Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 5U Tower Server, Intel Xeon E3, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD

Would something like this be better then building my own?
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It saves you a few hundred for a low power usage xeon setup.

I have a Athlon FX 8350 I was going to use for CPU and an asus desktop mobo.
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That is significantly slower than the Lenovo and uses > 2 times the power when running at full speed. Although you probably will not be running your server at full speed 24/7.
 
drescherjm said:
It saves you a few hundred for a low power usage xeon setup.

That is significantly slower than the Lenovo and uses > 2 times the power when running at full speed. Although you probably will not be running your server at full speed 24/7.
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Ok. Thanks for that. I jumped in for one. Now to find a good deal on some more ram!
 
It will go back on sale. I bought it when it was first posted, and it's gone up and down a couple of times.

Worth every penny too. I've got it in the living room running plex home server and media center. It's got enough power to do 3-4 transcoded streams and playback locally, all while being whisper quiet.
 
I sure hope it goes down again.

The wife and I agree'd spending 6K on a bedroom set when we really want a king(can't fit it atm) doesn't make sense so I have some extra money I can use for new toys :cool:

But I'm also a cheap ass so knowing I could potentially save another 70 bucks is winning me over atm. I may actually pick up 2. One for an esxi test lab the other either a desktop replacement since mine was built in 08 and struggles to play games, or as a plex box like some other have done.
 
Im curious about using it for surveillance cameras. I bought a synology DS214 and with 6 HD cameras it is degrading the recorded streams because it cant keep up.

Have 4 2TB hard drives I am going to setup on Raid 10 for hyperV. Hoping to have one VM running Blue iris, One vm running Plex, and a VM for domain control. Ill figure out what I have to offload from there if at all.
 
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Was waiting to get an i7 4790k to use as plex server.. but this seems to blow that out of the water price wise. That was going to be $279 for cpu alone.

Going to move my 4 hd cameras on blue iris and wmc7/plex to a single box. add in the 480gb ssd for $99 from crucial the other day and this thing will fly. Now to wait for the price to drop down to $285 again and im in.. thanks for the post. Now to sell parts from the old i7 920 running WMC and plex currently. please pm or update post if comes available again.
 
Is there anything proprietary stopping me from throwing the innards into a 2U?
 
It does have a proprietary power supply connector. Although you can purchase a converter to 24 pin.

Not sure of any other proprietary items.
 
Aside from the proprietary PSU you might also have a problem with the form factor of the PSU. The last time I did a 2U case it was a long narrow power supply completely different from what I used in a desktop pc,
 
Looks like the deal is back again. I finally bit and went in on one. After adding a few more sticks of RAM I'm gonna use it as an esxi box and load my sophos firewall on it and some test VM's.
 
Had to bite after weeks of looking at this thing. Never needed or had a sever but I always wanted to play around with one since the Windows Home Server days.

Anyone know the HDD brand? I only read 7200rpm.
 
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I want one so bad lol but I think I want(need) the hyperthreading cpu instead of this one now so I can run plex/wmc/hdcameras off one box
 
Got an email from eBay for 4x ebay bucks, which comes out to $22.80. Buying a couple more with that.
 
bjamm said:
I want one so bad lol but I think I want(need) the hyperthreading cpu instead of this one now so I can run plex/wmc/hdcameras off one box
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hyper threading helps but it doesn't add a great deal of extra performance. One study i saw was 0-15% IIRC with select situations in the negative.
 
Any good RAM recommendations for this rig? Any difficulties in moving everything into another case?
 
Pezzy said:
Any good RAM recommendations for this rig? Any difficulties in moving everything into another case?
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it uses a custom power supply. you need to buy the adapter. there is a link further up.

There appears to be only 1 type of ram for this if you are using ECC and it is a crucial ram so you really only have one option if going the UDIMM route.
 
What bothers me is the number of complaints about the sellers attitude. Looks like if anything goes wrong, you're screwed.
 
psh. I have used antonline many many times and have never had an issue. They are one of the major resellers i am willing to buy from. Provantage, newegg, amazon, antonline, B&H, adorma, antonline, and buy/rakuten. There are also a couple others but those are really the select few ones. B&H is good but i hate buying from them due to their hours. I get store having limited hours but the online store run by a computer....wtf. They have lost my business many times because of the online checkout being closed...seriously is it run by jewish gremlins and not by an actual computer?
 
Deadjasper said:
What bothers me is the number of complaints about the sellers attitude. Looks like if anything goes wrong, you're screwed.
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They seem to have automated customer service so that probably rubs people wrong. I cant imagine what its like for a discount tech seller to have savy staff. Not that I want to defend them because I haven't dealt with them before. I've had good luck with ebay seller service the past few years.

Otherwise, the way I look at it, the cpu is probably ok and thats $240 new on ebay. The HDD is $60 (ebay). The 4B Crucial RAM is $58 (Amazon). That's 350+ right there. The mobo should be about 50 but I didn't see it for less that 150 in few places I looked. The PSU can be bought for about 10 (the 450w ThinkServer version is around 200). For 285 and no tax/shipping I'm not going to sweat much since I can scramble parts around.

Of course when these things show up so cheap you wonder what the catch is. I know the CPU is 2 years old and about ready to get cheaper. I know some ThinkServers supposedly don't upgrade well and maybe thats an issue


"ThinkServer TS140 or TS440 will not be operational after a CPU or motherboard replacement "

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/ht100738?tabName=Solutions
 
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Pezzy said:
Any good RAM recommendations for this rig? Any difficulties in moving everything into another case?
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HammerSandwich said:
Both questions already answered in thread.
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See Below. There seems to be a lot of different things being stated about the RAM. Some users stating this needs ECC, some stating it works perfectly fine without ECC. In regards to the case, someone just asked for the pin diagrams. I'm assuming they aren't labeled on the stock mobo.

PersonalJ said:
E3 platform is unbuffered only.
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StoleMyOwnCar said:
I don't think you even need ECC ram. IIRC from what I read in the Amazon reviews it works fine with non-ECC. If you're not planning to use it as a production server it may be cheaper to just grab some regular ram and throw it in and then sell the ECC ram on Ebay as IIRC it sells for decent markups.
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SomeGuy133 said:
ECC is a mere 10-20% mark up so I rather just get ECC. It is really cheap compared to what I though it would be.

@PersonalJ I see like no non Registered ECC RAM. It is all Registered for sale so they must work otherwise I am stuck buying some weird ass color company RAM. I think your thinking of fully buffered back from DDR2.
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StoleMyOwnCar said:
Well if you go to the Amazon page:
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkServer-70A4001LUX-E3-1225-Processor/dp/B00FE29IWK

And look at the "frequently bought together" section... there are is mostly just one specific Crucial line. I'd guess that those will work... though I think 16GB for 124$ is a DDR4 price. That's a 59% markup from current normal non-ECC DDR3 prices.
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StoleMyOwnCar said:
Current RAM prices sorted by $/gb:
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/memory/#sort=a7&page=1

Even from nicer brands like GSkill or Crucial, 16GB kits are sitting at ~78$. On the lower left there is an option for ECC ram rather than non-ECC. ECC is much more expensive currently.
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ir0nw0lf said:
What ECC RAM requirement? These run perfectly fine with non-ECC RAM. Many many many people on other sites (like SD) will confirm that.
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SomeGuy133 said:
It is odd because the documentation leads you to believe it requires and only can use UDIMM only and not SDRAM
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Reviewing users on SD that have this machine, "you can mix ECC with non-ECC RAM, but make sure its unbuffered. If you get buffered (aka registered) memory, the machine will not post."



roma said:
"ThinkServer TS140 or TS440 will not be operational after a CPU or motherboard replacement "

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/ht100738?tabName=Solutions
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This link is confusing. It states "will not", then "may not" right after that. There there is some verbiage that makes me think the CPU could be replaced/upgraded, as long as it is the correct architecture.

"If the user wants to replace the existing CPU with the new CPU:

Check the new CPU. If it is Haswell CPU, then you do not need to be anything. If it is Haswell Refresh CPU, then check the motherboard. If it is 03T8874/03T8873/03T8612, then this CPU cannot be supported. If it is 00FC658/00FC657/00FC659, then you do not need to do anything.

If the user wants to replace the existing motherboard with the new motherboard:

Check the existing motherboard and the new motherboard. If the FRU is not the same, then the ME driver and the VGA driver needs to be updated to the latest version."
 
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They don't ship to where I'm at, anyway to get a mother board and the same/similar chip for about the same cost?
 
That link goes to a blank TD page, I'm wondering if Newegg will ship to here as well since there are some products that I couldn't get shipped here.
 
Hmmph, I'm about to go drop ~$900 @ Microcenter for a new rig to run my triple Qnix, for WORK purposes only.. I'm wondering if this T140 might be my move instead..? Thoughts on that anyone? Here is what I was thinking, versus I guess this T140 now:PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($159.00)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus H97-PRO GAMER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($107.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($102.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($99.94 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($209.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair Vengeance C70 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($93.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $928.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-11 08:42 EDT-0400
 
Deadjasper said:
Anybody else turned off by the seller reviews?
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I was concerned by the ebay reviews but not enough to not buy it after everyone in this thread seemed to be happy.

I ordered mine Tuesday and got it yesterday and there wasn't anything wrong with it so I'm happy.
 
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