Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Tower Gen 2 Review

The Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Tower Gen 2 offers a very similar design to the more powerful towers in the family; the P5, P7, P8, and the PX. Maybe not Aston Martin SuperLegerra looks but still a definite family resemblance with the red accents and Hexagon perforated front panel. 

Along with the ThinkStation P2 Gen 2, Lenovo also announced the ThinkStation P3 G2 at NXT BLD in London on June 11 of 2025. The P3 Gen 2 is also available in a number of form factors. A P3 Ultra SFF Gen 2, a P3 Tiny Gen 2 at about 1 liter in volume, and this Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Tower Gen 2 has a 23-liter chassis. It features a Series 2 Intel Core Ultra processor, code name Arrow Lake, with integrated Neural Processing Unit or NPU. The tower is the largest of the bunch. You could squeeze perhaps 23 of the P3 Tiny Gen2 into the same area but the tower is definitely more expandible. This unit can be outfitted with either 1x high-performance GPU or up to 2x single-width GPUs.

Unfortunately, workstations, even ThinkStations, do not offer that ultra performance for games that you would expect. For gaming, you would be advised to go with Lenovo Legion, specifically designed for gamers. But we digress… This unit is targeted at what Lenovo calls performance value users. That said, for a hybrid platform for both work and play, this could work quite well.

Just like Lenovo’s other P-series workstations, this P3 Gen2 offers Independent Software Certification (ISV) for a number of popular software applications. The front is a little odd, but who cares? It does allow for a handle so you can easily carry it. Maybe even let it ride shotgun on dinner dates with your girlfriend or boyfriend!

The front of the Lenovo ThinkStation P3 has a Flex Bay on the left beside the control panel. That Flex Bay can be outfitted with a 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch drive with either internal or external access with a key lock for security.

There’s a power ON button with integrated LED, Storage indicator, optional SD card reader, microphone connector, then a headset connector. Below those, a USB-C connector with 20Gb/s data transfer rates, then 2x USB 3.2 Gen1 connectors at 5Gb/s, and a pair of USB 3.2 Gen2 ports offering 10Gb/s. There is a small 2W speaker between the flex bay and the control panel. One of the neat things on Lenovo systems is the LED incorporated into the logo. Sometimes it’s the little things! 

Around the back of the system are more ports and spaces for optional ports. Starting from the top, an audio line out port, and Flexible I/O port below that. That Flex I/O port can be outfitted with several options; an HDMI out connector, VGA out connector, or USB-C out connector with display port function. The 4^th option is a DisplayPort, which is what we have on this system. Below that an HDMI port next to 2x DisplayPort sockets. Those DisplayPorts run off the integrated graphics controller embedded in the CPU architecture. 

Below those a row of 2x USB 3.2 Gen2 ports offering 10Gb/s data transfer rates, with an RJ45 1Gb Ethernet port beside that, then another set of USB 3.2 Gen1 connectors offering a 5Gb/s data transfer rate. That black block is the WiFi antenna cover. Then the PCIe slots and a knock out plate where an optional serial port can be installed. Below that the power supply unit. Options include a 500W, 750W or 1100W PSU. Ours has a 750W PSU. There are a few security features on the back of the Lenovo ThinkStation P3. A padlock loop, slot for an optional e-lock, and optional security lock slot.  

2x side panel options are available depending on the configuration. With the 1100W and 750W PSUs there are two perforated sections in the side panel for heat dissipation. Models with the 500W PSU have no vents. There are 2x screws in back, that secure the side panel. Along with that 750W PSU, we have an NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada card installed. Once we remove the side panel, you can see the optional side fan with bracket is installed in this system. We also have the optional front fan for PCIe slot cooing. The Side Fan is easy to remove without tools by depressing the plastic release tabs to either side and tilting it up, and out, then disconnect the power connector. 

The Lenovo ThinkStation P3 does have a few parts to remove before you can expose the motherboard. Including the chassis beam, that the Side Fan bracket is connected to. But before you can remove that, our system does have an optional optical disk drive and bracket. That disk drive and bracket have to be removed too. Once we’re inside you can see the CPU heat sink as our platform does not have a plastic shroud for the CPU and memory.

CPUs supported on this system are the 5, 7, or 9 Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors. With the Intel Ultra 9 CPU, like installed on this system, it has 24 cores. They include both P-cores and E-cores. Also, more cache at 36MB compared to 20MB cache on the Core Ultra 5 225 with 10 cores. What is missing from both series 1 and series 2 Intel Core Ultra CPUs is Intel Hyperthreading Technology like on the 12^th through 14^th gen Intel Core i processors. This means, a single physical core will not act as 2x logical cores. So, that 24x core Intel Ultra 9 CPU that consists of 8x P-cores and 16x E-cores will provide 24 virtual threads. 

Hard to keep track of all the debate on performance for the new Core Ultra CPUs given the removal of hyperthreading technology, among other things. That said, performance seems good overall with more powerful physical cores making up for the lack of virtual cores. They do offer higher core clock speeds too. Memory supported on this system includes DDR5 Unbuffered DIMMs (UDIMM) with either ECC or non-ECC modules offering speeds of up to 5600MT/s. 

In addition to those are Clocked unbuffered DIMMs or CUDIMM memory modules. They offer speeds of up to 6400MT/s and are designed for increased speed, stability and reliability at higher memory frequencies. CUDIMMs employ a clock driver on the module itself, to stabilize and improve memory signal integrity. Supposedly, these offer better performance than traditional UDIMMs. Either way, you can install up to 256GB of memory in this system but memory speed will default to 5600MT/s regardless of which type you install due to platform limitations. 

All of the supported CPUs have integrated Intel Graphics so you can run a few monitors even without a discrete GPU. With an integrated Neural Processing Unit, or NPU, this system is AI ready as the NPU can be used for light AI tasks. For more complex applications, and additional monitor support, a discrete graphics card is recommended and there are several options.

You can install a single NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada or 2x single-width NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada GPUs. The press release also listed the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q workstation edition. 

GPUs with a top Thermal Design Power rating of up to 300W are supported and that would include that NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q workstation edition with 96GB OF GDDR7 memory. The Max-Q was not listed with the current offerings, but we did confirm that it will be part of the supported GPUs towards the end of Q3 of 2025. For the double-wide performance GPUs, like the Max-Q, it connects in back with a latching mechanism for the front mount, and an optional extender that bolts on to the card securing it in front. The two make for a very solid connection. There is also a graphics card retainer that just seems like overkill but does a good job as a wire harness manager. 

That Blackwell Max-Q workstation Edition GPU uses 300W of juice and is not to be confused with the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition without the Max-Q. That one drains up to 600W of power! This is the card though for AI applications, data science, and graphics. 5^th Gen Tensor Cores, DLSS 4, 4^th Gen Ray Tracing cores, 24,064 Cuda Cores, and it can take advantage of that PCIe 5.0 interface on the system board. You get the picture. Additional items you might want to place in those PCIe slots include an M.2 adapter card, Broadcom 940-8I RAID card and several other options for network connectivity. 

Maximum storage is variable depending on the configuration. Apparently, you can install up to 7x drives. That would include 3x SATA HDDs or SSDs, plus 4x M.2 drives.

There is one front internal drive cage by default with the option to install 2x more right on top but you can only install one with the 7x drive configuration scenario. Then, you place an optional drive cage in the front Flexbay, which can be accessed externally for 3x SATA storage bays. Sadly, no Optical device if you do that. Lastly, you use all 3x M.2 slots on the system board and then add in a single PCIe-mounted M.2 drive for 7x drives total. 

If you have the 750W or 1100W PSU, that 3^rd Internal, lower 3.5-inch storage cage that stacks on top of the other 2x cages is not supported. It’s also not supported if there is an M.2 drive in the lower PCIe 4.0 x4 slots. Yes, you can install 2.5-inch drive in those 3.5-inch bays with adapters. We will note the supported M.2 PCIe Adapter is for a single M.2 drive and has a PCIe 3.0 interface even though the actual slot that the card goes into is PCIe 4.0. slot. There is only 1x PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot and the other 2x are PCIe 4.0. 6x drives is only available with the 500W PSU. There are a bunch of different storage configurations.

As with systems from other manufacturers, it’s a familiar tale. You can’t install this without that, and you will not be able to install that if you have this. That’s pretty standard. This little platform is attractive like a bulldog with a snaggle-tooth but it has the goods where it counts on performance. If you are interested in this platform, or any other system, contact IT Creations!