Worth the upgrade

sidneyyoungblood

A bit of advice on a PC upgrade for my 10 year old nephews PC ...

He currently has a Lenova Legion desktop

I5 8th Gen 

GTX1050 TI 4GB

8GB memory 
1TB
256 SSD

An motherboard which is unable to run windows 11

It takes an age to load and opens programmes even after a few clean installs .. it is frustrating to use now

It has a 256gb Nvme ssd drive which I installed in the slot but cant get windows to run on it  -  cant see it in the bios config.

Is it worth trying to upgrade or am I throwing good money after bad ..

Mostly uses it for minecraft - scratch programming - .school work also uses it alot for  youtube video editing ( capcut I think )    .

Another issue is that looking at widescreen monitors but not too sure if the specs will handle it .

Any help would be much appreciated.

Vitor

For video editing and school work, an entry-level modern laptop with a 12th/13th-gen Intel or a Ryzen 5 is often faster than that desktop and uses vastly less power. If the lad mostly edits short clips and plays Minecraft, a laptop does the job without the upgrade faff.

BFBW

There is nothing about the specification that makes it ineligible to run Windows 11. Also the inability to see the NVMe drive is just a quirk that you need to overcome. See here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LenovoLegion/comments/16nzd51/solved_lenovo_legion_pro_5_ssd_not_detected/
Alternatively, you could just use a 2.5" SATA SSD in place of the current HDD.

The specs are fine. No need to upgrade, other than make sure that the boot drive is solid state. Do check that the CPU is firing on all cylinders before doing anything else. You can check that in the Task Manager.

vacheron

I would second that the specs are fine. An 8th Gen I5 processor should not be taking an age to do anything. I recently upgraded from a 6th gen I7-6700K , but only because the motherboard failed, and my mum uses a 3rd gen I5-3570K, and after a fresh windows 10 install it boots in about 12 seconds from her SATA SSD and runs everything almost instantly.

You mentioned that you were "planning" to add an NVME drive, if he currently uses a spinny disk rather than a SATA SSD, then I would put money on that being the bottleneck! But for video editing another 8gb of RAM wouldn't go amiss and could probably be picked up quite cheap.   

A 4GB 1050TI GPU will handle widescreen (or even ultrawide) without a problem, but his games will struggle more if he tries to game at this new native resolution. 

vacheron

BFBW said:

There is nothing about the specification that makes it ineligible to run Windows 11. 

While the CPU meets the win 11 specs, it is possible that the motherboard possibly lacks TMP 2.0 support?

BFBW

vacheron said:

BFBW said:

There is nothing about the specification that makes it ineligible to run Windows 11. 

While the CPU meets the win 11 specs, it is possible that the motherboard possibly lacks TMP 2.0 support?

Legion Y530-15ICH is on the supported list

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/legion-series/legion-y530-15ich/solutions/ht512623-lenovo-devices-supported-for-windows-11

sidneyyoungblood

vacheron said:

I would second that the specs are fine. An 8th Gen I5 processor should not be taking an age to do anything. I recently upgraded from a 6th gen I7-6700K , but only because the motherboard failed, and my mum uses a 3rd gen I5-3570K, and after a fresh windows 10 install it boots in about 12 seconds from her SATA SSD and runs everything almost instantly.

You mentioned that you were "planning" to add an NVME drive, if he currently uses a spinny disk rather than a SATA SSD, then I would put money on that being the bottleneck! But for video editing another 8gb of RAM wouldn't go amiss and could probably be picked up quite cheap.   

A 4GB 1050TI GPU will handle widescreen (or even ultrawide) without a problem, but his games will struggle more if he tries to game at this new native resolution. 

Thanks for all the comments , yes it  lacks TMP 2.0 support which is why I cant get windows 11 to install,

I will  order a 2.5" SSD to replace the 1TB as a main drive using the same slot - will 256gb be enough?.Also would I need to order a power cable and a tray to hold the SSD ?

I did install a Nvme but cannot get the Bios to run from it as it keeps going back to the original drive ( it cant see it but is seen in windows) .

thanks again 

vacheron

sidneyyoungblood said:

vacheron said:

I would second that the specs are fine. An 8th Gen I5 processor should not be taking an age to do anything. I recently upgraded from a 6th gen I7-6700K , but only because the motherboard failed, and my mum uses a 3rd gen I5-3570K, and after a fresh windows 10 install it boots in about 12 seconds from her SATA SSD and runs everything almost instantly.

You mentioned that you were "planning" to add an NVME drive, if he currently uses a spinny disk rather than a SATA SSD, then I would put money on that being the bottleneck! But for video editing another 8gb of RAM wouldn't go amiss and could probably be picked up quite cheap.   

A 4GB 1050TI GPU will handle widescreen (or even ultrawide) without a problem, but his games will struggle more if he tries to game at this new native resolution. 

Thanks for all the comments , yes it  lacks TMP 2.0 support which is why I cant get windows 11 to install,

I will  order a 2.5" SSD to replace the 1TB as a main drive using the same slot - will 256gb be enough?.Also would I need to order a power cable and a tray to hold the SSD ?

I did install a Nvme but cannot get the Bios to run from it as it keeps going back to the original drive ( it cant see it but is seen in windows) .

thanks again 

Fitting a SATA SSD
 If you are adding the SSD in addition to the 1TB drive you would need an additional SATA power cable, but there should usually be spare SATA power cables already in the PC.

You would also need a SATA Data cable which probably won't be included, and make sure you have a spare SATA port on the motherboard too. 

You could buy a bracket to fit the SSD, but these things aren't orientation dependent and virtually impervious to shock or vibration, so you could basically stick it anywhere inside the case with some sticky tape if you wanted. Also, some cases have little places on the rear of the motherboard tray, or base of the PC, where you can fit a 2.5" SSD.


Getting the NVME drive to work:
However, your NVME drive should be working. Did you use the migration tools which came with the NVME drive to migrate the data / operating system over to it?
If you did.... and the original drive did not use UEFI, you may need to enable "Legacy Boot Mode" in the BIOS to allow the PC to recognise the NVME as a bootable device.
You can then convert the Legacy Boot NVME to UEFI later using a couple of simple windows commands.

Also, do you have the boot order set corrrectly in the BIOS so that it will try to boot from the NVME before the original HDD?

Getting the NVME to recognise first would save you having to buy a SATA SSD, but if not, the jump in performance in changing your boot drive from SATA "Spinning Rust" to a SATA SSD is far greater than the jump in (real worrld) performance from a SATA SSD to NVME. 

Paradigm

I doubt 256gb will be enough but it depends on what you are doing. If you want to replace the 1tb drive then no if you want to copy itt's contents to the ssd & that's more than 256gb!

I don't know about Lenovo but in most PCs there is a spare sata & power cable which will enable you to run both drives together. Lots of vids on youtube.

In regards to the nvme, I would be tempted to update the bios, check Lenovos website for your model to see if a newer version is available & how to flash itt. Might work, might not.

sidneyyoungblood

vacheron said:

sidneyyoungblood said:

vacheron said:

I would second that the specs are fine. An 8th Gen I5 processor should not be taking an age to do anything. I recently upgraded from a 6th gen I7-6700K , but only because the motherboard failed, and my mum uses a 3rd gen I5-3570K, and after a fresh windows 10 install it boots in about 12 seconds from her SATA SSD and runs everything almost instantly.

You mentioned that you were "planning" to add an NVME drive, if he currently uses a spinny disk rather than a SATA SSD, then I would put money on that being the bottleneck! But for video editing another 8gb of RAM wouldn't go amiss and could probably be picked up quite cheap.   

A 4GB 1050TI GPU will handle widescreen (or even ultrawide) without a problem, but his games will struggle more if he tries to game at this new native resolution. 

Thanks for all the comments , yes it  lacks TMP 2.0 support which is why I cant get windows 11 to install,

I will  order a 2.5" SSD to replace the 1TB as a main drive using the same slot - will 256gb be enough?.Also would I need to order a power cable and a tray to hold the SSD ?

I did install a Nvme but cannot get the Bios to run from it as it keeps going back to the original drive ( it cant see it but is seen in windows) .

thanks again 

Fitting a SATA SSD
 If you are adding the SSD in addition to the 1TB drive you would need an additional SATA power cable, but there should usually be spare SATA power cables already in the PC.

You would also need a SATA Data cable which probably won't be included, and make sure you have a spare SATA port on the motherboard too. 

You could buy a bracket to fit the SSD, but these things aren't orientation dependent and virtually impervious to shock or vibration, so you could basically stick it anywhere inside the case with some sticky tape if you wanted. Also, some cases have little places on the rear of the motherboard tray, or base of the PC, where you can fit a 2.5" SSD.


Getting the NVME drive to work:
However, your NVME drive should be working. Did you use the migration tools which came with the NVME drive to migrate the data / operating system over to it?
If you did.... and the original drive did not use UEFI, you may need to enable "Legacy Boot Mode" in the BIOS to allow the PC to recognise the NVME as a bootable device.
You can then convert the Legacy Boot NVME to UEFI later using a couple of simple windows commands.

Also, do you have the boot order set corrrectly in the BIOS so that it will try to boot from the NVME before the original HDD?

Getting the NVME to recognise first would save you having to buy a SATA SSD, but if not, the jump in performance in changing your boot drive from SATA "Spinning Rust" to a SATA SSD is far greater than the jump in (real worrld) performance from a SATA SSD to NVME. 

Thanks ...  will this do the job ? Will try and pick it up tommorow and install over the weekend. I got so frustrated with the NVME would rather just try and install another one.

Kingston A400 SA400S37/240G 240GB 2.5" SATA SSD - CeX (UK): - Buy, Sell, Donate

vacheron

sidneyyoungblood said:

vacheron said:

sidneyyoungblood said:

vacheron said:

I would second that the specs are fine. An 8th Gen I5 processor should not be taking an age to do anything. I recently upgraded from a 6th gen I7-6700K , but only because the motherboard failed, and my mum uses a 3rd gen I5-3570K, and after a fresh windows 10 install it boots in about 12 seconds from her SATA SSD and runs everything almost instantly.

You mentioned that you were "planning" to add an NVME drive, if he currently uses a spinny disk rather than a SATA SSD, then I would put money on that being the bottleneck! But for video editing another 8gb of RAM wouldn't go amiss and could probably be picked up quite cheap.   

A 4GB 1050TI GPU will handle widescreen (or even ultrawide) without a problem, but his games will struggle more if he tries to game at this new native resolution. 

Thanks for all the comments , yes it  lacks TMP 2.0 support which is why I cant get windows 11 to install,

I will  order a 2.5" SSD to replace the 1TB as a main drive using the same slot - will 256gb be enough?.Also would I need to order a power cable and a tray to hold the SSD ?

I did install a Nvme but cannot get the Bios to run from it as it keeps going back to the original drive ( it cant see it but is seen in windows) .

thanks again 

Fitting a SATA SSD
 If you are adding the SSD in addition to the 1TB drive you would need an additional SATA power cable, but there should usually be spare SATA power cables already in the PC.

You would also need a SATA Data cable which probably won't be included, and make sure you have a spare SATA port on the motherboard too. 

You could buy a bracket to fit the SSD, but these things aren't orientation dependent and virtually impervious to shock or vibration, so you could basically stick it anywhere inside the case with some sticky tape if you wanted. Also, some cases have little places on the rear of the motherboard tray, or base of the PC, where you can fit a 2.5" SSD.


Getting the NVME drive to work:
However, your NVME drive should be working. Did you use the migration tools which came with the NVME drive to migrate the data / operating system over to it?
If you did.... and the original drive did not use UEFI, you may need to enable "Legacy Boot Mode" in the BIOS to allow the PC to recognise the NVME as a bootable device.
You can then convert the Legacy Boot NVME to UEFI later using a couple of simple windows commands.

Also, do you have the boot order set corrrectly in the BIOS so that it will try to boot from the NVME before the original HDD?

Getting the NVME to recognise first would save you having to buy a SATA SSD, but if not, the jump in performance in changing your boot drive from SATA "Spinning Rust" to a SATA SSD is far greater than the jump in (real worrld) performance from a SATA SSD to NVME. 

Thanks ...  will this do the job ? Will try and pick it up tommorow and install over the weekend. I got so frustrated with the NVME would rather just try and install another one.

Kingston A400 SA400S37/240G 240GB 2.5" SATA SSD - CeX (UK): - Buy, Sell, Donate

Yes, this would work, but this drive was introduced in 2018 so a used one from CEX could have 7 years under its belt by now.

Especially considering you can get a new one for just a fiver more with a warranty.