Lenovo ThinkStation E31 review

Workstations are typically large, ugly towers, but the increasing efficiency of desktop components means system builders are able to cram more than ever into small-form-factor machines.

Lenovo’s latest, the ThinkStation E31, is one such example. It follows on from the A-Listed ThinkCentre M90, and several sensible design touches have been carried over from the older machine. There’s still the spring-loaded switch on the back that unhooks one side panel, for instance, as well as the formidable build quality that should ensure the E31 will withstand the toughest of offices.

Lenovo has made changes elsewhere. Last time, the motherboard was attached to the lid of the machine, but in the E31 it’s relocated to the bottom of the chassis, where it’s hidden beneath a removable plastic shroud. It’s easy to remove, and this ease of access extends throughout the machine: the hard disk is held inside a plastic, tool-free caddy that can be lifted away from the chassis, and the optical drive slides into a metal cage that tilts upwards for access.

There’s not a huge amount of room in E31, but Lenovo has still managed to fit in a few upgrade paths. Two memory sockets are free underneath the plastic shroud and, while the PCI Express x16 slot is occupied by an Nvidia Quadro 600 graphics card, there’s still a PCI Express x1 slot free – ideal for a wireless card.

Intel’s 3.3GHz Xeon E3-1230 V2 provides processing power, with its V2 suffix indicating Ivy rather than Sandy Bridge technology. It’s a quad-core, Hyper-Threaded part and, while it sits towards the bottom of Intel’s range of Ivy Bridge Xeons, there’s plenty to like – a Turbo Boost clock of 3.7GHz and 8MB of L3 cache, for instance.

The Xeon propelled the Lenovo to a benchmark score of 1.02. That’s about the speed we expect from consumer-level Core i7 chips, and it’s enough to put paid to the majority of business applications. It’s aided by 4GB of RAM and a 1TB hard disk.

That particular Xeon doesn’t include an integrated graphics core, so Lenovo has turned to the Nvidia Quadro 600 – a professional chip based on a host of cards dating back to the GeForce GT 440. It’s no high-end card, but it still ran through the SpecViewPerf 11 benchmark at an average of 18fps. It’s a step down from the 26fps scored by the Quadro 6000M in the HP Z1, but it’s still a reasonable amount of graphics power.

The only downside to this good performance was increased noise. We’re used to small-form-factor machines staying reasonably quiet, but here the fans ramped up significantly during stress tests. Thermal results were mixed, too; the graphics card’s peak temperature of 72°C is reasonable, the processor’s top temperature of 83°C degrees is a little high, and the peak power draw of 141W is impressive.

The E31 marks the first time we’ve seen Lenovo’s SimpleTab software. Ostensibly designed for touchscreens, it’s accessed using a button that appears at the top of the screen, and it masks the Windows desktop with a simpler screen covered with large, square icons. They link to either installed applications or popular websites, with Skype, Facebook, Flicker, eBay and Twitter all installed by default.

Most businesses will find Lenovo’s traditional software more useful. Its ThinkVantage tools collect together proprietary software and a range of Windows settings in a single front-end. Modules for PC health and diagnostics do little more than run checks and install updates, but the backup and restore option adds more functionality. Other menus handle system information, data recovery and hardware scanning, and more options are available in the BIOS, from disabling the USB, SATA and Ethernet ports to password-protecting the hard disks.

Also familiar is the range of changes that can be made to the specification. A modest upgrade to a 3.3GHz Xeon E3-1230V2 costs £35 exc VAT, and jumping to a high-end E3-1270V2 puts £165 onto the price. An extra 2GB of RAM costs £16, an additional 4GB is £31, and the 1TB hard disk can be doubled for £33. A 128GB SSD adds £76 to the price, and a 256GB drive costs a hefty £233. Reducing graphical power by fitting a Quadro 400 saves £32, but upgrading to a Quadro 2000 adds £127 to the price.

More options are available when it comes to service plans. The basic three-year warranty is a generous enough but plenty of options sweeten the deal. Three years of on-site, next-business-day cover is just £9, a three-year courier collection warranty is a pricier £58, and you can even pick a three-year on-site next-business-day deal that comes with accidental damage protection – although that does cost £205.

The model we’ve tested costs £735 exc VAT. That’s a fair chunk more than the M90 but, in today’s marketplace, it compares well: similarly specified Dell Precisions also have similar prices. Lenovo’s latest is decent value, providing plenty of workstation power in a case that’s small, versatile – and just a bit noisy.