The Lenovo ThinkSystem ST50 Server is an office-friendly tower server that has been optimized to provide enterprise-class features to small businesses, retail, educational institutions and branch offices.

Scalability and performance

The ST50 offers numerous features to boost performance, improve scalability, and reduce costs:

• The Intel Xeon E-2100 Series processors improves productivity by offering affordable single-socket system performance with 6-core processors with up to 3.8 GHz core speeds.
• Intelligent and adaptive system performance with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 allows processor cores to run at maximum speeds during peak workloads by temporarily going beyond processor thermal design power (TDP).
• Intel Hyper-Threading Technology boosts performance for multithreaded applications by enabling simultaneous multithreading within each processor core, up to two threads per core.
• Intel Virtualization Technology integrates hardware-level virtualization hooks that allow operating system vendors to better use the hardware for virtualization workloads.
• Up to four 2666 MHz DDR4 ECC or non-ECC UDIMMs provide speed and capacity of up to 64 GB.
• The server offers PCI Express 3.0 I/O expansion capabilities that increase the theoretical maximum bandwidth by almost 100% (8 GTps per link using 128b/130b encoding) compared to the PCI Express 2.0 (5 GTps per link using 8b/10b encoding).
• With Intel Integrated I/O Technology, the PCI Express 3.0 controller is integrated into the Intel Xeon E-2100 Series processors. Such integration reduces I/O latency and increases overall system performance.
• Up to four non-hot-swap (NHS) drive bays supporting hard disk drives (HDDs) or solid-state drives (SSDs) provide flexible internal storage capacity.
• The use of SSDs instead of, or along with, traditional spinning drives (hard disk drives or HDDs) can significantly improve I/O performance.

Availability and serviceability

The ST50 provides many features to simplify serviceability and increase system uptime:

• The ST50 supports UDIMM memory with ECC protection which provides error correction not available in PC-class “servers” that use parity memory. Avoiding system crashes (and data loss) due to soft memory errors means greater system uptime.
• Tool-less cover removal provides easy access to upgrades and serviceable parts, such as memory and adapter cards.
• A choice of affordable onboard SATA RAID or advanced hardware RAID redundancy offers data protection and greater system uptime.
• The use of SSDs can provide better reliability than the use of traditional HDDs, for greater uptime.
• Built-in Active Management Technology based on Intel Active Management Technology (AMT) 12.0 which continuously monitors system parameters, sends alerts, and enables administrators to perform remote recovery actions to minimize downtime.
• The Lenovo XClarity Provisioning Manager Lite tool can be used to install an operating system on the server and perform system diagnostics.
• One-year or three-year customer-replaceable unit (CRU) and onsite limited warranty with next business day response. Optional service upgrades are available.

Energy efficiency

The ST50 offers the following energy-efficiency features to save energy, reduce operational costs, increase energy availability, and contribute to a green environment:

• 80 PLUS Platinum-certified power supply (select models) enables greater energy savings while providing flexibility to meet your business needs.
• Intelligent Cooling Engine (ICE) actively monitors component temperatures in real-time and optimally adjusts the speeds of the fans to keep the system cooler and quieter.
• The ThinkSystem Capacity Planner tool provides information about the power consumption and electric current calculation for the different configurations of servers and other devices, which helps plan deployment of servers and devices in an efficient way.
• Intel Intelligent Power Capability powers individual processor elements on and off as needed, to reduce power draw.

The following figure shows the front of the server.

Figure 2. Front view of the ThinkSystem ST50 server

The following figure shows the rear of the server.

Figure 3. Rear view of the ThinkSystem ST50 server

The following figure shows the locations of key components inside the server.