Workstation Gaming rig. Looking for help!

[Benji7278]

Hi all.
New to the community and finally looking to really plunge into PC gaming.

I have a new workstation in my possession, a Lenovo P410 to be specific. From what i know, i believe that i can use the machine as it is to just about get by with gaming, but i am keen to really push the boat out here and upgrade (where needed) to get the best gaming experience.

Let me give you the details of the machine

Processor Xeon E5-1620 v4 4C/3.5GHz/10MB/140W/DDR4-2400
Graphics NVIDIA Quadro M2000 4GB
Memory 2x8GB RDIMM DDR4-2400 ECC
Storage Controller Onboard SATA
Disks 1x256GB SSD 2.5" SATA6Gbps Opal+1x1TB HDD 7.2K 3.5" SATA6Gbps
M.2 Drives None
Optical HH DVD±RW
Power Supply 450W 92%

Im looking to achieve 4K gaming at as high a frame rate as possible. I know that i will need to change the graphics card, and upgrade the power supply to achieve the performance. Will the upgrades be a simple swap out? DO i need to factor in the motherboard and potentially change it?

If anyone has an understanding of what will need to be done to achieve a decent gaming rig, i would be eternally grateful. As i mentioned, i'm new to PC gaming and eager to understand more

Thanks in advance

 

[lltfdaniel]

This is easy,

An 8 core ryzen comes to my mind.

At least a nvidia gtx 1080 for 4k resolution.

Bit off topic but this is why i am recommending amd's line of ryzen.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/31051744

The video is here > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RMbYe4X2LI .

I'd recommend for what you want workstation/gaming then i wholeheartedly recommend at least a ryzen 7 1700 8 core processor.

 

[Benji7278]

Hi

Thanks fr the info

Just to be clear, the workstation is just a starting point. I don't need to use it as a conventional workstation, its sole purpose will be gaming/media

Not sure if that changes things...

 

[lltfdaniel]

Media eh i am quite sure they will use the extra cores/threads of the ryzen.

Like media encoding and the like is what i am thinking.

But i don't know .

I'd wait a bit and see what coffee lake processors are going to be like which comes from intel.

Value wise right now if the processor was used to it's full potential it has to be the ryzen, it isn't king of performance like intel with instructions per clock being higher but the ryzen has extra cores and threads.

Value wise ryzen at the moment is king.

 

[lsg1r]

Just to be clear, the workstation is just a starting point. I don't need to use it as a conventional workstation, its sole purpose will be gaming/media

You say media, what type of media, is it playback or editing/creating video's or 3D etc. If you use specific software that could be useful too because some software might get increased performance with nvidia cuda and some might use opencl where to the best of my knowledge AMD is better.

 

[Benji7278]

The primary purpose of the rig will be to a gaming rig.
In terms of media, i referred to it as it will be something i will also do on the machine, but nothing to intensive (running Pro Tools, 4k media etc)

Ryzen does seem to tick the boxes. What sort of power supply would i need to upgrade to? Cant see the 450W cutting it..

 

[faxfan]

If you are looking to leverage the workstation as it is now it will obviously have an intel based motherboard. You would need to swap out the motherboard, CPU and maybe the ECC ram to enable Ryzen.

If you want keep the motherboard and RAM then you'd have look for a compatible CPU - if you have the motherboard model number you can probably find something on the Lenovo website (make sure the CPU is OK with ECC, thought this is normally a motherboard thing) detailing the compatible CPU's.

Personally I'd swap out the PSU and GPU as a first step and see what results you get, though I suspect the CPU will hinder the gaming experience (especially at 4K) but it's a good workstation CPU.