Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Tower workstation review

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Lenovo ThinkStation P3: 30-second review

Having precocious covered nan Lenovo ThinkStation P2, we were willing to spot what nan P3 offers and if it addressed any issues we noticed pinch its predecessor.

Again, this is simply a W680 chipset motherboard mixed pinch a Raptor Lake desktop CPU, and successful our reappraisal hardware, it came pinch an Nvidia RX A2000 12GB GPU.

One of nan captious problems of nan P2 was that its building lawsuit didn't let for nan larger video cards, which are exactly nan ones that Workstation users mightiness reasonably want.

The P3 has a overmuch larger lawsuit pinch other abstraction for GPUs, and it besides provides a sufficient frontal area for an externally removable 3.5-inch SATA thrust bay.

However, location are only 2 x16 PCIe slots, positive a azygous x1 PCIe and only 5 backplate positions. That's overmuch little than a emblematic desktop gaming case, and if you usage a video paper that needs 3 slots, location isn't room for thing other here.

Those things said this is simply a amended creation than nan P2 arsenic it has less soul restrictions.

However, this instrumentality is overpriced and being declared a 'Workstation' doesn't springiness it features that desktop machines haven't got. In fact, location are tons of features that desktop PC users person enjoyed for immoderate time, for illustration PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots and Thunderbolt ports, that are not successful this system.

The Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Tower Workstation is simply a study strategy designed for level standing, and it tin beryllium supplied pinch tons of processing power, GPU performance, memory, and storage. Entry level for nan P3 is inexpensive, but that doesn't make it a bargain by immoderate means.

Lenovo ThinkStation P3: Price & availability

• How overmuch does it cost?  From £1006
• When is it out? Available now
• Where tin you get it? Direct from Lenovo

As pinch galore PC makers, Lenovo makes basal models of nan P3 Tower Workstation, which purchasers are encouraged to past heighten arsenic acold arsenic their budgets will return them.

The starting constituent for nan P3 Tower is simply a 13th Generation Intel Core i5-13400 processor, 8GB of RAM and nary retention aliases video card.

Our reappraisal system, which has an Intel Core i7-13700 vPro CPU, 128GB of RAM, 512GB of NVMe storage, and an Nvidia A2000 12GB GPU, costs  £2,392.09 successful nan UK and $3,082.12 successful nan USA.

For those curious, Lenovo USA prices 32GB DDR4 4400MHz EEC representation astatine a penny short of $600 each, different $120 much per module than mean memory.

It's worthy pointing retired that connected this platform, nan ECC DDR5 characteristic is abnormal moreover if nan installed modules connection that, unfortunately. And also, Corsair Vengeance (CMK64GX5M2A4800C40) 4800MHz representation is astir $70 per 32GB module from Amazon.

The RTX A2000 12GB is priced astatine $789, a value that would get you an MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super 16G Ventus 3X Black, aliases an XFX Speedster MERC310 AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX Black Gaming Graphics Card pinch 24GB done an online retailer.

Buying this strategy afloat populated isn't a cost-effective option, moreover if those items will beryllium included nether nan warranty.

Looking astatine competitor offerings, Dell doesn't person a strategy that fits good pinch nan P3 Tower, but HP has nan Z2 Tower, which is similar. The HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation pinch a Core i9-14900K, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 12GB is £2351.99 inc. VAT successful nan UK. Lower priced than nan Lenovo, pinch little RAM but improved CPU and GPU specifications.

In astir respects, each PC builders look to use a value premium to immoderate instrumentality sold arsenic a 'workstation' that often nan instrumentality doesn't justify.

• Value: 3 / 5

Lenovo ThinkStation P3: Specifications

Lenovo ThinkStation P3: Design

• Bigger lawsuit than P2
• Limited description options
• Lacks Thunderbolt aliases USB 4.0
• No 2.5GbE LAN

The large trading constituent of this instrumentality complete nan P2 exemplary is nan larger case, which means, successful theory, this strategy tin beryllium upgraded significantly. However, nan creation has a fewer quirks that trim nan soul volume, specifically a heavy pouch connected nan beforehand pinch nan front-facing ports and an exposed SATA thrust bay 7cm down nan beforehand face.

The advantage of that recess is that it gives room for a transportation grip astatine nan beforehand (none astatine nan back), but it restricts nan lawsuit to a azygous beforehand instrumentality and wastes astir 8% of nan imaginable volume.

Even pinch this oddity, this lawsuit tin physically return larger video cards, and we tested that by mounting nan Sapphire RX 7900 GRE, a triple instrumentality assembly that is 322mm long.

But mounting and moving are 2 wholly different things, and that paper wouldn't tally because nan provided Hunkey 750W PSU only has a azygous 6+2 PCIe powerfulness line, and nan RX 79000 GRE needs 2 of those.

Therefore, if you want to tally a high-performance video paper successful this machine, fund for PSU replacement. You will request to find 1 that ideally has cablegram guidance but isn't oversized unless you don't intend to usage nan little thrust cages.

Those taking that way request to beryllium alert that some PCIe x16 slots are only accessible if nan cards are only dual slot wide, arsenic a triple-sized paper will screen some x16 slots.

If this sounds excessively cramped for what looks for illustration a decent-sized enclosure, it is.

A contributing factor is that nan Lenovo engineers responsible for this instrumentality decided that nan apical and bottommost of nan lawsuit are efficaciously different thermal guidance zones, pinch nan graphics paper forming a obstruction to power successful nan bottommost of nan case.

While location are immoderate paths for aerial to recreation from nan beforehand and broadside of nan case, each nan power generated by nan CPU, representation and front-mounted difficult thrust is ejected utilizing a mini 80mm instrumentality from nan rear. The power from beneath that, which includes nan PSU that vents internally (no, really…), nan M.2 slots, 2 floor-mounted difficult drives, and nan video paper has 1 120mm instrumentality sucking aerial successful nan beforehand and 2 expelling it retired from nan door.

By definition, nan bottommost of nan lawsuit will beryllium a low-pressure zone, astir apt pulling aerial down from above, making for genuinely abysmal airflow done nan case.

Perhaps Lenovo needs to investigation ventral exhausts and airflow balance because nan P3 lacks either of these.

The pre-installed NVMe thrust does person a civilization heatsink astatine least, but Lenovo doesn't supply different for nan different bay, and different than a powerfulness cablegram and a mouse, nan strategy comes pinch nary of nan cables and items that a strategy mightiness typically need.

Ports are ever different pinch workstations, but nan ones connected this strategy defy immoderate logic.

The beforehand has 2 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports and a azygous USB-C Gen 2, but nary of that bandwidth is disposable connected nan back. Instead, location is simply a funny obsession pinch USB 2.0 ports, pinch 4 of those connected nan back, different 2 connected nan front, and different 2 connected a backplate, a user-selectable option.

Why anyone would request truthful galore USB ports connected nan instrumentality is simply a mystery, almost arsenic large arsenic why this instrumentality does not person USB 4.0 aliases Thunderbolt ports externally.

We did announcement a Thunderbolt header connected nan motherboard, meaning that pinch nan correct addon card, Thunderbolt 3 mightiness beryllium capable to beryllium added to this system, but it isn't 1 of nan options Lenovo offers.

Given nan usage floor plan of a Workstation wherever ample amounts of information mightiness beryllium generated by nan system, having nan champion methods of extracting that arsenic a azygous gigabit Ethernet LAN port, USB 3.2 Gen 2, aliases a removable SATA thrust seems, astatine best, silly.

Having Thunderbolt would beryllium ideal, but nan champion replacement would beryllium to instal a 10GbE LAN card, limiting nan strategy to a azygous video paper successful this instance.

The evident conclusion from each these caveats to getting nan maximum capacity from this level is that those who designed it weren't fixed a little to present that type of strategy for immoderate reasons.

The P3 is amended than nan P2, but this is simply a acold outcry from nan capacity imaginable of a gaming system, particularly 1 that uses nan caller Z790 chipset.

Overall, this is simply a amended lawsuit and layout than nan P2, but it falls short of what a custom-built strategy for capacity computing mightiness provide.

• Design: 3.5 / 5

Lenovo ThinkStation P3: Features

• Intel Core i7-13700
• Intel W680 chipset
• Port limitations

Like nan P2 previously, nan processor successful this Workstation is simply a Raptor Lake processor, nan nonstop type that Intel had issues pinch conscionable aft launch.

We knowledgeable nary problems, but immoderate have, truthful you are aware.

The Core i7-13700 is simply a 14th-generation portion and has galore of nan classical features of nan erstwhile Core models but lacks nan enhancements successful AI that nan caller Core Ultra chips offer.

It has 16 cores (8 P-cores + 8 E-cores) and 24 threads, making it reasonably effective pinch problems that tin beryllium multi-threaded.

For Intel desktop systems, an overclockable type of this spot designated nan i7-13700K, is disposable pinch timepiece enhancements, but Lenovo did not usage that spot successful our P3.

A bigger issue, and 1 that blighted nan P2 model, is nan W680 chipset, a workstation-class level that inexplicably doesn't support nan LGA 1700 Xeon processor line.

It does support ECC memory, isolated from nan error-correcting portion pinch this processor is disabled.

In our reappraisal hardware location are 4 32GB modules, giving a full of 128GB of DDR5, and pinch much than 1 module, nan bandwidth is efficaciously doubled complete what nan P2 we reviewed, pinch its azygous DDR5 DIMM, could offer.

While nan i7-13700K is simply a PCIe 5.0 processor, nan chipset is only PCIe 4.0, and nan I/O connected this committee appears to beryllium wired to that. Therefore, this motherboard only has 2 M.2 NVMe slots, and some are only PCIe Gen 4x4, pinch nary support for Gen 5 SSDs.

Even utilizing nan chipset's PCIe 4.0 functionality, this system's larboard action is poor. We've reviewed NUC-sized Mini PC systems with better larboard action that costs a fraction of this system.

Especially disappointing is nan deficiency of Thunderbolt technology, contempt location being a Thunderbolt header connected nan motherboard. A workstation-class PC pinch a azygous gigabit Ethernet larboard is arsenic incomprehensible.

It should person Thunderbolt by default, PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots, and 2.5GbE, 5GbE, aliases 10GbE LAN ports, but it does not person ticks successful immoderate of these boxes.

What it does connection is remarkably piecemeal and hardly what anyone building a powerful strategy would people gravitate to using.

• Features: 3.5 / 5

Lenovo ThinkStation P3: Performance

• Powerful CPU
• Expensive RTX A2000 12GB

Before immoderate complaints that these systems weren't suitable for comparison, we accepted that view, but these were nan specifications of nan reappraisal hardware sent by Lenovo, not specified by us.

The P2 Tower was powered by a faster i9 processor pinch much cores, and it is imaginable to get nan P3 Tower pinch that CPU installed. But 1 of nan caller Core Ultra series, which offers overmuch amended AI processing, isn't an option.

Due to nan reduced halfway count and timepiece speeds, nan Intel Core i7-13700 vPro is astir 70% of nan velocity of nan Intel Core i9-14900K, and choosing that connected nan P3 Tower would summation costs by astir $400.

However, wherever things commencement to get much separated are those tests that are focused connected GPU power, pinch nan P2 utilizing nan RTX 4060 8GB and nan P3 pinch nan RTX A2000 12GB.

There are plentifulness of discussions astir nan advantages and disadvantages of unit user video cards complete those made specifically for workstation applications, truthful I'm not going to rehash that here.

What's important to realise is that nan exertion successful nan A2000 is from nan erstwhile Ampere generation, and it's efficaciously a version of RTX 3060Ti pinch 12GB of memory.

In nan graphics tests, it gets trounced by nan RTX 4060 8GB, a paper which I antecedently declared unsuitable for workstation usage owed to deficiency of memory.

The chin-rubbing infinitesimal comes erstwhile you realise that Lenovo is asking astir nan aforesaid money for nan A2000 arsenic you would salary for an Nvidia RTX 4070 12GB aliases an AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT 16GB. And, if you hadn't already guessed, those GPUs would make nan A2000 weep irrespective of nan test.

What's moreover much concerning is that we precocious reviewed nan Geekom MegaMini G1 strategy pinch an integrated RTX 4060 GTX, and for astir $1200, it delivered amended graphics capacity than nan P3, moreover if its mobile processor couldn't lucifer nan Core i7-13700 vPro.

But being brutal, nary of these cards are up to workstation use. Running section AI models connected a video paper requires overmuch much memory, 24GB aliases more, and 12GB connected a three-year-old G106 isn't moreover adjacent to what's required.

Nvidia tin dress up aged silicon arsenic master graphics cards if it likes, but nan numbers present speak volumes, particularly nan Blender GPU score.

Lenovo has options to reside that requirement, for illustration nan RTX 5000 Ada Generation, but including that would triple nan costs of this system, if not more.

If you want decent graphics but have no volition of moving section AI models, past bargain a unit RTX 4070 aliases an RX 4800 XT and get substantially much capacity for nan aforesaid money arsenic an A2000.

One last informing astir nan A2000 is that it comes, oddly, pinch 4 Mini DP outputs and nary full-sized DP aliases HDMI. Therefore, if you bid this paper and don't person Mini DP to DP cables handy, and these aren't common, you will person nary measurement to tally nan instrumentality erstwhile it arrives, arsenic Lenovo includes nary of these by default.

• Performance: 3.5/ 5

Lenovo ThinkStation P3: Final verdict

Many of nan problems that nan P3 has are nan aforesaid ones arsenic nan P2 Tower, but pinch much beingness abstraction wrong for them to agelong their legs.

Yet that other measurement isn't good used, and nan ventilation strategy is particularly poor.

But we're skirting astir nan elephant successful this room, namely, nan features that make a workstation different from a gaming PC.

In this context, those are workstation-class motherboards missing astir of nan latest features, specified arsenic USB 4.0 and nan expertise to decently usage ECC memory.

The included PSU isn't suitable for a high-end video card, and successful our model, that was a rebranding of nan aged RTX 3060. It is an aged creation that has been importantly overtaken by Nividia 40 bid cards and astir of nan latest AMD Radeon RX line.

When you realise that nan mediocre larboard action doesn't reside nan capacity quality of workstations, you statesman to wonderment really we sewage here.

We could blasted Lenovo for this disconnect, but nan rumor is really Intel shafted its workstation platforms by delivering specified underwhelming chipsets arsenic nan W680 that can't judge Xeon processors.

Intel has nan W780 waiting successful nan wings and a caller slew of Xeon processors that are compatible pinch it. Those looking for ECC representation support and much concurrent motherboard features mightiness want to hold for those to appear, moreover if we presume they'll costs moreover much than nan P3 Tower does.

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