Lenovo ThinkStation P5 Gen2 Workstation Review

Today we have the Lenovo ThinkStation P5 Gen2 Workstation, definitely a bump from the previous generation that supported Intel Xeon W processors. This one features the Intel Xeon 6 family of workstation processors and support for up to 2x NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition GPUs. The case is basically the same as the previous generation but now it’s gunmetal grey instead of black. Same gloss red accents around the bezel.

Intel’s Xeon 600 series processors supported on the P5 Gen2 are the next iteration of Intel Xeon W-2500 and W-3500 series processors supported on the predecessor. Just like Lenovo’s other ThinkStation appliances, the Lenovo P5 Gen2 features Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Certification. That means Lenovo worked with these vendors, to ensure their software runs trouble-free on the platform. That includes programs for Engineering, Visualization, architecture engineering and construction, media and entertainment, Healthcare, and more.

Looking at the front of the chassis, the 3-dimentional hexagonal cutouts of the front grill are still reminiscent of the Aston Martin DBS SuperLeggera sports car. That said, this system isn’t near that price-point. Starting from the top, a power ON button with LED, storage indicator LED, 2x USB-A connectors with a data transfer rate of 10Gb/s with one always on. Then 2x USB-connectors also at 10Gb/s, a combo audio jack, and a diagnostic panel button to activate that diagnostic panel below for troubleshooting. The USB ports are only available on select models. Also, optional Intel WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

Adjacent to that control panel, is a flex bay that can be used for additional options. Ours has a 15-in-1 media card reader but we’ll get to that. Around back, more ports. Starting on the left, audio line-in, and audio line-out, optional serial connector, 2x USB-A connectors, with a 2.5Gb/s Ethernet connector beside those. You do have more Ethernet options for single and quad Gigabit. Plus, a Quad-port 10G Ethernet network adapter.

Then 2x more USB-A connectors, again offering 10Gb/s, and below those two USB-C connectors with the one on top providing 10Gb/s and the one below that at 20Gb/s. On the upper right, there is a Kensington lock slot and below that, the Key Nests. One for the optional lock on the side cover, and one for the optional lock to secure any front mounted storage devices. We have a single Key Nest for the side panel with two keys.

Then, PCIe slots adjacent to those with the single PSU below that. The platform supports either a 750-watt or 1000-watt PSU. This review unit has the 1000W PSU.

Opening the side cover panel, you can see a clean layout with minimal cabling. With the 1000W PSU, there is also a power distribution board. That board has 2x power connector ports where power cables for the GPUs would be attached assuming you need additional power. If this had the 750-watt option installed power connectors for the GPUs would plug directly into the PSU. The lower two drive bays are not direct-connect and have a wired connection. A third drive bay can be attached to a bracket where our unit has a media card reader at the top. This unit is geared for tool-free access with everything that has a red bar on it, removeable.

The previous generation supported up to 6x total drives, which included 3x M.2 drives and 3x 3.5-inch drive bays for 48TB of storage. Quite sure you could install one of those M.2 PCIe storage cards to arrive at up to 10x drives but we are talking about the Gen2 not the Gen 1 system in this video. Maximum drive capacities listed for the Gen2 are 12TB for 3.5-inch drives and up to 4TB for the M.2 drive bays. One option with the P5 Gen2 delivers 8 storage bays. That would include 4x 3.5-inch internal drive bays plus up to 4x M.2 drives.

With this option, drive bays 1 and 2 are at the bottom right inside the chassis, which are standard and two more can be installed with an Enterprise Dual Drive Internal Enclosure AKA the EDDIE. It holds 2x 3.5-inch SATA hard drives and installs over PCIe slot 4 and blocks PCIe slot 5 as a result. We did not find that much information on the EDDIE.

What we did find more information on, is the ThinkStation Dual Drive Internal Enclosure. That one is listed in the ThinkStation P5 Gen2 Storage Configurator Manual. It too, installs over PCIe slot 4 and comes with SATA cables. With that one, it is not recommended to install a GPU, network card, or quad M.2 adapter in Slot 3. You do lose that highly useful slot. 

Alternatively, you can install up to 11x drives, including 3x SATA HDD/SSD bays and up to 8x M.2 SSD storage devices. That would be using a PCIe Add-on card with two more M.2 drives. There are two 3.5-inch storage bays in the lower right of the chassis and the ability to install one optional 3.5-inch storage drive with a storage bracket and fan on the Flex-bay. The Flex-bay would support 2x M.2 drives with security locks. Not sure if the locks come with it or if those are options. 

If you install nothing in the flex bay, there is a flex bay dummy cover to make it look like there’s nothing missing. Then you have the 2x slots on the system board for 2x more M.2 drives with aluminum heat sinks. 4x additional M.2 drives can be installed using an optional M.2 SSD PCIe Adapter. For RAID, there is the option to install a VROC key or stand-up PCIe storage card. With a standup PCIe storage card there’s the option to install a supercapacitor module, which will straddle the PCIe slots. It provides cache memory protection in the event of an unexpected power loss. 

There are several Intel Xeon 600 series processors supported on this platform. Not to be confused with Intel Xeon 6500 or 6700 series CPUs for servers. Nope! These are Intel Xeon 600 series CPUs, specifically for single-socket workstation applications. Some have an “x” suffix, which means the processor can be overclocked. In a nutshell, these processors are capable of supporting up to 86 physical cores, 4TB of DDR5 memory, and feature 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes for support of multiple GPUs. The 600-series family only supports performance cores—No E-cores. These CPUS can be used for AI development and feature Intel AMX instructions to accelerate FP16 (Floating Point 16), Int8 (8-bit Integer), and bfloat16 (Brain-Float 16), datatypes for AI training and inference, plus deep learning.

That said, CPUs supported on this platform are limited to 48x physical cores and 96 virtual threads. There is also a cap on memory at 1TB. Only DDR5 memory modules are supported at speeds of up to 6400MT/s. The 600 series CPUs will support Multiplexed Rank DIMM modules with memory speeds of up to 8000MT/s. MRDIMMs are not supported on this system, at least not yet. Maybe an upgrade at a later date but don’t hold your breath. In addition to 128 PCIe lanes, the 600 series also support CXL 2.0. 

Expansion slots on this platform include 2x PCIe Gen5 x16 slots, 3x PCIe Gen4 x4 slots, and a single PCIe Gen5 x8 slot for 6x PCIe slots total. Those 2x Gen5 x16 PCIe slots are used for the GPUs, for additional storage or NICs. perhaps a Thunderbolt or USB4 card for super-fast data transfers of up to 40Gb/s, and or a Baseboard Management Controller, BMC, card for remote management. We’re not sure if this system supports Thunderbolt 5 but we don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t. With that, you can achieve data transfer rates of up to 80Gb/s bi-directional for mega-fast data transfers. PCIe M.2 cards with up to 4x NVMe M.2 drives can also be installed, which can be used for additional storage or placed in a RAID array for performance or redundancy.  

There are several GPU options listed in the specs, which have been vetted by Lenovo for reliable performance. That said, we don’t see any reason why you can’t install other cards that meet the same requirements. Testing is expensive! They don’t test everything. Ours is outfitted with an NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell card with 16GB of GDDR7 memory. This system can also be outfitted with up to 2x NVIDIA PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition GPUs with a power draw of up to 300W. For full-length cards, a PCIe card extender is recommended.

If you will be using this system for multi-display visual installations, you may need an NVIDIA RTX Pro Sync card to ensure multiple GPUs and screens operate in tandem at the same microsecond. This is a physical card that installs in one of the PCIe slots. A Sync card is recommended for large-scale enterprise, creative, and simulation environments also in broadcasting and movie production, to avoid screen tearing and stuttering. You won’t need one if you are doing AI and Machine learning, 3D Rendering, or Video Editing and Compute.

A baseboard Management Controller card can be installed for remote management of the system. Available for select models it offers an Ethernet connector and UART connector, which is reserved for future use. 

There is also a mini DisplayPort out connector and firmware LED and a slot on the card for a microSD card with a capacity of up to 2TB. If problems do occur Lenovo offers the ThinkStation Diagnostics solution. You can get 4-digit error codes in the front diagnostic panel or in the Windows notification area. The ThinkStation Diagnostics application can be downloaded. Then there’s a UEFI diagnostic tool and Advanced diagnostics tools for both Windows and Linux systems. And, if you want peak performance out of your Lenovo ThinkStation, Lenovo offers the Lenovo Performance Tuner. It has a number of profiles for the various software applications like AutoCAD, SolidWorks, the Adobe Creative Suite, and more. 

Maybe not everything, but we think we covered some highlights and lowlights on the Lenovo ThinkStation P5 Gen2 workstation. If you want to learn more about this system, contact us today!