Lenovo ThinkStation P8 Workstation Review
October 24, 2024We are going to be recapping the Lenovo ThinkStation P8 workstation (SHOP HERE) for you, equipped with an AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7000 WX series CPU. Do you remember just a few short years ago everybody was wanting a workstation with AMD processors? Well, your wishes have been fulfilled by a number of vendors at this point, but remember Lenovo was the first with the Lenovo ThinkStation P620 in 2020. We did cover that one shortly after it came out and you can see it here.
The ThinkStation P8 also features the Aston Martin design aesthetic for the front grill with red accent touch points, which we do like.
Lenovo also sent this really cool monitor along with the workstation. The Lenovo ThinkVision 27 3D. It shows 3D video without glasses. It’s super cool!
The P8 supports AMD Threadripper CPUs with 12 to 96 physical cores and 24 to 192 virtual threads, depending on your choice. There are a few to choose from. It can also support up to 3x double-wide NVIDIA RTX 6000 (48GB) ADA cards or up to 4x single-wide NVIDIA RTX A4000 (16GB) ADA cards.
The ThinkStation P620 supported the previous generation AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000 and 3000 WX series processor. Still impressive at 12 to 64 cores but featuring Zen 3 architecture. There is definitely an improvement in processing power the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 WX processors delivering Zen 4 architecture and more cores too at up to 96. That said, the more cores, the lower the base frequencies.
On the front panel you’ve got 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 connectors, one always on, also 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen2 connectors. All of those offer a 10Gb/s connection and are optional depending on the configuration. There is a power ON button at the top and below the USB ports a headset connector, diagnostic panel switch and a diagnostic panel. Below that we have a 15-in-one card reader but you can get a front accessible storage bay with optional lock. More on that in a minute. That dot above the ThinkStation logo lights up red when the system is on. It kind of reminds me of something… I’m sure it’s nothing.
That diagnostic panel will turn on automatically if there is an error. You can also turn it on manually by pressing the diagnostic panel switch. If there are multiple error events, a short press of the diagnostic switch will scroll through the error events and display a QR code of the selected event. You can clear the panel by holding the diagnostic panel switch for 3 seconds. There is a website that provides information on the error code.
The system is compatible with both Ubuntu Linux and Windows 11 PRO operating systems. Accessing the Vantage app can help you update and configure hardware settings, keep BIOS and Firmware updated, and monitor the health of your system among other things. All you do is type “vantage” in the Windows search panel to activate.
A single speaker on this system is powered by a high-definition RealTeK codec. On the rear panel there are choices for either a 1000W or 1400W 92% efficient PSU. GPUs crave power.
If you’re installing 3x Double-Wide GPUs, get that 1400W PSU.
There are potentially one or two keynests on the back of the system. One for the optional side panel lock, and the other to release the optional front accessible NVMe M.2 drive caddy. Then a power ON button, line in, line out connectors. USB-C 2×2 connector, 3x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, 2x hi-speed USB-A 2.0, and then 2x RJ45 ports. The one at the bottom offers 10GbE, while the other to the side provides 1GbE. Optionally, the system can be outfitted with a serial port and 2x PS/2 ports. A small slot on the right for a Kensington lock.
Have you ever seen Bitchin’ Rides on the Velocity channel? The side handle kind of reminds me of the custom Kendig It Design door handles: push and pull. Also, with an optional lock. But again, Aston Martin Superleggera inspired, so yeah, their door handles are much better. By the way, inside the cover are further instructions for installing components and includes a diagram of the system board layout. The top panel hides the antennae for the optional wireless LAN module adjacent to the top PCIe slots inside the chassis. The Wifi module supports Wi-Fi 6E standard along with Bluetooth 5.2. As a matter of note, there are red touch points throughout the chassis to indicate tool-less removeable parts. And you can remove just about everything!
The internal SATA bays come with cables to connect two SATA drives. Fully outfitted, the Lenovo P8 can provide up to 52TB of storage across 9x drives. That includes M.2 storage devices at up to 4TB each, U.3 PCIe NVMe drives at up to 15.36TB, and 3.5-inch SATA drives with a 12TB capacity. NVMe and SATA RAID is supported through the BIOS. Using the integrated SATA controller RAIDS of 0, 1, and 5. The onboard NVMe controller will provide RAIDs of 0, 1, 5 and 10. Given that, we think we can safely assume higher capacity drives are supported but were just not available at the time of testing.
Along with the optional front storage cage that holds a single M.2 drive in a pop-out aluminum caddy there is also an option to support another 3.5-inch SATA drive inside the chassis. This system does not have a plastic cover to direct air flow over the CPU cooler, but maybe that’s because the optional internal 3.5-inch storage drive cage straddles the CPU and memory modules. Could also be that gigantic dual fan heatsink. You can have either, 9x drives, 7x drives or up to 6 drives depending on what type of storage you want to install. Definitely other storage configurations but these are the capacities Lenovo provides for maximizing either your NVMe M.2, SATA mixed with M.2 or U.3 NVMe plus NVMe M.2 sprinkled with a little SATA seasoning.
With the 9x drive configuration you get 8x M.2 drives for 32TB and a single 3.5-inch SATA drive at 12TB for a total storage capacity of 44TB. Since there are only 3x M.2 drive slots on the system board the 4th one goes in the optional front storage bay. The other M.2 drives in this scenario are from installing 4x M.2 drives in the 2x internal 3.5-inch storage bays. Each bay can accept up to 2x M.2 drives with the optional 3.5” M.2 NVMe Bay Kit.
There is a kit that you can use to modify the SATA drive cage to accept the M.2 NVMe drive option. The kit includes two 84-pin NVMe Gen4 Type 2 cables that are attached to the Internal Bay Backplate on one end, and to the internal storage cage slot 1 and slot 2 connectors on the motherboard. Two moded-out 3.5-inch drive trays are also included to hold the M.2 drives. If you don’t already have one, you will also need to install the Internal Bay Fan. This still allows for the optional front M.2 storage option, and the M.2 drive in the lower portion of the chassis is also unaffected by installing this kit. The ThinkStation P7 will only allow the installation of a single M.2 device in each of the internal 3.5-inch bays. You get a dual drive bonus with the P8! That single 3.5-inch drive in this scenario installs in the optional 3.5-inch drive carrier that straddles the CPU and memory modules. So, there you have it 8x M.2 drives paired with a single 3.5-inch SATA drive for 9x drives total.
The 7x drive option includes 4x M.2 drives for 16TB, and 3x 3.5-inch drives offering 36TB for a total of 52TB. That configuration includes the 2x internal 3.5-inch drive bays plus the optional internal 3.5-inch drive cage across the CPU and memory module slots. Lastly, the front optional storage bay outfitted with an NVMe M.2 drive and all 3x internal NVMe M.2 slots loaded.
Lastly, well maybe not… the 3.5-inch U.3 NVMe bay kit that can support 2x U.2 or U.3 NVMe drives at up to 15.36TB each. The kit is very similar to the NVMe M.2 kit as far as installation goes and utilizes the same PCIe cables and mounting bracket but the actual U.3 carrier tray and interposer boards are different. This kit would be paired with the 3x NVMe M.2 drives supported on the motherboard, and the optional front accessible NVMe M.2 drive for a total of 4x NVMe M.2 drives. Total capacity with this configuration would be about 46TB of storage
On another note, we’re not sure why on that last option you can’t still install a dual or quad M.2 drive add-in PCIe card and bump up capacity to say, 68TB, maybe two of those for up to 84TB of storage. That said those add-in-cards would take up two of the x16 PCIe lanes where you could install a GPU. GPUs or storage? Still, you don’t need to choose. Either way you still get terabytes of storage and even in that last hypothetical scenario, at least 2x GPUs! And speaking of GPUs…
There are a bunch of vetted choices available from both NVIDIA and AMD. That choice will also determine how many monitors you can attach to this system. If you have 4x graphics cards with 4x monitor connects, then yes, you can attach up to 16 monitors! There are 4x PCIe 5.0 x16 slots with a x16 link width. The CPU supports 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes but there are not a lot of PCIe 5.0 capable expansion options on the market as you can see from all the supported GPUs. They all use a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. The P8 can be outfitted with either up to 3x double-width GPUs or up to 4x single-width cards. One of those x16 slots will definitely not see the light of day with three double-wide cards installed. Then there are 2x PCIe 5.0 x8 slots and a single PCIe 4.0 x8 slot.
That said, with that lone triple-wide AMD Radeon PRO W7900, we feel confident in saying you can only squeeze two of those in there and will still have slot 4 left at the top of the chassis, even with that fat GPU covering every other slot. Not surprisingly, there are a few restrictions regarding GPU installation. One of which is you cannot install a 3.5-inch drive in that optional internal drive cage if you are running the NVIDIA Quadro SNYC II or a GeForce 4000 graphics card. That said, there are certainly options for an assortment of expansion cards. If you want to rack mount this server it can be divided among several people and you may add in additional NICs. You can also add an optional Thunderbolt card to the mix for superfast data transfers or a MegaRAID controller for more RAID options.
Our system came with an NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPU. A single one. We added a few more just to even it out a bit. Vanity really, but sometimes we like to be bougie. It offers 48GB of GDDR6 memory and offers active cooling. It has a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface with a 300W power draw. 28,300 million transistors with 10,752 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, 112 ROPs, or render output units, and 84 ray tracing acceleration cores. Oh, and 336 tensor cores. There are 4x DisplayPort 1.4a to connect up to 4x monitors. The A6000 is a very flexible enthusiast-class professional graphics card for designers, engineers, scientists, and artists. With those tensor cores, it can be used for machine learning applications and AI but it also excels at graphic rendering. It ranks right up there at the top of the stack but below a few other cards.
AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 WX series processors provides the computing power for the Lenovo ThinkStation P8. It is the compelling feature of this system, with processors starting at 12 cores all the way up to 96 cores. It’s designed to accelerate workflows for Artists, Architects, Engineers and all sort of other artistic and technical pursuits. It offers enterprise-class features and performance. Base clock frequencies range from 2.5GHz at the top core count with the 96-core Threadripper PRO 7995WX to 4.7GHz with the lowest core count Threadripper 7945WX CPU offering 12 cores. Frequencies do decline with core count but across the board the Max frequencies listed range from 5.3GHz up to 5.1GHz at 96 cores.
Our system does have that 7995WX with 96 cores. With 8 memory channel architecture, this system has 8x DDR5 memory module slots on the system board. The previous generation AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000 WX series only supported 4x memory channels. With the Ryzen PRO 7000 WX series memory speed is up to 4800MHz for both Registered and 3DS Registered DIMMs, both offering ECC. This platform will provide up to 1TB of DDR5 memory with all slots loaded with 128GB memory modules. We currently have 32GB memory modules in 4 slots for up to 128GB of memory. From our research, it seems like the current 7000 WX series can support up to 2TB using 256GB memory modules in all slots but for unknown reasons, only 1TB is listed as maximum capacity for this system. Perhaps that will change. If you want to make sure there are no unexpected frequency reductions, be sure to follow the instruction for installing the memory modules.
The P8 fits right in between the Intel W-3400 powered ThinkStation P7 and the ThinkStation PX featuring dual 4th gen Intel Xeon Scalable CPUs. You get up to 56 cores with the P7 and up to 120 cores with dual Intel Xeon Scalable CPUs so the P8 fits nicely between the two. And all of them are very well designed.
So, there you have it! We pretty much covered just about everything, but if you have a question, feel free to contact IT Creations. We have tons of Lenovo servers, and other systems, if your heart desires computing galore. Check out our website here!
