IBM/Lenovo ThinkCentre Ryzen 7 Sleeper Build

"Nibby" (nibby68) 01/22/2019 at 16:55 • Filed to: None

7

31

Lenovo/IBM ThinkCentre A60 8991-DGU case
Corsair CX750M 750W semi-modular power supply
ASRock B450M PRO4 mATX AM4 motherboard
AMD Ryzen 7 2700 3.2GHz 8 core processor
MSI AMD Radeon RX580 8GB Armor PCIe video card
Scythe Kabuto 3 cooler
2x Arctic F9 PWM 92mm fans
Samsung 970 EVO 500GB NVMe SSD
TSST DVD+-RW TS-H653A SATA DVD burner
Seagate ST2000DM001 7200RPM 2TB SATA hard drive
Front/rear USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports
Serial port
Windows 10

Chose this case cause I’ve always loved IBM’s and Lenovo’s business class computers like their ThinkPad, ThinkCentre, and NetVista lines. This one also was in remarkably good shape.

Tossed in a USB 3.0 front panel module in there. The USB 2.0 ports also work.

Closeup of the original sticker... It housed an AMD Athlon X2 4400+ with 1GB RAM.

The rear, ports galore! Serial port works thanks to COM1 header on motherboard.

Side of the case

Authentic Windows Vista product key + label.

Side panel is secured with 2 thumbscrews and easily slides out by pressing the tab on the middle right then gently sliding out the panel.

All the parts! A tad messy in there. Got a nice black theme going on as well. No lights or RGB or any of that sort here.

Closer view of the top half of the case

Lower section... you can spot the 970 EVO right below the cooler.

MSI Armor RX580 8GB

Seagate 2TB hard drive

First run of CrystalDiskMark on the 970 EVO

The front panel headers for the USB and audio needed some work. The USB one was easy, Lenovo just had 2 extra ground wires. Removed them and it works fine.

The audio one required some work. Got a 40 pack of Arduino male to female pins like this for less than $3 shipped on eBay.

First thing was to extend the pins individually, all color-coordinated. Taped it together to be a bit more secure.

Here it is plugged in correctly thanks to...

This diagram found on a Lenovo forum

ASRock UEFI

System info

A slew of wallpapers

IBM world

Tiled blue IBM

Tiled RGB IBM

A ThinkCentre icon

Here it is running.

facw > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 17:00

0

Scythe Kabuto 3 cooler 

I liked Scythe, a pity their high-end offerings aren’t really competitive today. At one point, I had their most inexplicably named product in my HTPC:

(edit: fine kinja make that sideways even though it shows up correctly in the editor)

412GTI > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 17:01

0

That’s a pretty legit sleeper build, I dig it! My crappy gaming rig kinda look like that because I got a cheap case, but not quite the business look yours has.

Been thinking of switching to a Ryzen setup , will be interested in hearing how you like running yours. 

Nibby > 412GTI 01/22/2019 at 17:04

0

Thanks! I’ll keep you posted

BeaterGT > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 17:12

0

Any feedback on that mobo? I’ve yet to decide on one (incl. form factor)   for my Ryzen 5 2600 gaming build but everyone seems to recommend the B450 Tomahawk. Pretty sure I got the same Rx580 as well .

Nibby > BeaterGT 01/22/2019 at 17:17

0

it’s quite nice and cheap for what it is... i don’t OC so it’s perfect for me. supports DDR4 3200 speeds as well

xc90v8/I4 :( > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 17:19

0

Are you going to do some allround benchmark? I’d like to see how it compares to my (quit old) build.

BeaterGT > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 17:22

2

Thanks, t hat does seem nice. I like the build’s absence of RGB . Looks so clean.

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 17:25

3

I can appreciate a sleeper build. Nowadays it’s RGBINYOURFUCKINGFACE TUBES AND FANS AND FROSTED PLEXIGLASS!

Which is essentially

What you built is

Nibby > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul 01/22/2019 at 17:28

1

Good analogy... I like to think I built this

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 17:31

0

Cl assy. Gran National may have been a bit raucou s.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 17:55

1

Nice machine. Very clean. After dealing with so many proprietary HP and Dell machines it would be a joy to have a chassis in which I could put in standard parts for a change. I think I may have to make a trip to the basement and investigate those IBM machines I have sitting around...

LongbowMkII > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 17:58

0

That’s my goal build

Nibby > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/22/2019 at 18:16

0

Thanks! What IBM machines you got?

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 18:20

0

I dunno, TBH. I got a bunch of older stuff, including a metric shit-tonne of networking gear, via XJDano when he was clearing out a building downtown, and only a few items made it into the house, m ost heading straight into the basement . I’ll have to go down and have a look one of these days, but I tweaked my ankle the other day and can barely walk so it’ll have to wait.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 18:25

2

I was working on t his i5 build, but haven't had time to finish it, or move it for that matter. I need the desk space, so the poor thing has become just a shelving unit...

Nibby > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/22/2019 at 18:36

0

:(

Nibby > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/22/2019 at 20:22

1

Get well soon!

Also I ordered a 40 piece set of these for $3 shipped

they’re designed for arduino but they worked well for rewiring the proprietary lenovo front panel audio...

color coded + taped together

plug and chug using the following pinout

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 21:07

0

Ever seen one of these?

Nibby > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/22/2019 at 21:10

0

no, i had to google that... does it still work?

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 21:20

0

I do not know. I’d have to find a way to hook up to that to some sort of adapter since it uses the old 2.5" PATA drive connector. I found at least half a dozen discs with it.

170 whole megabytes of semi-fast storage - be still my beating heart...

Nibby > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/22/2019 at 21:23

1

speaking of such fast storage...

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 21:32

0

I really need to do something with these dinosaurs. The C is for SCSI, P for parallel ATA and S for serial ATA, PB for potentially bad. I think there's even some 10K, maybe 15K, server SCSI drives in that mess. Let me tell you, I do not miss dealing with those things, with termination issues (active or passive) and assigning device numbers. Good riddance.

Nibby > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/22/2019 at 21:34

0

sell them! you can probably get some decent money

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 21:35

0

I remember when a friend bought a system with a 4500 RPM drive. Wow, that was fast compared to the standard-issue 3600 RPM drives at the time . I had to search out one of those 245 MB drives for my own system.

Nibby > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/22/2019 at 21:38

0

QUANTUM BIGFOOTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 21:42

0

Hell no - too slow. I refused to buy one of those back in the day. Spend the money for adapter brackets to fit a 3.5" drive in a 5.25" bay instead. The time saved is not worth the pitiful performance.

Nibby > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/22/2019 at 21:49

1

bought some retro machine a couple years ago... it came with one. I ended up sending it to an IRC friend cause it was godawful slow

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Nibby 01/22/2019 at 22:02

0

Very nice. Inside is basically my system, but with a first gen processor and my 32gb is only running at- 2400 . Ryzen 7 is a good place to be.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby 01/23/2019 at 13:52

0

Scythe Kabuto to you, too.

The AE86 of Mt. Akina (Hachi) > Nibby 01/23/2019 at 17:44

0

Nice! Saw this on /r/Thinkpad.

Nibby > The AE86 of Mt. Akina (Hachi) 01/23/2019 at 17:50

0

Thanks! THINKPAD MASTER RACE