Lenovo ThinkStation P300 Provides Power in a New Package

Lenovo made several major announcements in August at SIGGRAPH 2014, including the launch of an entirely new ThinkStation P Series. But the first system in this new series—the entry-level P300—was actually unveiled in May, and both tower and small form factor models began shipping in June. Although as of this writing other models in the new P Series have not been released, we recently received a Lenovo ThinkStation P300 tower and put it through its paces to see how it would perform under common design enigneering workloads.

The Lenovo ThinkStation P300 tower boasts an entirely new design that delivers a great deal of flexibility. Measuring 6.9 x 16.9 x 14.8 in. (W x D x H) and weighing just 20.5 pounds, the P300 is smaller than the entry-level S30 that we assume it will eventually replace (see DE November 2012: /article/balancing-price-and-performance) One reason for the reduction in both size and weight is the replacement of the removable front handle. Instead, the new P Series chassis features an extended lip in the front and back for easy carrying, with the front lip incorporating a red touch point, something that will become more prominent in other P Series workstations Lenovo will release in the months to come.

The front panel of the P300 also features a new FLEX Module that gives users the option to add only the components they need, allowing customized configurations that incorporate ultra-slim optical drives, 29-in-1 card readers, iEEE 1394 Firewire and eSATA. In our evaluation unit, the FLEX Module contained a standard 5.25 in. DVD+/-RW optical drive while a second 5.25 in. drive bay remained empty and the third bay contained a single-slot SD card-reader, two USB 3.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, a hard drive activity indicator, and a round power button and adjacent power indicator. The rest of the front panel below the FLEX Module consists of a perforated metal screen that sports the ThinkStation logo.

The rear panel provides a 9-pin serial port, four USB 3.0 ports, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, an RJ45 network jack, audio jacks for line-in, line-out and microphone. There is a 15-pin VGA port as well as a pair of DisplayPort connectors for those models lacking discrete graphic cards, but our system came with an NVIDIA Quadro K4000 graphic processing unit (GPU). There are also knock-out panels for PS/2 keyboard and mouse connectors and an additional serial port available on some models.

After removing two non-captive thumb screws, we removed the left side-panel by pressing a round button and revealed a well-organized interior with easy access to all components. The single CPU socket in our evaluation unit housed a 3.6GHz quad-core Intel Xeon E3-1276 v3 processor, but Lenovo offers a choice of 16 different CPUs, ranging from the Core i3-4350 at the entry-level to the 3.7GHz Xeon E3-1281 v3. The Intel Xeon E3-1276 v3 CPU has an 8MB cache, a maximum turbo speed of 4.0GHz, support for PCIe 3.0, and a thermal design power (TDP) rating of 84 watts. It also includes Intel HD Graphic P4600 and adds $370 to the P300 base price. CPU cooling is provided by a large heat sink and a dedicated cooling fan.

Four memory sockets adjacent to the CPU support up to 32GB of memory. Although the base configuration comes with just 4GB of 1600MHz RAM, our evaluation unit came with 8GB, installed as a single 1600MHz ECC uDIMM, adding $380 more to the base price.

The motherboard also provides a total of four expansion slots: two full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (one of which is only x4 electrically), a full-length PCI card slot and a half-length PCIe x1 card slot. One of the x16 slots in our evaluation unit was filled with the aforementioned NVIDIA Quadro K4000, a high-end graphics accelerator with 3GB of discrete GDDR5 memory and 768 CUDA cores. The K4000 provides its own dual-link DVI-I connector and two DisplayPorts. Although its 80 watt power consumption requires an auxiliary power connection, it occupies just a single slot, so three others remain available for future expansion. Since receiving our evaluation unit, Lenovo has started offering the newer NVIDIA Quadro K4200 GPU as its top-level video adapter, as well as other NVIDIA NVS and Quadro boards.

The Lenovo P300 provides two 3.5-in. internal drive bays with quick-release acoustic dampening rails as well as space for an internal mSATA solid-state drive. Our evaluation unit came with a 3.5-in. 1TB Seagate hybrid hard drive. Other options include standard SATA drives up to 4TB and solid state drives up to 512GB capacity.

Power is provided by a 450 watt 92% efficient power supply. In spite of fans on the CPU, graphics board, and power supply, and additional fans behind the front grill and rear panel, the ThinkStation P300 was virtually silent after its fast initial startup.

Excellent Entry-Level Performance

We have always been somewhat amazed at Lenovo’s ability to combine and configure quality components for optimum performance, and the ThinkStation P300 continues that tradition. Thanks to the NVIDIA Quadro K4000 GPU, the P300 yielded excellent scores on the SPECviewperf benchmark, ranking at or near the top for single-socket workstations with standard-clocked CPUs.

On the SPECapc SolidWorks benchmark, the P300 delivered the best scores to date for a single-socket workstation. On the multi-threaded AutoCAD rendering test, however, on which systems with more CPU cores have a decided advantage, the ThinkStation P300 lagged behind other quad-core systems we’ve tested recently, requiring an average of 64.08 seconds to complete the rendering.

We also ran the new SPECwpc workstation performance benchmark. Because we have only had the opportunity to run this test on a handful of systems and the results vary widely, we still cannot make any meaningful comparisons, but in general the P300 lagged a bit behind the other systems we have tested thus far.

Lenovo pre-loaded Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit is also available. Like other Lenovo workstations, the new ThinkStation P300 comes with a three year on-site warranty. A 104-key USB keyboard and USB optical wheel mouse come standard, with other keyboard and pointing devices available. The system is independent software vendor (ISV) certified for applications from Adobe, Autodesk, Dassault Systemes, PTC, Avid and Siemens.

With a starting price of just $729, the Lenovo ThinkStation P300 tower provides power and stability in an affordable, entry-level ISV-certified tower workstation perfectly suited for CAD. While its base price includes just 4GB of memory and integrated Intel graphics, our evaluation unit—which included 8GB of ECC memory, a more robust CPU, a high-end NVIDIA GPU, and a 1TB hybrid hard drive—cost just $2,072, making the new Lenovo ThinkStation P300 a well-designed, powerful workstation at a very affordable price.

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