Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250 Power Consumption
We used our Extech TrueRMS Power Analyzer 380803 to take measurements at different points of the Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250’s use on 120V power in the embedded lab. Tower servers tend to spend more time at the edge in offices rather than in higher power data centers, hence why we do our testing at lower voltage. Here are the figures:
- Power off: 4.2W
- Idle: 58.3W
- STH 70% Load: 151.2W
- STH 100% Load: 167W
- Max power observed: 211W
Here is a quick look at the 550W 80Plus Platinum PSU. With the full set of drives, memory, expansion cards the 250W unit may be a bit small, but the 550W units have plenty of power. Many competitive offerings only have 80Plus Bronze, Silver, or Gold PSUs in this class, so Lenovo is doing something extra here to minimize power consumption.
Overall, these are great figures, but they will vary based on your configuration. You should ask your rep if you have an extremely tight power budget.
Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250 Noise
The Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250 is designed to be run in offices. We used our Extech 407764 sound level meter to take a few different measurements of the platform.
- Idle: 33.1 dBA
- STH 70% Load: 43.1 dBA
- 100% Load in Performance mode: 50.9 dBA
Overall, these numbers were slightly better than the ST50 we tested. We were a bit surprised by this, but back-to-back we were getting better acoustic performance from the ST250. Lenovo has ways to tune these systems for optimal acoustics since they specifically target the SMB and ROBO edge with the ST250. There is a lot of experience that goes into these boxes.
STH Server Spider Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250
In the second half of 2018, we introduced the STH Server Spider as a quick reference to where a server system’s aptitude lies. Our goal is to start giving a quick visual depiction of the types of parameters that a server is targeted at.
Overall, this server is not designed to be the densest. It is still using a 4U or 430 x 175 x 566mm (16.9 x 6.9 x 22.3 inch) chassis for a single CPU. Instead, it is optimizing on flexibility, cost, and power consumption.
Final Words
This is a fiercely competitive segment. Lenovo has done well over the years selling into the SMB and remote branch office space. We can see generations of experience in the design of the Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250 as its performance, flexibility, quiet, and low power operation tick all the checkboxes for this segment.
Since we tested the ST50 and ST250 side-by-side, we had a few thoughts. The Lenovo ThinkSystem ST50 is designed to maximize performance for a low-cost server. Positioned higher in the stack, the Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250 with features such as the XClarity Controller, make it a significantly better management experience, especially if you have racks of Lenovo servers in the data center. We hope these reviews help to show the differences in the two machines for those trying to make a decision.
