Lenovo ThinkStation S20 Workstation, Tested, Burned-In

Today we have a new Intel Xeon W3540-based Lenovo workstation – the ThinkStation S20 - on our bench for some testing. Some of you may be wondering what a “workstation” really is. Well, it’s a term more commonly used in a business environment, especially one in which CAD/CAM design, 3D rendering or high performance computing occurs, and it basically just refers to a higher-end desktop or laptop. In the environments we’ve worked in, we’ve heard workstations referred as high-end desktops or laptops, tech PCs, and technical workstations. In this context, workstations (at least the desktop variety) are frequently comprised of components you typically see in servers.



In particular, the motherboards, memory and processors are often server class. It is also not uncommon to find workstations sporting high-end storage controllers and hard drives. The ThinkStation S20 we are evaluating today sports a 2.93GHz Intel Xeon W3540 processor, 4GB ECC DDR3 memory, a 500GB SATA hard drive, and an NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 video card. This Lenovo workstation is definitely packing some serious horsepower. Keep reading to see just how well this powerhouse performs.

David Altavilla

David Altavilla

Dave Altavilla is the founder, Editor In Chief and Publisher of HotHardware.com. With decades of experience as a semiconductor sales engineer, Dave Altavilla founded HotHardware.com over 25 years ago. Dave is also a published contributor to various technology-based publications and is a featured Tech Analyst expert on various network media shows.