What to do with a Lenovo?

[SkyguyXD]

Hello all, 

I am looking for some advice/suggestions for a recent prebuilt I picked up.

I saw this beauty on the used market and managed to snag it for $150 : https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-ideacentre-720-18asu-desktop-amd-ryzen-5-series-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-silver/5887606.p?skuId=5887606

Specs:

Ryzen 5 1400

1tb WD Blue HDD

Radeon R5 340 2gb GPU

8gb (2x4gb) 2400mhz RAM

250w Lenovo Proprietary PSU

 

Everything works perfectly

 

Here's the deal:

I'm unsure if I should upgrade it to sell for a potential larger profit, sell as is for some profit, or turn it into some type of home server thingy

 

Potential upgrade I had in mind:

Add a small SSD boot drive

Swap gpu for a GTX 1650

swap ram for 16gb (2x8gb) kit

 

Questions for this potential upgrade route:

The lenovo case doesn't have much ventilation so I am worried that thermals may be an issue. It has one exhaust fan in the back and large side vent. Would thermals be an issue even though the 1650 is such a low power card? It would most likely be a single fan card for dimension reasons.

 

I estimate that these upgrades would bring the total project cost to about  $370-$400 usd. How much do you think I'd be able to sell it for?

 

Another issue is the GPU's psu requirement. The upgraded specs according to pcpartpicker would draw close to 180w of total power, definately under 250w. I am worried because the 1650 has a minimum of a 300w psu need. I would get a new psu but because it doesnt use standard connectors (thanks lenovo) this would't be impossible with the oem motherboard. Would this be ok? Or is there an adapter I can buy?

 

[Kanna]

you also should upgrade the psu if you upgrade the card

[Dutch_Master]

My suggestion:

• add a boot-ssd
• keep the GPU
• expand the RAM
• upgrade the CPU (1600AF calling!)
• add more drive capacity by swapping out the 1TB drive for 2x 4 or even 8TB drives (in RAID1)
• install linux
• use as a local headless server in your home network (Plex, Steam, etc)

HTH!