Lenovo ThinkStation E30

Lenovo ThinkStation E30. The Lenovo ThinkStation E30 has an attractive marketing angle: It's an ISV-certified system, with an Intel Xeon processor and a true Nvidia workstation video card, for less money than you'd pay for some run-of-the-mill performance business desktops. It's hampered in a few areas, but if you're looking for certified systems for your demanding users, the E30 is a sensible entry-level workstation.

The Lenovo ThinkStation E30 is a good way to dip your toe in the world of ISV-certified professional workstations. It's faster than similarly priced business desktops, and could be a factor in obtaining and fulfilling your next business contract work. Faster than a run-of-the-mill desktop. ISV certified. Well marked interior. No USB 3.0 or eSATA ports. Limiting 280-watt power supply. 4GB of RAM is light for a workstation.

Design and Features
The E30 looks like a standard tower, with the addition of an easy-to-use handle on the top that lets you easily move the system from one cubicle to another. The perforated front panel of the E30 is all business: two USB 2.0 ports, audio jacks, a digital media card reader, and a DVD burner. But it's a party in the back, with six more USB 2.0 ports, more audio jacks, Ethernet, serial port, and DVI and DisplayPort jacks (on the discrete Quadro 600 video card). The system's low price explains why it lacks high-speed ports like USB 3.0 and eSATA, but these are standard on $400-$500 media PCs and should really be included here. The rest of the chassis is painted black metal, as you'd expect of a corporate-oriented PC.

There's plenty of room inside for upgrades. You can add (now or in the future) an additional 3.5-inch hard drive, a second optical drive, as many as three more DIMMs (the E30 comes with only 4GB of RAM), two PCI cards, and one PCI Express x1 card. But the power supply is somewhat limited: It maxes out at only 280 watts. Granted, the Quadro 600 uses only up to 40 watts and the Xeon E3-1230 processor up to 80 watts, but that still gives you a fairly low ceiling for planning future upgrades. The "touch points" in the chassis are marked in Lenovo blue, so you know where to push to pop out hard drives or slide in drive sleds. The system can be upgraded without using a screwdriver, a plus if you need to replace hard drives regularly.

The system comes with a standard 500GB 7,200rpm SATA hard drive, though faster 10,000rpm hard drives and solid-state drives are also options; and RAID Level 0 and RAID Level 1 are supported on the motherboard. There's also a TPM chip for added security. The power supply is 80Plus Bronze certified, the system is GreenGuard certified, and the whole shebang has EPEAT Gold certification. The system is very quiet, thanks to the low power usage in the Quadro 600 card and Xeon processor. As mentioned, the system is ISV certified, so you're covered in case you need support or if ISV certification is a mandatory checkbox on your contracts for projects.

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit came preinstalled on our test unit, but the E30 also supports 32-bit Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows XP (both Professional and x64 Edition), and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Like most Lenovo desktops, the system comes with the Lenovo Rescue and Recovery utility and the Lenovo update manager. The ThinkStation E30 is mostly free of other bloatware, as it should be. About the only other software applications you'll find are Office 2010 Starter, a shortcut for Skype, and an installer for Norton Internet Security.

Posted in: Desktop,Lenovo