Upgrading old Office PC to a lightweight gaming setup!

[architectid]

Hi Guys,

I’m looking at turning my old work PC (m70t from Lenovo with 10th Gen i5) into a gaming set up.

From what I can tell I can use a decent GPU (was thinking maybe a second hand 3060?) if I upgrade the power supply. I already have 24gb of ddr4 ram, and the i5 processor.

Motherboard has the slot of the GPU but unsure of what connection size it is? I think it might be a PCIe x16 but it could be a x8 which would change GPU choice,

Anyone done this before? What should I look at for compatible hardware etc?

 

[Tetras]

I’m looking at turning my old work PC (m70t from Lenovo with 10th Gen i5) into a gaming set up.

With google I can find a pdf, which suggests that this is M70T Gen 1. If so, it looks like you have a PCI-E 3.0 slot with 16 lanes. They also suggest the max length is around 200mm, but I'm not sure exactly what that refers to. If they mean graphics card, you're limited to short/compact models.

The cards listed in the pdf are all minus a power connector, which suggests that without replacing the PSU you're limited to something like a 3050 6GB. There's an upcoming RX 7400, but not sure if this model will be OEM only.

From what I can tell I can use a decent GPU (was thinking maybe a second hand 3060?) if I upgrade the power supply.

Do you have any references on this? From what I can see the power supply is likely to be proprietary.

 

[architectid]

I currently have the 180w PSU from Lenovo and they did do a version with a 380w PSU, my plan was to purchase a second hand one of these to achieve the required power, or if there is a better alternative that would work I’d be open to this too,

On the GPU it did appear that the GPU options for that system at the time were compact/smaller options,

I’m not expecting the much from the PC, but I’d like to play some games in 1080p.

Longer term I will likely start a full build, and can use the PSU/GPU in this if they’re bottlenecked by other parts (PCIe 3.0 for instance).

 

[Tetras]

I currently have the 180w PSU from Lenovo and they did do a version with a 380w PSU, my plan was to purchase a second hand one of these to achieve the required power, or if there is a better alternative that would work I’d be open to this too,

On the GPU it did appear that the GPU options for that system at the time were compact/smaller options,

I’m not expecting the much from the PC, but I’d like to play some games in 1080p.

Longer term I will likely start a full build, and can use the PSU/GPU in this if they’re bottlenecked by other parts (PCIe 3.0 for instance).

Does the higher wattage version have a power connector?

You might be able to use adapters for the motherboard, but they tend to be of dubious origin and I'm not sure if a standard PSU would even fit in the case.

So far as gaming, honestly, nearly anything is better than the integrated graphics.

What about a used 1650 or 1050 Ti? (Warning: some models have power connectors)

They're not great cards anymore, but good enough for some light gaming at 1080p in anything more than a few years old.