With the ThinkStation P360 Ultra, Lenovo has introduced a particularly compact workstation whose 4-liter case has half the volume of Lenovo's Small Form Factor (SFF). The system starts at 1,299 euros and can be equipped with up to an Intel Core i9, 128 GB RAM, 9 TB SSD and HDD storage and RTX A5000.
The ThinkStation Scheduled for release in late August this year, the P360 Ultra marks the debut of a new form factor in Lenovo's workstation segment. The tower, which is slightly lower than it is tall, measures 87 × 223 × 202 mm (W × D × H ) and starts at 1.8 kg. This results in a volume of 3.92 liters. For comparison: The latest “Apple workstation”, the Mac Studio, comes in at 19.7 × 19.7 × 9.5 cm at 3.69 liters.
ECC thanks to the W680 chipset
With the new workstation, Lenovo still wants to beat the previous generation from the SFF segment by more than 50 percent in terms of performance. A combination of Core i3, i5, i7 or i9 from Intel's 12th generation is responsible for this, which can also be combined with ECC RAM via the W680 chipset. Four SO-DIMM slots accept DDR5-4000 sticks with 8 GB, 16 GB or 32 GB each in the non-ECC configuration or with 16 GB or 32 GB each in the ECC configuration, so that the maximum is 128 GB . ECC is supported not only by the Xeon but also by the Core processors, provided these are combined with the workstation chipset. According to Lenovo, the ECC configurations will not be available until autumn.
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Lenovo ThinkStation P360 Ultra (Image: Lenovo)
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Lenovo ThinkStation P360 Ultra (Image: Lenovo)
9 TB SSD and HDD storage
When it comes to storage, Lenovo relies on a combination of SSD and HDD storage to achieve the factory-configurable maximum of 9 TB. Two M.2 SSDs, each with 4 TB, and a 2.5″ HDD with 1 TB are used for this. The SSDs can be configured with either RAID0 or RAID1. External storage media can be implemented via numerous USB ports or fast Ethernet.
Small housing with many connections
The compact housing provides one USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, two Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) and audio on the front and four USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, three DisplayPort, one 2.5 Gbit/s Ethernet on the back and once 1 Gbit/s Ethernet available. Four Mini DisplayPorts are added via the Nvidia RTX A2000 with 12 GB of memory, and the ThinkStation P360 Ultra can also be equipped with up to an Nvidia RTX A5000 Mobile with 16 GB of memory. The mainboard offers slots for one PCIe 4.0 x16 and one PCIe 3.0 x4, which, depending on the equipment selected, are already occupied ex works or remain free for alternative plug-in cards. Depending on the installed hardware, external power supplies with 170, 230 or 300 watts and 89 percent efficiency are used.
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Lenovo ThinkStation P360 Ultra (Image: Lenovo)
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Lenovo ThinkStation P360 Ultra (Image: Lenovo)
The wireless connectivity modules are divided into vPro and non-vPro processors. The latter are equipped with the Intel AX201 for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0, the former with the Intel AX211 for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.
ThinkStation P360 Tiny is even smaller
Although the ThinkStation P360 Ultra is significantly smaller than SFF, the smallest workstation from Lenovo is still the ThinkStation P360 Tiny, which only has 17 .9 × 3.7 × 18.2 cm (1.2 L) at starting at 1.4 kg. In terms of hardware, however, the larger ThinkStation P360 Ultra can be configured with more powerful components.