# Upgrading a Lenovo Legion 5 Pro



## pennylessz (Jun 20, 2021)

I have absolutely no clue if this is the right place to post this, but I'm going to be upgrading the SSD and RAM on my Legion 5, and have frankly...never done anything like this before.

So I'm thinking of putting in two sticks of 32GB Samsung 3200mhz SDRAM, then throwing in two 1TB Western Digital SN850, as I've heard the 1TB gets faster write speeds. However, I know every PC functions differently, and have no clue if these are really the best options, if they're even options at all.

It appears that what they have in by default is-

WDC PC SN730 SDBPNTY-1T00-1101 (NVMe 1TB)
2x Samsung 3200 MHz 8GB (M471A1G44AB0-CWE)

Lastly, I want to ask if it would be wise to apply any thermal paste or pads to anything while I'm in there. Then I would also ask if there's any sort of guide for this thing? I'm not entirely tech savvy, but a step by step or even a reasonable video should get me through.


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## WatEagle (Jun 20, 2021)

To me replacing a 1TB nvme  drive with another 1TB nvme drive makes little sense. At the end of the day you'll get the same amount of space with marginally better speeds, and probably you won't notice the difference in most scenarios.
For the ram should be ok, and replacing it is pretty simple. Search a video on yt and follow it
Also while opening the laptop I would change the thermal paste on cpu and gpu
Edit: also some laptops have a stick of ram soldered and the other one not, I would suggest to open up cpuz or even task manager and see if it's quoted as "row of chips"


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## dark2099 (Jun 20, 2021)

So linked are some guides for taking apart similar laptops to yours, not sure yours exactly is listed. As suggested above, obviously change the thermal paste on CPU/GPU. Without knowing if there are thermal pads for anything else in the system, wouldn't bother. The SSD upgrade as mentioned won't likely give you much performance increase, especially if the laptop is not PCIE 4.0, that SN850 won't be able to operate at full speed. The ram upgrade might not give you much difference either, as on an old laptop when I went from a single 8GB stick of ram, to 2x8GB, with tighter timings, nothing felt any different, and I'm pretty sure I didn't get any better scores in synthetic benchmarks for the RAM.

Repair Guides


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## Shrek (Jun 20, 2021)

You've got 16GB RAM and want to upgrade to 64GB; why?


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## Aquinus (Jun 20, 2021)

Andy Shiekh said:


> You've got 16GB RAM and want to upgrade to 64GB; why?


Probably the same reason why I had 16GB and when I bought a new machine went with 64GB. You know, because I needed it because I was running out of memory with 16GB. Memory is one of those things that doesn't really help (usually,) unless you need it. For context, on a regular work day I'll use somewhere between 40 and 52GB of memory.


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## Shrek (Jun 20, 2021)

Seems to me that such work would normally best be for desktops (just me thinking out loud).


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## pennylessz (Jun 20, 2021)

dark2099 said:


> So linked are some guides for taking apart similar laptops to yours, not sure yours exactly is listed. As suggested above, obviously change the thermal paste on CPU/GPU. Without knowing if there are thermal pads for anything else in the system, wouldn't bother. The SSD upgrade as mentioned won't likely give you much performance increase, especially if the laptop is not PCIE 4.0, that SN850 won't be able to operate at full speed. The ram upgrade might not give you much difference either, as on an old laptop when I went from a single 8GB stick of ram, to 2x8GB, with tighter timings, nothing felt any different, and I'm pretty sure I didn't get any better scores in synthetic benchmarks for the RAM.
> 
> Repair Guides


Any suggestions on which paste to use?

Also, I've been recommended the Hyperx instead for the RAM. Any thoughts?

Lastly. Yeah, on account of the older gen PCIE, I probably won't touch the SSD.


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## Aquinus (Jun 20, 2021)

Andy Shiekh said:


> Seems to me that such work would normally best be for desktops (just me thinking out loud).


Nah. Most of the time my machine isn't under full load and I need the machine to be portable if I'm traveling for work or something. The memory is mainly for me to be able to run the full system for the suite of services that I work on, plus anything else I need to do along with that. I'd agree with you if the machine didn't have to be portable. Desktop is always going to be faster, but not if you need to travel with it.



pennylessz said:


> Any suggestions on which paste to use?
> 
> Also, I've been recommended the Hyperx instead for the RAM. Any thoughts?
> 
> Lastly. Yeah, on account of the older gen PCIE, I probably won't touch the SSD.


I don't tend to be very picky these days. Just get something from a name brand and you'll probably be fine... although I'm sure there are people that would disagree with me. In the past my preference was Arctic Silver 5, but there are probably other options that'll do just fine. As for the SSD, only upgrade it if you need more capacity. In reality, you're not going to notice the bandwidth difference between two SSDs regardless if it's PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 most of the time, unless all you're doing is running I/O bound benchmarks.


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## pennylessz (Jun 20, 2021)

Aquinus said:


> Nah. Most of the time my machine isn't under full load and I need the machine to be portable if I'm traveling for work or something. The memory is mainly for me to be able to run the full system for the suite of services that I work on, plus anything else I need to do along with that. I'd agree with you if the machine didn't have to be portable. Desktop is always going to be faster, but not if you need to travel with it.
> 
> 
> I don't tend to be very picky these days. Just get something from a name brand and you'll probably be fine... although I'm sure there are people that would disagree with me. In the past my preference was Arctic Silver 5, but there are probably other options that'll do just fine. As for the SSD, only upgrade it if you need more capacity. In reality, you're not going to notice the bandwidth difference between two SSDs regardless if it's PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 most of the time, unless all you're doing is running I/O bound benchmarks.


I will be doing consistent very heavy gaming that will push a 3070 Mobile and 5800H to their limits, so whatever paste I get ought to be the best lasting for heavy heat and vibration. I've heard that Arctic Silver 5 dries fast, which is fine since it then still keeps things cool. However, it also wears away easily during severe vibration, which would be an issue.

I am checking out MX4 and MX5, but I'm not sure if they're exactly what I should be looking at for longevity. MX5 is new, and seems to have some good recommendations, so it looks like a contender. I really do need some more recommendations though.


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## Shrek (Jun 20, 2021)

Graphite pads might be what you are after
Amazon.com: IC Graphite High Compression Thermal Pad (40X40mm 5-Pack) …: Computers & Accessories
Use with care as they are electrically conductive.


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## ShiBDiB (Jun 20, 2021)

Obligatory, if this thing is being used for "Intensive gaming" and isn't being transported around, get a desktop because heat issues are nearly unavoidable with "gaming laptops".

If that's not an option,








seems to be a pretty solid disassembly video. Looks pretty typical if not slightly more annoying than most laptop disassembly's. Just follow the video and take your time. As far as heat stuff, slapping heat pads and TIM around inside a laptop when you're not entirely comfortable even installing memory is just going to make it a very expensive paperweight. So just treat it like any other "gaming" laptop, it has to be used on a desk/table or you'll risk blocking airflow. So no couch gaming on your lap etc..

Note that there's some confusion on if that thing even supports 64GB of memory. It's official specs list 32GB as the max (which is more than enough for gaming).

Oh and an NVME upgrade, unless you're going bigger than it's not worth it.


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## pennylessz (Jun 20, 2021)

Andy Shiekh said:


> Graphite pads might be what you are after
> Amazon.com: IC Graphite High Compression Thermal Pad (40X40mm 5-Pack) …: Computers & Accessories
> Use with care as they are electrically conductive.



Three questions...

Do I need to remove old heat sync paste before applying these?
I can app them in a laptop then?
What precautionary steps should I take for installation?



ShiBDiB said:


> Obligatory, if this thing is being used for "Intensive gaming" and isn't being transported around, get a desktop because heat issues are nearly unavoidable with "gaming laptops".
> 
> If that's not an option,
> 
> ...


I lack the space for a desktop unfortunately. My living situation is unique and hard to explain.

Well, I'll have a five year warranty and it doesn't void it to open this up and mess with it, so it'd just be a really annoying return. My biggest concern is needing to open this up a second time provided that I end up with faulty/misapplied thermal paste, which isn't uncommon on Lenovo products it seems.

I have spoken with someone who installed 64gb.

I haven't seen anyone successfully get past 2 TB on one of these, so I'm not sure I could. I would try, but the RAM is much more important to me than space, especially since 2 TB is generally alright, and I'll have a NAS set up anyway.


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## Shrek (Jun 21, 2021)

I HATE working on laptops, they are so easy to damage; I would suggest not risking it.

Repasting the CPU and GPU will void the warrantee.


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## pennylessz (Jun 21, 2021)

Andy Shiekh said:


> I HATE working on laptops, they are so easy to damage; I would suggest not risking it.
> 
> Repasting the CPU and GPU will void the warrantee.


This is good to note, maybe I'll have to just put in the new RAM and call in a technician if the factory did a crap job with the initial paste. (Which I suspect is likely, but at least the rest of the cooling system is said to be quite good.)

I have heard it doesn't void the warranty if no damage has resulted from it upon further research, however I don't think I could guarantee a decent job with my inexperience.

One issue is that I've heard Lenovo techs are not very good at maintenance, so that's a worry.

Edit: Upon further inspection, I am told that they often don't even notice if you've failed a repaste, and will service it anyway. Not the most confidence instilling thing, but whatever.


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