Hi everyone, I have recently bought a used Lenovo Thinkcentre E73 in the hope of upgrading the GPU and PSU to handle BeamNG.drive well. The reason being that my laptop was painfully noisy and slightly underpowered whenever I wanted to play (and record) games on it. I also didn't want to spend the moon and the stars on a new system as they can cost double what I payed, when the GPU is the most important for gameplay anyway. Anyway the key question is what to do with the GPU? There is a decent amount of space in the case (being a tower and not an SFF) but I'm not sure what the motherboard (supposedly a "0B98401 PRO") can actually handle for power and performance. The closest I could find was a forum post stating that the motherboard could provide 60W (TDP of a 750ti). EDIT: or 40W on the Lenovo website. I was considering around the 1050ti mark for performance and GPU memory (if it will work) but I don't mind spending a little more if I need to use one with an external power input. The PC also has an odd 14 pin motherboard power connector which is unfamiliar to me thus scary, I have found an adapter on Amazon though so that should be sorted. Important Specs: CPU: Core I5 4430S Ram: 2X4GB DDR3 HDD: 500GB 7200RPM Case Fans: none (but I will add two of them) Thanks in advance for any advice
Go for the RX470 if you can spend a little more, you get significantly better performance for just a tad more money. The rest of the system is surprisingly good.
Just a quick question. Would the 470RX take it's power directly from the PSU with the 6 pin connector, thus putting no/less strain on the motherboard to provide the power? P.S. thanks for your first reply.
Yes, the RX 470 takes the power from the PSU. But I wouldn't worry about the MOBO failing too much since that's pretty unlikely.
Ok thanks for clearing that up, I was just a little worried about how everything would (or wouldn't) work together, or worse fail as you mentioned. Thanks for all the helpful advice, I've found a 470 that should hide in the case nicely (most are too large) so I'll buy the parts give it a try. I'll probably post before and after images sometime for people considering a similar project.
I think it's about time to post my 'before' images since the PSU adapter has arrived (and the other parts should be arriving soon). One point to note is that I've somehow squeezed a 92MM CPU fan into the front of the case, I may replace this at some point but for now I just want to make sure that my (very) tight case has sufficient cooling. I have also moved the HDD up to free up space for the GPU. edit- The amazonian snail is really struggling to deliver my parcel, it'll apparently take at least until the 24th
It looks like the amazonian snail has found a rocket pack and rushed my parcel to me, this means I now have my GPU and fan. I'm still waiting for my PSU though to finally boot it and run some beam.
Inb4 that OEM power supply fries and kills your whole system, what's it rated for? --- Post updated --- Get this and a bronze rated 500w power supply. From what I can find out the OEM PSU is only rated for 180W. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/14-to-24-...ply-PSU-Connector-Adapter-Cable-/400836505458
Don't worry I won't be using that PSU to boot, I'll be using an antec VP 450p-EC, which seems to have some decent safety features on it. Until then I have a Android X86 machine I can use. I do believe that the standard PSU is 180W but I would never use that on a gaming PC (unless you call a G210 a gaming card). Edit- Still thanks for the advice, better safe than sorry as they say. It is now removed from the PC and will be consigned to the mystic box of PC clutter, as punishment for being underpowered. Edit- I cancelled my power supply order from Amazon and instead ordered a EVGA 500BQ from Ebuyer. I wanted to get a slightly higher end PSU of 500W for GPU warranty reasons too. Amazingly it took them less than a day to deliver the PSU on the free delivery option. I'm still waiting for the P4 extender though to turn the 4+4 connector into 2 separate 4 pin connectors for the motherboard. As you may also notice I have swapped out the old front mounted 92mm CPU fan for an 80mm green LED fan to troll Nvidea fanboys lol.
So the PC is finally together. I'll be checking everything's plugged in properly then booting in 1-2 hours. If anyone can see anything badly wrong please mention it now. P.S. The 2.5" HDD isn't currently connected to anything, it will also have real bolts when I am done with it. Edit: I finally got the PC to boot into windows qith the new PSU, looks like it's better to read an online manual than to just plug things in left right and centre
hi i've been doing some research trying to find the fan case size for the front and the back would you mind tell me which mm would fit in, that would help alot since i dont have the pc with me , i've seen that you put a 80mm in the front is that the normal size or i could go for a 92 ?
I am trying to upgrade my psu and use a gtx 1070 I have a 550w and also the 24 to 14 pin adapter for e73. I ran into problem when I connect the gpu I cannot boot but when I remove I can use integrated display. What went wrong ? I was able to use the gtx powered externally till I got the power adapter when I put everything inside the cabinet it seems to stop working. Please help!
Check the CPU plug on the PSU is on the right port, there was originally a cable that powered the optical drive from the motherboard on mine and it looks the same as the cpu power connector.
