if lenovo voids warranty when opening the pc to add parts, i think it shouldn't be a problem in your case, is a matter of buy another ssd and connect it, then format it on windows, then is ready to be used as a steam library storage|

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, garrickC said:

The only thing I would want to upgrade is the storage, is it complicate to upgrade?

That is the one thing that shouldn't be an issue...theoretically. 

 

[garrickC]

6 minutes ago, goto10 said:

too good to be true? is a prebuilt sold by lenovo, i don't see anything wrong there

 

remember that as a prebuilt, the psu might be small so future upgrades will be limited, otherwise, seems like a decent machine

 

about the storage, add a ssd shouldn't be a problem, these machines usually come with space for 2 hard disks, also cables for those to connect to the psu

 

i don't know if lenovo voids warranty when opening the pc to add parts, i think it shouldn't be a problem in your case, is a matter of buy another ssd and connect it, then format it on windows, then is ready to be used as a steam library storage|

I assume they will have SATA port for SSDs? Since the SSD pre installed is a PCIe SSD and I'm not sure what kind of connections the motherboard will have for extra SSDs. Forgive me if I got any concept wrong, I'm a beginner on PC building.

[goto10]

new motherboards now come usually with 4 sata ports and some come with a m.2 slot, being a prebuilt is not guaranteed it comes with the m.2, but almost 100% sure it has 2 sata ports minimum, so leave the stock ssd for window, add another ssd for steam library, all should work well

 

if it has a m.2 sata drive, then you would have physical space to put 2 hard disks, cables and sata ports in the motherboard shouldn't be a issue, hopefully

 

recently manufacturers are embracing m.2 nvme on laptops, but i haven't seen a desktop using m.2 drives, sata or nvme, so we don't know for sure what they are using, the list clearly says ssd pcie, so should be a m.2 drive nvme

 

i personally moved from a ssd to a nvme, the difference is not that big, so any would be a good start point

[garrickC]

18 minutes ago, goto10 said:

new motherboards now come usually with 4 sata ports and some come with a m.2 slot, being a prebuilt is not guaranteed it comes with the m.2, but almost 100% sure it has 2 sata ports minimum, so leave the stock ssd for window, add another ssd for steam library, all should work well

 

if it has a m.2 sata drive, then you would have physical space to put 2 hard disks, cables and sata ports in the motherboard shouldn't be a issue, hopefully

 

recently manufacturers are embracing m.2 nvme on laptops, but i haven't seen a desktop using m.2 drives, sata or nvme, so we don't know for sure what they are using, the list clearly says ssd pcie, so should be a m.2 drive nvme

 

i personally moved from a ssd to a nvme, the difference is not that big, so any would be a good start point

Basically my struggle in here is that I was originally planning to buy pc parts on cyber mondays and build it myself, and my specs are really similar to this prebuild, i5-9400F, GTX 1660, 16Gb RAM, 1TB SSD and everything add up to about 950USD including Windows OS (Without Cyber Monday Sale). So now this deal comes up and I am trying to figure out whether I should buy this or wait till cyber monday and see if the price for my build drops to around 750 USD. 

[goto10]

each machine has pros and cons

 

this picture

 

 

if you look at it, is the rear of that t540 you are asking for, there is only one sound jack 3.5mm in there, i don't see a microphone or speaker connector in the back, this tells me it is a highly customized motherboard, it has the normal headphone and mic in the front, also has usb type c in the front

 

it has some nice features and is a good looking case, but the motherboard and psu are definitively not easy to replace in the future, possibly non replaceable with generic parts

 

i personally would build a pc, for the flexibility it offers, a prebuilt always comes with limitations, and i personally keep pc parts for a long time, cases, psus, stuff like that, on this case you would have to buy it and sell it as it is, is very likely you will not be able to change the psu and gpu in the future, only the storage and thats it

 

so, is a nice machine, but i wouldn't buy it