SFF.Network Lenovo shows off the tiny ThinkStation P320 Tiny


PRESS RELEASE:

A press release, when marked as such, is posted direct from the manufacturer and is unedited. Thus, they may not reflect the view of SmallFormFactor.net or its authors. SmallFormFactor.net is in no way responsible for any part of this promotion, but we thought our readers might be interested!

NEW YORK, June 20, 2017 – Today at its Tech World Transform commercial summit, Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) announced agile and reliable PC offerings for business customers that address the evolution of the workforce and workplace. The ThinkStation P320 Tiny offers Independent Software Vendor (ISV) certification to ensure customers’ most critical applications run reliably in an incredibly small one liter form factor. Lenovo’s PC as a Service (PCaaS) offering provides a fully-managed, fixed monthly cost subscription model combining hardware and services into a single solution. Designed to eliminate the burden of buying, deploying and managing computing assets, PCaaS increases product lifecycle efficiency and reduce overall total cost of ownership.

Read more here.
 

Sicaris

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Dec 6, 2016
115
69
I've always liked the look of these, professional but not boring. I know almost nothing about Quaddro cards but I assume this is a very low powered one, where would it compare to the gaming GPUs? Looking at the pictures it seems to be a single slot half height card rather than mxm, I wonder if you could swap it out for something more gaming friendly.
 

confusis

John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
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Jun 19, 2015
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The Quadro included in the 320 Tiny is a Quadro P600 - based on nVidia's GP107 core. The GP107 is the core the GTX1050 is based on, however the P600 has a 384:24:16 core config (similar to the GTX1030) versus the 1050's 640:40:32. Both the 1050 and P600 run at 1354 core clock though.
 

chx

Master of Cramming
May 18, 2016
547
281
Did you mean the GT 1030? There's no such thing as a GTX 1030. I would be delighted of a single slot low profile GTX card but no such luck. The GTX 745 felt like a cheat, being almost 40% slower than the GTX 750.
 

Scott

Caliper Novice
Nov 29, 2016
29
17
Interesting. Almost looks like you could swap in a P1000 if the thermals and power work out. Probably wouldn't be best for gaming though. I had a K1200 from an old workstation in my htpc for a bit that could game decently well (based on the 750 chip), but it had chronic problems with dropped frames, probably due to un-optimized drivers. Swapped it out for a GT1030 and solved those problems.
 

confusis

John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
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Jun 19, 2015
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Did you mean the GT 1030? There's no such thing as a GTX 1030. I would be delighted of a single slot low profile GTX card but no such luck. The GTX 745 felt like a cheat, being almost 40% slower than the GTX 750.

Yes I meant the GT1030 (off topic, but it's a pain in the arse that everything apart from the bottom 1-2 nVidia SKUs are GTX, and the lowest ones are different :|

On another note, Quadro drivers are designed for CAD and GPGPU apps rather than gaming, so your experience may suffer as a result
 

all-in

Average Stuffer
Feb 20, 2017
57
23
I have only one question: can it be used as a competent 4K htpc (including hdcp2.2 protected content) by using a club3D dp to hdmi 2.0 adapter?

Otherwise, awesome little machine.

7700T + "gt 1030" sounds like the last office/browsing/media pc you will ever need

Can even be fitted with an optical drive piggyback addon, making it probably the smallest machine ever conceived with both discrete gpu and ODD.
 

Phuncz

Lord of the Boards
SFFn Staff
May 9, 2015
5,827
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Looks like an excellent computer for me at work, to swap that mid-tower for !
The 6 display outputs are... interesting !
 

ROTOR

Cable Smoosher
Jun 15, 2017
11
5
Now it ś time to check what it fit best a 460 Low profile + shader unlock ot 1050 ti low profile, this quadro p600 is limited to 40W
 

Scott

Caliper Novice
Nov 29, 2016
29
17
Out of interest, do you have Path of exile ? I am desperately searching for reviews of the GT1030 running POE, but didn't find any.

I don't, but I'm pretty pleased with it. I can play Rocket League at 60fps and 1080p with only a few settings turned down from Ultra, and anything more demanding I can in-home stream from my main computer. Path of Exile seems like it might be a little less demanding than Rocket League from what I can tell. Benchmarks seem to almost exactly match a GTX 750 (non-Ti). A 1050 or RX 460 would give more bang for the buck, but the passive model I picked up from MSI is silent, low profile, and has a single slot bracket, all of which I wanted.

If you get one, definitely overclock the memory and tune in the core clock and voltages. The memory overclock had a big effect, probably due to its low memory bandwidth. The core clock was a little tricky to get right on the passive model without a case fan. The power limit couldn't be increased, and it was hitting the power limit at stock under full load. It would also eventually start downclocking its boost clock as it approached the temperature limit, even if it hadn't yet hit the limit (some kind of GPU boost 3.0 thing I suppose). I had to dial in a core overclock then undervolt everything past ~1.0 V to lock it at that frequency to get a stable boost clock that wouldn't downclock itself. Getting all of this right took time, but it was worth it. That and the memory overclock gave me a solid 15-20% improvement in benchmarks. A model with a fan or better case airflow would probably be more straightforward to overclock, but I was being a bit of a freak about silence with that build.
 
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Dyson Poindexter

If there's empty space, it's too big!
Jun 25, 2015
55
62
We've come so far consolidating I/O interfaces to USB and display interfaces to HDMI/DP, if only we could get a computer with nothing but ~10 USB-C connectors. One for power (since it can do up to 100W), then a mix and match of displays and devices however you see fit. It is a dream of mine.
 

chx

Master of Cramming
May 18, 2016
547
281
Back to this machine: so would it perform close to a GT1030 in games? Would it be possible to install one? This looks like a hell of a travel machine and the RX 460 I have in my desktop is only 50% faster than the 1030 so I guess I will live.

I can't readily name any other machine that is barely bigger than an ITX board, less than 4cm thick and has a discrete GPU.
 

all-in

Average Stuffer
Feb 20, 2017
57
23
Back to this machine: so would it perform close to a GT1030 in games? Would it be possible to install one? This looks like a hell of a travel machine and the RX 460 I have in my desktop is only 50% faster than the 1030 so I guess I will live.

I can't readily name any other machine that is barely bigger than an ITX board, less than 4cm thick and has a discrete GPU.

Buying this workstation (where you're also paying for the Pro certifications and the support for six displays) for the sole purpose of playing games seems a bit of a stretch, considering that a ZBOX-EN1060K (6.35cm thick) sports a gtx 1060...

But I understand the sheer awesomeness of putting such a small system in a bag. (and its 135W psu and a keyboard and a mouse)
 

GuilleAcoustic

Chief Procrastination Officer
SFFn Staff
LOSIAS
Jun 29, 2015
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I think it is more: "can it run games at gt1030 level in addition to being a pro rig ?"

Being a certified workstation with the ability to run light games on the occasion is nice.

Of course, getting pro grade components only for gaming would be .... Pointless
 

chx

Master of Cramming
May 18, 2016
547
281
If your goal is to have portable light gaming, this machine beats even weight and size wise gaming laptops which I believe is the first. The EN1060K is 7 pounds! That's too much. The Aorus X3 Plus v6 is four pounds. This thing being less than three pounds is a major plus. I do not need an 1060. My desktop runs an RX 460 and that's aplenty for me.

Paying for pro cert might be a waste but remind me how can I get a three pound Pascal anywhere else? The only question is, how slow this Pascal is.