Lenovo S30 Intel Xeon 128G+2TB WorkStation



Lenovo S30 Intel Xeon 128G+2TB WorkStation


processor info

It is 4 core but no hyper-threading so 4 thread total.

Looks like a solid system especially with the 128GB SSD included. Would get this over the Dell on today’s deal; of course this is priced a bit higher. But I already have a house full of computers. And a laptop and mac on the way from last week’s Woots. Why am I even on this site?

I feel your pain. I would probably build my next computer instead of buying, but yet I still look at this “stuff”.

No HDMI, no wi fi…nice power 600w

I wonder what kind of warranty there is on this thing? 90 day or 1 yr and with whom?

90 Day Shivnet Technology Solutions

Looks like a solid machine. I got this nice HP workstation a while back. Did up the ram to 16, replaced the drive with a 512gb SSD, added 4 2tb WD Enterprise drives (I had them laying around) and us it to record OTA TV and programming from my network connected HDHomerun box (cable card/3 tuner). It also has a 4 tuner PCI card. It’s basiclly a hodgepodge media server.

Now the issue. Being it’s a XEON, the ram that came with MY pc was DDR ram, not ECC type. SO, I could ONLY use up to 16gb. If I wanted to use ECC, I had to replace my 16gb with up to 32gb of ECC ram. SO, with this IBM unit coming with only 16gb but can support up to 256 (I’m sure it requries a daugther board), what ram comes with it? non-ECC or ECC ram (WOOT?)

If it is ECC ram, then it wouldn’t be hard to bump it to 32 or 64, for example. Otherwise, you will need to replace the ram. And my Xeon processor didn’t have onboard video support though it had VGA and display and HDMI ports. I did upgrade my video card. In all I’m happy with my box for what it does. It’s on 24/7 and pretty much as been 98% of the time since my upgrades. I do wish I had not added 8gb of ram and just chucked it all and got the ECC stuff. It would provide better performance IMO when coding recorded tv from WTV format to MP4/MKV. I guess the bottom line if you want to take advantage of the Xeon’s abilities, you need to use ECC ram. Lessons learned.

I made the opposite choice years ago. I used to go buy cases & supplies & mobos & CPUs. Then after using Dell Servers (mostly) for my work-related stuff, and seeing how solid and how well-built they are, and how CHEAP you can get these when a couple of years old (you’re getting like a $1.5K server for $300, etc). Plus you get Windows 10 Pro so if you are building your own “legally” you’ve had to fork out for a Windows license as well, that’s like 1/2 the cost of this system. (or of course do Linux or something, not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
IMHO the main reason to “build your own” in this era is if you want to impress your friends with water cooling (do they still do that, it was a thing about 10 years ago) and pretty blue and red lights and skull faces and other teenage stuff.
Edit: I know this is on a page for the Lenovo and I mentioned Dell since that’s the other deal and it’s what I have the most experience. I’m sure this Lenovo would be a great base system also, and I’d pick it over that Dell which is older and one of their lower-end models.

I have this same system that is many years old doesn’t have USB 3. It is rock solid. I have Unix and Windows on it and I pulled the 5.25 dvd and swapped it out with two CRU bays for work.

For 350 bucks, it’s cheeper then upgrading the old one!

Gaming. That is where savings can still be realized when building a computer yourself. Even then, greater cost savings can be achieved when using a good prebuilt as a basis and upgrading it from there.

Kickass deal, if it has PCI Express x16 and or PCI Express slots. it would make a hell of a gaming rig using that hundred 128 GB solid-state drive. as far as the graphics card it comes with, who knows what it is, but you can always get yourself in modern, decent graphics card for a decent price these days if you want to use it for gaming. Even if you want to use it for a home theater system, you could find a very inexpensive graphics card for it that would have HDMI output.

The main reason I build my own is to remind myself of what’s in there and what it takes to build a machine. I also want a machine capable of doing anything I want it to do, as well as being configured with things I want. Not too many pre-built machines I’ve found have external drive bays…And I do like choosing my own case.

Once in a blue moon, I find a machine that’s close enough that I think about what I would need to add to make it work for me, which is why I still look at all this stuff even though I know 99% of the time, I really have no interest in what I find.