Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250 V2 Topology
Here is a quick topology readout from the system:
Here you can see the Intel Xeon E-2336 6 core/ 12 thread processor and the four NIC ports and for drives attached. We also have our 128GB of ECC memory showing up.
On the NIC side, the Broadcom BCM5720 is powering eno1 and eno2.
Overall, this is a fairly straightforward server since it is a single socket system.
Next, let us get to management.
Lenovo XClarity Controller Management
Our test system has the Lenovo XClarity Enterprise upgrade. Still, Lenovo’s IMM was not our favorite many years ago. XClarity is vastly improved. There is a simple responsive dashboard with access to what we need.
We have a HTML5 iKVM functionality.
There are other nice features like the ability to monitor the server’s utilization.
We also get a hardware inventory. This is a small feature, but one we have seen a few Xeon E-class servers not have working properly.
Next, let us do a quick performance check.
Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250 V2 Performance
The processor in this is an Intel Xeon E-2336 which is a 6-core processor.
We simply wanted to double-check and see how that heatsink and fan were doing. As a quick note, since we, by default, test servers in 1DPC configurations, we removed two of the 32GB modules giving us 64GB. We do this just to standardize.
Overall, the performance is about what we would expect. If you want to quickly compare this to your system, usually Geekbench 5 is better for servers given the scaling challenges on Geekbench 6. Here is a result you can use for comparison.
The Intel Xeon E-2336 with six cores and twelve threads is far from the fastest chip out there. It is more of a lower-cost processor option than a high-performance option even in this socket.
Next, let us get to power consumption.
“Our system was interesting since it came with a single 550W redundant power supply.”
I think this should read non-redundant. I don’t see a second PSU in the photos!
There’s a fixed psu option on these. This has the redundant option, but it only has 1 of the two installed. It’s strange that there’s only 1 in here and there isn’t 2. So it’s a non-redundant power supply unless you add a 2nd, but it’s got the redundant psu option, and that’s what they’re saying.
Thank you for a good review of this successor to my beloved ThinkServer TS family. (For the less than avid fans, TS stands for Tower form factor, Single processor.)
Glad to see the rotation guide for the rubber feet has been added to the inside diagram. It can be hard to remember how when the machine you’re working on is also the Internet proxy, so no YouTube or Reddit.
The biggest issue I have with these “rackable” tower servers is that it’s harder than heck to actually source all the needed bits. Even just finding what part numbers to search for can be a big headache.