This one feels at least slightly late, but Lenovo has three new Xeon E-2300 series servers. The Lenovo ThinkSystem ST50 V2 is a compact tower compared to the larger Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250 V2 that trades additional volume for greater expandability. For edge rack servers, the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR250 V2 is the short-depth 1U option.
Lenovo ThinkSystem ST50 V2
The Lenovo ThinkSystem ST50 V2 is a compact tower form factor. Compared to the V1 system, the V2 is smaller at 17L instead of 24L on the previous generation. Look at that cooler!
Along with the form factor, we get the new Rocket Lake generation Intel Xeon E-2300 CPUs and a few other upgrades like two more USB 3 Gen1 (5Gbps) ports and the ability to get up to an NVIDIA T1000 GPU instead of the P620 in the V1. On the power supply side, since Rocket Lake is not known to sip power the maximum 80Plus Platinum PSU has increased from 400W to 500W. The one small item that feels a bit like a regression is that the new lower-end PSU is a 300W unit instead of 250W. The 300W unit seems to be pictured above. Still, the new 300W unit is an 80Plus Gold rated unit instead of the 250W 80Plus Platinum unit on the V1.
Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250 V2
In the larger form factor tower is roughly a 5U server on its side, and that is the ThinkSysstem ST250 V2. Here is the call-out version of that platform.
The big changes, aside from things like the GPU upgrades also in this version, are due to the Intel Xeon E-2300 and Intel C256 PCH. We also get more M.2 support and a few other features like two additional USB 3.2 Gen2 10Gbps ports in this generation.
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR250 V2
For the 1U short-depth market, we have the ThinkSystem SR250 V2. These are popular systems in places like lower-cost colocation/ dedicated server markets but also places like retail.
Again we get features like PCIe Gen4, additional USB upgrades, and up to DDR4-3200 memory support in this generation.
Final Words
The reason we commented that it feels like the Xeon E-2300 generation is a bit late for Lenovo is twofold. First, we covered the Dell EMC PowerEdge T150, T350, R250, and R350 launch in October 2021. We even had reviews of systems in Q4 2021, such as the Supermicro SYS-510T-MR review. The “E” entry Xeon platforms share a lot with consumer counterparts, with some of the biggest differences being ECC memory support and different platform firmware. On the consumer side, Intel has been rolling out Alder Lake for months, and Alder Lake is a giant leap forward in CPU and platform capabilities.
Still, HPE, to our knowledge, has not even bothered to launch Xeon E-2300 series systems, so Lenovo is ahead of the curve there. These Xeon E systems are very popular in the SMB and edge server market so at least Lenovo is offering its customers the option to take advantage of new features like PCIe Gen4 while HPE is not doing so in this segment.
W680 chipset apparently supporting ECC RAM on *all* Alder Lake CPUs (not just Xeons anymore) may soon make this moot. Yes, “workstation” vs. “server”. I don’t think this one supports registered RAM either, so I don’t see a big difference.
Too late. W680 is the new hot thing as it supports ECC RAM with cheap i-Core CPUs.
@F M
You are right. C256 is nearly the same as W580. So no difference between “Workstation” or “Server”.
@ F M: no, do not be mistaken! W680 does not support ECC RAM on CPU/SoC which does not support ECC RAM. Please consult intel ADL family closely!
@KarelG Nope, they’re right. Look at the ARK page for the 12900k: it now lists ECC support.