I use lot of Samsung 850 Pros and SanDisk 960GB ExtremePro SSDs. But this Mushkin Scorpion Deluxe 960GB PCIe SSD decimates those models (PCIe 2.0 x8 interface).
Hence, I shall buy more for the upcoming X99 high-end; for ultra builds (Xeons), I'm pondering on Intel's NVMe enterprise solution (1.2TB SSD). Price is justified because it offers literally ultra performance.
I have an SSHD and while it is definitely not SSD speeds for sustained transfers or random I/O, it does a really nice job in two areas:
1) Cached file information. Anyone dealing with video editing will appreciate this. The video info and previews load much faster than a traditional HDD due to the SSD cache. 2) Overall operating temps. Possibly because they don't need to spin up as often, my Seagate SSHD is cool to the touch while my retired WD Blacks could probably cause a burn.
They also have higher capacities available like a traditional HDD would making them pretty affordable overall.
I agree SSHD's are great alternatives to SSD's in certain machines. But they do not belong in laptops (honestly any mobile device should have no moving parts outside of a fan...for obvious durability reasons) and they don't belong in workstations where there is space for a SSD boot drive and a HDD storage drive.
SSHD's make a lot more sense in home PC's where media storage is common and common HDD performance is a huge bottleneck. Many home users simply don't want to deal with two drives/partitions and most systems these days only have one drive bay, such as AIO's.
Just FYI - IBM sold it's PC division to Lenovo in 2005, and is currently in the midst of selling off it's X86-based server division (System X) to Lenovo as well. So curse (or praise) the Chinese company called Lenovo, not IBM. :-)
I love Xeon based workstations. You can usually pick them up for peanuts on Ebay 3-4 years later, upgrade them to top spec for peanuts too and still have a high performance machine.
I got a dual Xeon workstation from 2008 that will Wprime in 7 seconds for less than half the price of a bottom of the range 2014 spec Pentium desktop.
On the overview page, about half way down, there's a picture of the intake fan with some sort of a shroud on it - what is the purpose of the shroud? I could maybe understand an increase in velocity and static pressure, but it seems like it would cut airflow by 80% - Coming from the land of rack units where cfm is king, am I missing something here?
I love how Ian nitpicks internal layout decision in the name of improving airflow, but fails to present any CFD modeling or empirical testing to support his viewpoints. Gives a nice sheen of "I'm an enthusiast who knows more about case design than mechanical engineers" to the whole thing. Well done!
But seriously Ian, you should not make objectively provable (or disprovable) claims without providing appropriate evidence. There are definitely time considerations to take into account during the review process, and obviously everything cannot be tested if the review is to ever come out. However, in such instances, you should stick to presenting the facts and letting readers draw their own conclusions instead of adding flippant and potentially false statements to the review.
a single non-ECC 8GB DIMM and a 1TB SSHD for storage, for $2274. What an incredibly overpriced piece of junk. I could build one with this same processor, a workstation level motherboard, 16GB of ECC memory, a 256GB 850 Pro SSD for the OS and a 3TB Hitachi Ultrastar (pro level) drive for storage, including the Windows 8.1 Pro license, for less than three quarters of this price. It is SO not worth $600 for Lenovo support and warranty.
Dunno; OTOH the target market for something like this would never service it except via waranty so it wouldn't matter; and the 24pin ATX connector is really out of sync with modern systems needs; specifically the 5x 3.3 and 5x 5v are way over what a modern system needs and unless you're doing RS232 the -12v is useless too. 3.3 is going the way of the dodo since it's only used by legacy PCI now; and USB doesn't need anywhere as much 5V as a P1 system does. Spitting the connector would theoretically help with cable management by making the bundles slimmer; and adding more spread out connection points on the board makes it easier to maintain stable voltages everywhere.
Dell have started doing this again recently too. My previous Dell workstation is far more flexible than my current one. I'm also not happy with the lack of air flow over the hard drives. I've had several drive failures that might be attributed to overheating. This Lenovo looks like it has similar issues but at least it has a fan on the front.
I recognise that Al heatsink! Lenovo plonk them on the secondary CPU in the C20 and C30 too.
I really wish Lenovo would invest in backplanes for their drives, but at least the sideways mount with connectors facing you is better than the horrific mess at the bottom of the C20/30.
Completely pointless system especially if it's non ECC memory.
The truth is that you could build a system that would crush this with an overclocked i5 and a 970 for half the price + it would be upgradeable and running DDR4.
There's nothing magical about Xeons and Quadros..total bullshit unless you absolutely need DP. Anandtech should build the aforementioned system to embarrass all these clowns.
They could even hackintosh it to piss on the Mac Pro.
I would use 2 or 4 sticks of Samsung 8GB DDR3L-1600 1.35V ECC UDIMM, model M391B1G73BH0-YK0, which go for $90 at oemPCworld.
But then again, I would also roll my own using an ASUS P9D WS motherboard (Intel C226 chipset, ATX, supports ECC, unlike ASUS Z97 WS) and an AMD FirePro W7100 (K4200 level: 256-bit 4GB) or W8100 (K5200 level: 512-bit 8GB) GPU. Although the recently-released W7100 isn't listed on NewEgg just yet, right now you could get the W8100 instead, at roughly the same cost, by taking advantage of AMD's current half-price FirePro promo (which ends Jan. 15, 2015).
Also, I'd use a SeaSonic SS-520FL2 fanless 520W 80+Platinum PSU, and put AeroCool DS Dead Silence Case Fans (available at FrozenCPU) in a Fractal Designs Arc Midi R2 mid-tower ATX case (which has a tinted window).
I'd stick with the Intel Xeon e3-1276 v3 CPU, but cool it with a ThermalRight Archon IB-E X2 single-tower cooler (also available at FrozenCPU). Using the double-tower ThermalRight Silver Arrow IB-E instead would run maybe 2° C cooler, but 2 dBA louder, according to reviews I've read, but using the Archon IB-E X2 guarantees zero clearance issues on the motherboard.
For an SSD, the pro-sumer Samsung 850 Pro (used in a UPS-backed system) or the enterprise Samsung 845DC Pro are both viable options. Both use next-generation MLC V-NAND, with all its advantages.
But all this is only IF you happen to need an entry-to-mid-level Work Station RIGHT NOW. Broadwell 14nm Xeon e3-1200 v4 series Socket 1150 CPUs are about 6 months away (everything else could stay the same), and Skylake 14nm Xeon e3-1200 v5 series Socket 1151 CPUs are about 12 months away (but they would need a next-generation motherboard with an Intel C236 Greenlow chipset, which requires DDR4 2133 1.20V ECC RDIMM memory). However, this setup could use PCIe NVMe SSDs, and could (probably, assuming LGA isn't supplanted by BGA) be later upgraded with a Cannonlake 10nm Xeon e3-1200 v6 series CPU.
Also, by waiting, you could buy Windows 10 instead of Windows 7 for your OS.
Anyways, just my thoughts on a decent bang-for-the-buck, near-silent Work Station build.
P.S. A WASD Code backlit mechanical keyboard might be a nice cherry-on-top touch.
I build my own hi-end (X79/Z97) and ultra (Xeon) workstations because of hardware choice, saving on prices and cutting off vendor costs. Each custom-build workstation costs a lot, hence a lot of saving considering the number of builds.
The Intel Z97 chip set does NOT support ECC memory. Only Haswell motherboards with an Intel C220 series chipset support ECC memory, and then only with a Xeon CPU.
For example, ASUS P9D WS (C226) motherboard supports ECC memory (with a Xeon CPU); whereas, ASUS Z97 WS (Z97) does NOT (even with a Xeon CPU). I'm not sure whether or not it will accept ECC UDIMMS, but I am sure the ECC function is disabled, using Z97 chipset.
When I saw that the ASUS Z97 WS supported ECC I also found that incredibly odd, and wrote an e-mail to their support address. They got back to me a couple days later and assured me it did support ECC with a Xeon. I still don't really trust them, and if I was to go that route I would just get a C226, but I'd love to see someone test their claim.
Of course it's possible to beat prebuilt computers in terms of component choice, price or both. But why waste your breath? Do you think people out there are going to read this article, then read the comments and go "OH WOW I HAD NO IDEA??!!". Rather, this is like an echo chamber...the IT & purchasing people this article is aimed at will probably never even read the comments as they're parsing multiple reviews to make a purchasing (NOT building) decision.
Ie, systems like this are built for entry level systems for office situations where there's either no IT or it's not worth the time to roll a custom solution. And it's been that way since...oh about 1988...
I see the same thing in Apple Mac reviews, and it just boggles the mind. Fwiw I've run custom built XEON hardware since the PPro era (and before that I had a serverworks dual P133, which was very oddball). I used to use SGI & HP workstations at 'work' and Xeons at home, then I used Xeons at work running NT, then Linux, and now Linux & OSX on Macs...so yea obviously this review system wouldn't be my first choice for Autodesk Smoke, After Effects or Maya. But on a time crunch if I needed an intern or two to pick up some slack a short lease might just help finish a project....
All the more reason why Kenobi should spend at least $20 more for an 8 GB stick of ECC memory, or $110 more for 2 x 8 GB dual-channel ECC memory, instead of saddling the end-user (buyer or lessor) with a crippled single-channel non-ECC memory system. Come on, it's less than the cost of upgrading the GPU from a K4000 to a K4200, and it would enhance the spec sheet considerably.
Other things being equal, isn't 16 GB ECC dual-channel memory MUCH more appealing than 8 GB non-ECC single-channel memory???
And it would generate MUCH more favorable reviews!!!
This configuration is obviously unbalanced and have some funny moments with pricing. 1 Unbalanced. You do not put by default on generic $2000 price range workstation $800 USD video cards. Yes, with some GPU heavy workloads may require it, but in higher class workstation. Or, if is in this price range - in very rare cases. Far better balanced will be if for same price get K2200 video card and with spared resources get 32GB RAM, good SSD + 2/4TB high class HDD - WD black or same range from other suppliers. Also CPU is not well chosen - 1276 is 50% more expensive, but only 8.1% faster than 1230.
2. Funny thing about pricing. I don't say over expensive, just can't find proper word for it. Given CPU, RAM, HDD and VGA are commodity and can be obtained with same service/warranty quality from local supplier (sometimes with even better terms) and cost of it is around $1200, this left us with $1000 price tag for PSU/CASE/MB combo. Note that Lenovo itself obtains this components on very lower than Newegg!!!
Sorry, but i can't imagine how semi commodity PSU for price tag under $100, virtually featureless motherboards and case without any special cooling, 4 PCI slots and even no frontal hot swap disk cases can cost $1000. Ye, i know that MB is "industrial strength, highly redundant, certified, sunroof, ABS, 4x4, etc", but this class MB costs under $300 from other suppliers. Examples can continue but will stop here...
The IGP only adds about $12 - $13 or 0.6% to the system cost, so might as well get it.
The most expensive CPU, the 1276, raises the system cost by $97 or 4% over the 1230 / 1231, but raises the GHz by 9% / 6% over the 1230 / 1231.
So, the 1276 (or 1271) offer the best bang-for-the-buck, with (without) an IGP.
This is because although the CPU price increases by $97 or 35% (not 50%) in going from the 1230 (1231) to the 1276, the SYTEM price increases by 4%, for a 9% (6%) increase in CPU speed, which dominates the system performance.
P.S. The ASUS P9D WS lists on SuperBiiz for only $233 (price + shipping).
Should read CPU price increases by 39% (not 50%) in going from 1230 (1231) to 1276, the SYSTEM price increases by 5%, for a 9% (6%) increase in CPU speed, which dominates the system performance.
$500+ premium charge for the ThinkStation logo, i just did a quick newegg check and you can build the same system for under $1500 and something much better for $2000.. I'm talking about a Crucial M500 that has power loss protection and two server grade 2TB drives to run in RAID 1 (its very easy to change the default directory location for the user files)
But considering people that don't have the technical background, $1800 should be a "fair" price for the system with the K4000 leaving Lenovo with a $500+ profit considering they get the parts for cheaper.
With the single DIMM it came with clock was at 798Mhz. P300 stock RAM has latencies of 10,10,10,25
Bought a Corsair Vengeance DD3-1600 dual channel kit 2x8 gig 9,9,9,24 to upgrade the P300. Memory clock drops to 665.1 MHz. Resulting RAM performance of 1333Mhz...
Stats obtained with HWINFO64 and CPU-Z ... Memory controller has max performance of 800Mhz according to tools so it should be able to clock at aprox 1600.
Really curious about why I can't get 1600 with dual channel ram on my new P300.
I am in the market for a workstation PC and love ThinkCentre computers! But with this ThinkStation; it very pricey for a decent spec desktop PC! Everything that is upgradable is quite expensive! Going from 4GB to 8 GB is a $200 upgrade charge. Going to a 180GB SSD is additional $200 more! 240 GB is $300 more. Totally overcharge. Lenovo now give you like 5% discount but in order to get a decent PC; it upcharges on upgrades a lot! Not only that; an upgrade on CPU to a i7 4790 or 4770 not sure which one is $290!
I going to wait till the 5th generation is release and then buy the 4th generation at a massive discount! That the only way I can buy a P500 or P700 models! P300 is just too limited in expansion slots and memory and storage bays. I looking at sending around $1,200!
The article skip a step and did not disclose how to get into the Thinkstation P300 bios! What key do you press and when? That important to some one who owns this machine to know how to gain access.
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Pork@III - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
Only 8GB RAM place on workstation PC in fall of 2014? Poorest IBM! Poor, poor, poor! :Dkissiel - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
Lack of any amount flash storage is even more frightening...MadDuffy - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
The SSHD storage is hybrid solid state and traditional.jimbo2779 - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
The SSHD is hardly a patch on a real SSD store. I could not imagine running a WS on anything less than an SSD on SATA III.akula2 - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
I use lot of Samsung 850 Pros and SanDisk 960GB ExtremePro SSDs. But this Mushkin Scorpion Deluxe 960GB PCIe SSD decimates those models (PCIe 2.0 x8 interface).Hence, I shall buy more for the upcoming X99 high-end; for ultra builds (Xeons), I'm pondering on Intel's NVMe enterprise solution (1.2TB SSD). Price is justified because it offers literally ultra performance.
Samus - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
Sloppy. An elitedesk it is not.noelbonner - Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - link
Yes it's sloppy and poorly ranked in CONSUMER BASED rankings, see http://is.gd/L7YVjK for example.testbug00 - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
which does about nothing. I have one. Unless they completely redesigned how they worked in the last 3 years (which, I doubt).At this point, personally, I just wish I could use the SSD in my hybrid drive to boot the OS and maybe 1-2 other things... But, nope =[
chizow - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
I have an SSHD and while it is definitely not SSD speeds for sustained transfers or random I/O, it does a really nice job in two areas:1) Cached file information. Anyone dealing with video editing will appreciate this. The video info and previews load much faster than a traditional HDD due to the SSD cache.
2) Overall operating temps. Possibly because they don't need to spin up as often, my Seagate SSHD is cool to the touch while my retired WD Blacks could probably cause a burn.
They also have higher capacities available like a traditional HDD would making them pretty affordable overall.
Samus - Thursday, November 6, 2014 - link
I agree SSHD's are great alternatives to SSD's in certain machines. But they do not belong in laptops (honestly any mobile device should have no moving parts outside of a fan...for obvious durability reasons) and they don't belong in workstations where there is space for a SSD boot drive and a HDD storage drive.SSHD's make a lot more sense in home PC's where media storage is common and common HDD performance is a huge bottleneck. Many home users simply don't want to deal with two drives/partitions and most systems these days only have one drive bay, such as AIO's.
MadDuffy - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
IBM doesn't have anything to do with this. We are coming up on a DECADE since that unit was sold to Lenovo.hojnikb - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
Thats why you build your own workstation and get exactly what you need :)duploxxx - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
nothing wrong with 8GB ram on a base model with a 4core cpu and a generic HD. you need to see specs in perspective.although 1 * 8 i would prefer 2 * 4
tyger11 - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
Who is this 'IBM' of which you speak? :)retrospooty - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
The P300 is the low end of the workstation lineup. The P500,700,900 are all above it. http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/workstations/thinksta...mdrury - Monday, November 10, 2014 - link
Just FYI - IBM sold it's PC division to Lenovo in 2005, and is currently in the midst of selling off it's X86-based server division (System X) to Lenovo as well. So curse (or praise) the Chinese company called Lenovo, not IBM. :-)satai - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
Hard Drive Seagate 1TB 7200RPM SSHD. o'rly?jabber - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
I love Xeon based workstations. You can usually pick them up for peanuts on Ebay 3-4 years later, upgrade them to top spec for peanuts too and still have a high performance machine.I got a dual Xeon workstation from 2008 that will Wprime in 7 seconds for less than half the price of a bottom of the range 2014 spec Pentium desktop.
hojnikb - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
So bulk of your workload is calculating prime numbers ?jabber - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
Yes...it's my life.jabber - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
Though I probably wouldn't buy one of these as they seem way too limited and the build quality is cheap for a Workstation.SkiBum1207 - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
On the overview page, about half way down, there's a picture of the intake fan with some sort of a shroud on it - what is the purpose of the shroud? I could maybe understand an increase in velocity and static pressure, but it seems like it would cut airflow by 80% - Coming from the land of rack units where cfm is king, am I missing something here?mfenn - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
I love how Ian nitpicks internal layout decision in the name of improving airflow, but fails to present any CFD modeling or empirical testing to support his viewpoints. Gives a nice sheen of "I'm an enthusiast who knows more about case design than mechanical engineers" to the whole thing. Well done!But seriously Ian, you should not make objectively provable (or disprovable) claims without providing appropriate evidence. There are definitely time considerations to take into account during the review process, and obviously everything cannot be tested if the review is to ever come out. However, in such instances, you should stick to presenting the facts and letting readers draw their own conclusions instead of adding flippant and potentially false statements to the review.
Oscarcharliezulu - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
If the writer didnt add an opinion then wouldn't the article just be a spec sheet?duploxxx - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
very poor design and cablingdgingeri - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
a single non-ECC 8GB DIMM and a 1TB SSHD for storage, for $2274. What an incredibly overpriced piece of junk. I could build one with this same processor, a workstation level motherboard, 16GB of ECC memory, a 256GB 850 Pro SSD for the OS and a 3TB Hitachi Ultrastar (pro level) drive for storage, including the Windows 8.1 Pro license, for less than three quarters of this price. It is SO not worth $600 for Lenovo support and warranty.Gigaplex - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
With what GPU? That's where the bulk of the costs went.SuperVeloce - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
What the hell is this with non-standard 24pin power motherboard connector? Are they out of their minds?DanNeely - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
Dunno; OTOH the target market for something like this would never service it except via waranty so it wouldn't matter; and the 24pin ATX connector is really out of sync with modern systems needs; specifically the 5x 3.3 and 5x 5v are way over what a modern system needs and unless you're doing RS232 the -12v is useless too. 3.3 is going the way of the dodo since it's only used by legacy PCI now; and USB doesn't need anywhere as much 5V as a P1 system does. Spitting the connector would theoretically help with cable management by making the bundles slimmer; and adding more spread out connection points on the board makes it easier to maintain stable voltages everywhere.Gigaplex - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
Dell have started doing this again recently too. My previous Dell workstation is far more flexible than my current one. I'm also not happy with the lack of air flow over the hard drives. I've had several drive failures that might be attributed to overheating. This Lenovo looks like it has similar issues but at least it has a fan on the front.edzieba - Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - link
I recognise that Al heatsink! Lenovo plonk them on the secondary CPU in the C20 and C30 too.I really wish Lenovo would invest in backplanes for their drives, but at least the sideways mount with connectors facing you is better than the horrific mess at the bottom of the C20/30.
TETRONG - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
Completely pointless system especially if it's non ECC memory.The truth is that you could build a system that would crush this with an overclocked i5 and a 970 for half the price + it would be upgradeable and running DDR4.
There's nothing magical about Xeons and Quadros..total bullshit unless you absolutely need DP.
Anandtech should build the aforementioned system to embarrass all these clowns.
They could even hackintosh it to piss on the Mac Pro.
TETRONG - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
Sorry, DDR3 with i5 or DDR4 with a 5820Knwai2208 - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
A Xeon E3 system with non-ECC memory means it is just a i7 machine with a Xeon label on it.NanoTube1 - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
To sum it up: a poor, ugly, cheap build...Dr.Neale - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
I would use 2 or 4 sticks of Samsung 8GB DDR3L-1600 1.35V ECC UDIMM, model M391B1G73BH0-YK0, which go for $90 at oemPCworld.But then again, I would also roll my own using an ASUS P9D WS motherboard (Intel C226 chipset, ATX, supports ECC, unlike ASUS Z97 WS) and an AMD FirePro W7100 (K4200 level: 256-bit 4GB) or W8100 (K5200 level: 512-bit 8GB) GPU. Although the recently-released W7100 isn't listed on NewEgg just yet, right now you could get the W8100 instead, at roughly the same cost, by taking advantage of AMD's current half-price FirePro promo (which ends Jan. 15, 2015).
Also, I'd use a SeaSonic SS-520FL2 fanless 520W 80+Platinum PSU, and put AeroCool DS Dead Silence Case Fans (available at FrozenCPU) in a Fractal Designs Arc Midi R2 mid-tower ATX case (which has a tinted window).
I'd stick with the Intel Xeon e3-1276 v3 CPU, but cool it with a ThermalRight Archon IB-E X2 single-tower cooler (also available at FrozenCPU). Using the double-tower ThermalRight Silver Arrow IB-E instead would run maybe 2° C cooler, but 2 dBA louder, according to reviews I've read, but using the Archon IB-E X2 guarantees zero clearance issues on the motherboard.
For an SSD, the pro-sumer Samsung 850 Pro (used in a UPS-backed system) or the enterprise Samsung 845DC Pro are both viable options. Both use next-generation MLC V-NAND, with all its advantages.
But all this is only IF you happen to need an entry-to-mid-level Work Station RIGHT NOW. Broadwell 14nm Xeon e3-1200 v4 series Socket 1150 CPUs are about 6 months away (everything else could stay the same), and Skylake 14nm Xeon e3-1200 v5 series Socket 1151 CPUs are about 12 months away (but they would need a next-generation motherboard with an Intel C236 Greenlow chipset, which requires DDR4 2133 1.20V ECC RDIMM memory). However, this setup could use PCIe NVMe SSDs, and could (probably, assuming LGA isn't supplanted by BGA) be later upgraded with a Cannonlake 10nm Xeon e3-1200 v6 series CPU.
Also, by waiting, you could buy Windows 10 instead of Windows 7 for your OS.
Anyways, just my thoughts on a decent bang-for-the-buck, near-silent Work Station build.
P.S. A WASD Code backlit mechanical keyboard might be a nice cherry-on-top touch.
akula2 - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
I build my own hi-end (X79/Z97) and ultra (Xeon) workstations because of hardware choice, saving on prices and cutting off vendor costs. Each custom-build workstation costs a lot, hence a lot of saving considering the number of builds.Dr.Neale - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
The Intel Z97 chip set does NOT support ECC memory. Only Haswell motherboards with an Intel C220 series chipset support ECC memory, and then only with a Xeon CPU.For example, ASUS P9D WS (C226) motherboard supports ECC memory (with a Xeon CPU); whereas, ASUS Z97 WS (Z97) does NOT (even with a Xeon CPU). I'm not sure whether or not it will accept ECC UDIMMS, but I am sure the ECC function is disabled, using Z97 chipset.
otherwise - Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - link
When I saw that the ASUS Z97 WS supported ECC I also found that incredibly odd, and wrote an e-mail to their support address. They got back to me a couple days later and assured me it did support ECC with a Xeon. I still don't really trust them, and if I was to go that route I would just get a C226, but I'd love to see someone test their claim.Scalarscience - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
Of course it's possible to beat prebuilt computers in terms of component choice, price or both. But why waste your breath? Do you think people out there are going to read this article, then read the comments and go "OH WOW I HAD NO IDEA??!!". Rather, this is like an echo chamber...the IT & purchasing people this article is aimed at will probably never even read the comments as they're parsing multiple reviews to make a purchasing (NOT building) decision.Ie, systems like this are built for entry level systems for office situations where there's either no IT or it's not worth the time to roll a custom solution. And it's been that way since...oh about 1988...
I see the same thing in Apple Mac reviews, and it just boggles the mind. Fwiw I've run custom built XEON hardware since the PPro era (and before that I had a serverworks dual P133, which was very oddball). I used to use SGI & HP workstations at 'work' and Xeons at home, then I used Xeons at work running NT, then Linux, and now Linux & OSX on Macs...so yea obviously this review system wouldn't be my first choice for Autodesk Smoke, After Effects or Maya. But on a time crunch if I needed an intern or two to pick up some slack a short lease might just help finish a project....
Dr.Neale - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
All the more reason why Kenobi should spend at least $20 more for an 8 GB stick of ECC memory, or $110 more for 2 x 8 GB dual-channel ECC memory, instead of saddling the end-user (buyer or lessor) with a crippled single-channel non-ECC memory system. Come on, it's less than the cost of upgrading the GPU from a K4000 to a K4200, and it would enhance the spec sheet considerably.Other things being equal, isn't 16 GB ECC dual-channel memory MUCH more appealing than 8 GB non-ECC single-channel memory???
And it would generate MUCH more favorable reviews!!!
Dr.Neale - Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - link
Damn auto-correct changed "Lenovo" to "Kenobi" !?!?!atl - Friday, November 7, 2014 - link
This configuration is obviously unbalanced and have some funny moments with pricing.1 Unbalanced.
You do not put by default on generic $2000 price range workstation $800 USD video cards.
Yes, with some GPU heavy workloads may require it, but in higher class workstation. Or, if is in this price range - in very rare cases.
Far better balanced will be if for same price get K2200 video card and with spared resources get
32GB RAM, good SSD + 2/4TB high class HDD - WD black or same range from other suppliers.
Also CPU is not well chosen - 1276 is 50% more expensive, but only 8.1% faster than 1230.
2. Funny thing about pricing.
I don't say over expensive, just can't find proper word for it.
Given CPU, RAM, HDD and VGA are commodity and can be obtained with same service/warranty quality from local supplier (sometimes with even better terms) and cost of it is around $1200, this left us with $1000 price tag for PSU/CASE/MB combo.
Note that Lenovo itself obtains this components on very lower than Newegg!!!
Sorry, but i can't imagine how semi commodity PSU for price tag under $100, virtually featureless motherboards and case without any special cooling, 4 PCI slots and even no frontal hot swap disk cases can cost $1000. Ye, i know that MB is "industrial strength, highly redundant, certified, sunroof, ABS, 4x4, etc", but this class MB costs under $300 from other suppliers.
Examples can continue but will stop here...
Dr.Neale - Friday, November 7, 2014 - link
Unbalanced? Agree 100% !Best Bang-for-the-Buck Xeon (Haswell e3-1200 v3 series) = 1230? Disagree!!! Based on SuperBiiz (Price+Shipping):
Retail Box, CPU with no IGP:
1230 (3.3 / 3.7 GHz) $250
1231 (3.4 / 3.8 GHz) $250
1240 (3.4 / 3.8 GHz) $273
1241 (3.5 / 3.9 GHz) $272
1270 (3.5 / 3.9 GHz) $334
1271 (3.6 / 4.0 GHz) $335
Retail Box, CPU with IGP:
1245 (3.4 / 3.8 GHz) $285
1246 (3.5 / 3.9 GHz) $285
1275 (3.5 / 3.9 GHz) $347
1276 (3.6 / 4.0 GHz) $347
Assume a rock-bottom system cost of $1800 + CPU, then:
CPU Cost GHz
1230 $2050 (+0%) 3.3 (+0%)
1231 $2050 (+0%) 3.4 (+3%)
1240 $2073 (+1%) 3.4 (+3%)
1241 $2072 (+1%) 3.5 (+6%)
1245 $2085 (+2%) 3.4 (+3%)
1246 $2085 (+2%) 3.5 (+6%)
1270 $2134 (+4%) 3.5 (+6%)
1271 $2135 (+4%) 3.6 (+9%)
1275 $2147 (+5%) 3.5 (+6%)
1276 $2147 (+5%) 3.6 (+9%)
The IGP only adds about $12 - $13 or 0.6% to the system cost, so might as well get it.
The most expensive CPU, the 1276, raises the system cost by $97 or 4% over the 1230 / 1231, but raises the GHz by 9% / 6% over the 1230 / 1231.
So, the 1276 (or 1271) offer the best bang-for-the-buck, with (without) an IGP.
This is because although the CPU price increases by $97 or 35% (not 50%) in going from the 1230 (1231) to the 1276, the SYTEM price increases by 4%, for a 9% (6%) increase in CPU speed, which dominates the system performance.
P.S. The ASUS P9D WS lists on SuperBiiz for only $233 (price + shipping).
Dr.Neale - Friday, November 7, 2014 - link
Oops, 1271 is 4% increase in SYSTEM price, 1276 is 5%.The conclusion is unchanged.
Dr.Neale - Friday, November 7, 2014 - link
Should read CPU price increases by 39% (not 50%) in going from 1230 (1231) to 1276, the SYSTEM price increases by 5%, for a 9% (6%) increase in CPU speed, which dominates the system performance.NeatOman - Monday, November 10, 2014 - link
$500+ premium charge for the ThinkStation logo, i just did a quick newegg check and you can build the same system for under $1500 and something much better for $2000.. I'm talking about a Crucial M500 that has power loss protection and two server grade 2TB drives to run in RAID 1 (its very easy to change the default directory location for the user files)But considering people that don't have the technical background, $1800 should be a "fair" price for the system with the K4000 leaving Lenovo with a $500+ profit considering they get the parts for cheaper.
NeatOman - Monday, November 10, 2014 - link
The "under $1500" system was with two 8GB 1866 ecc unbuffered ram.vicegrip77 - Friday, December 12, 2014 - link
With the single DIMM it came with clock was at 798Mhz. P300 stock RAM has latencies of 10,10,10,25Bought a Corsair Vengeance DD3-1600 dual channel kit 2x8 gig 9,9,9,24 to upgrade the P300. Memory clock drops to 665.1 MHz. Resulting RAM performance of 1333Mhz...
Stats obtained with HWINFO64 and CPU-Z ... Memory controller has max performance of 800Mhz according to tools so it should be able to clock at aprox 1600.
Really curious about why I can't get 1600 with dual channel ram on my new P300.
Harry_Wild - Tuesday, April 7, 2015 - link
I am in the market for a workstation PC and love ThinkCentre computers! But with this ThinkStation; it very pricey for a decent spec desktop PC! Everything that is upgradable is quite expensive! Going from 4GB to 8 GB is a $200 upgrade charge. Going to a 180GB SSD is additional $200 more! 240 GB is $300 more. Totally overcharge. Lenovo now give you like 5% discount but in order to get a decent PC; it upcharges on upgrades a lot! Not only that; an upgrade on CPU to a i7 4790 or 4770 not sure which one is $290!I going to wait till the 5th generation is release and then buy the 4th generation at a massive discount! That the only way I can buy a P500 or P700 models! P300 is just too limited in expansion slots and memory and storage bays. I looking at sending around $1,200!
Harry_Wild - Sunday, May 3, 2015 - link
The article skip a step and did not disclose how to get into the Thinkstation P300 bios! What key do you press and when? That important to some one who owns this machine to know how to gain access.Chrisrodinis1 - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
Here is an upbeat overview of the P500: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89PFUD3wTdYwiliamdevlin123 - Tuesday, January 28, 2020 - link
Thanks. This way I can use shareit to share files with friends at https://shareitdownload.net