Inside Lenovo Legion Y520 – disassembly, internal photos and upgrade options

The notebook, as usual, doesn’t have a dedicated service cover but the bottom piece comes off easily making it super easy to access the upgradeable hardware.

You can find the notebook’s configurations here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

1. Removing the bottom piece

You just need to unscrew the bottom plate and will see all the usual upgrade options – M.2 SSD, 2.5-inch HDD, RAM chips, Wi-Fi card and battery. The cooling system is also pretty easy to maintain.


2. Storage

As expected, the laptop offers a standard 2.5-inch HDD and M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD slot. The 2.5-inch drive in our case is manufactured by Seagate and offers the usual 1TB capacity while the M.2 SSD stick is a PCIe NVMe SK Hynix HFS512GD9MND5 (2280) with 512GB capacity.


3. RAM, battery and Wi-Fi module

The RAM chips can be found under a metal plate, which is easy to remove – you just need to release the clips holding it. Our unit came with two 8GB DDR4-2400 RAM sticks from Samsung.

The Wi-Fi card, for instance, can be found right next to the RAM chip slots and it’s Intel 8265NGW.

The battery unit is placed under the palm rest area and it’s rated at 45Wh – a fairly small capacity given the laptop’s hardware.


4. Cooling system

Unfortunately, the cooling system hasn’t been changed since the previous version of the notebook (Lenovo Y700) and as our stress tests confirm, it’s not enough to support the powerful hardware under heavy load. Throttling might not occur while gaming but it’s a good indicator of the system’s reliability in the long run. The problem with the current implementation are the two heat pipes connecting both chips, which share heat, and the cooling fans are both stuck together. Setting them apart with a better heat pipe design would have done wonders for the cooling performance.

You can find the notebook’s configurations here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

You can also check out the full review of the laptop here.

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Adel
Adel
6 years ago

I once walked in a dark room while my Y520’s screen was on. Strangely, I was able to see a tiny, tiny luminous dot behind the screen. Turns out it’s coming from behind the Lenovo logo on the back. This has lit a massive light bulb in my head. Now, if I were to remove the back cover of the screen, laser cut a Legion (Y) logo hole in the middle and then fabricate an acrylic or epoxy red logo to fit in that cut section and light up with the screen, would I be doing any damage to my… Read more »

Sam
Sam
6 years ago
Reply to  Adel

Not sure.

Lil' Helper
Lil' Helper
5 years ago
Reply to  Adel

Find instructions from Lenovo support page and consult a professional.

Raja
Raja
5 years ago

Can very slow Wi-fi card (Realtek 8821AE Wireless LAN 802.11ac PCIe) on Lenovo LEGION Y520 Gaming Laptop be replaced ???

dondigidon
dondigidon
5 years ago

i bought an ssd without nvme option and it doesnt work so be careful

Devin
Devin
2 years ago
Reply to  dondigidon

Could I use a samsung 970 evo? I’m not very good in computers.

Iheb
Iheb
5 years ago

Help plz team group m.2 2242/2280 ssd lite sata 3 work in my laptop y520 ?

ally
ally
4 years ago

thanks i just need to make sure that this comes with a hdd n ssd slot

Devin
Devin
2 years ago

so i could upgrade to a samsung 970 evo?