Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 70A4000HUX i3-4130 3.4GHz Server Desktop Computer
- Processor: Intel® Core i3-4130 processor 3.4 GHz, 2C, 4M Cache, 1.00 GT/s, 65W
- RAM: 1 x 4 GB PC3-12800E 1600MHz DDR3 ECC-UDIMM UDIMM / 4 Slots Total
- Hard Drive: NONE installed with 3 vacant 3.5” bays / RAID: Software supporting 0, 1, 5 Levels
- Optical Drive: DVD-ROM / Power Supply: 280W Fixed / Networking: Gigabit Ethernet (Integrated)
LEN SV TS140 70A4000HUX Toweri3-4130 4G NO Raid 1c1p
$ 234.49
Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 70A4000HUX i3-4130 3.4GHz Server Desktop Computer
First impressions,
I got it for use as home server, similar to what other people use HP mini server. Nicely built heavy metal case, sound dampening and quiet. No dust filters.
Inside it has:
280 W HE Bronze PSU.
4 memory slots, One stick 4 Gb installed.
5 SATA ports
1 PCI slot, 2 PCI-E X16, 1 PCI-E X4
2 well ventilated HD inch bays with front fan blowing on them, 2 HDs more can be installed into slots that are not so well ventilated.
2 display ports and 1 VGA
There are reports about these servers (this one and earlier version, TS130) not supporting certain OS (i.e. Ubuntu, Centos). I took 80 Gb Intel SSD with Lubuntu 13.4 from my Lenovo T420 laptop, plugged into SATA inside and booted Lubuntu in under 10 sec. Using it to write this review right now. I believe the problem is incorrect configuration of UEFI boot, suggest switching to legacy BIOS boot. You will loose space over 2 Tb on larger HD though.
Lubuntu is lightweight Ubuntu mod and I believe boot is the same. Can not quite understand if audio works in Lubuntu. Dont need it anyways.
Power usage by Lubuntu with one SSD installed is 19 W at idle and 45 W at max CPU according to my watt meter. Most of the time it will be idle so the annual 24/7 energy use expected at 166 KWh which translates into about $30 per year where I live. Every HDD will add about 10W but they can be configured to go to sleep when not in use.
Windows 7 with drivers installed consumes 17.5 W when idle. Wundows experience index with single memory stick:
CPU: 7.3
Memory: 5.9
Graphics: 5.0
Gaming Graphics: 6.5
I expect Memory and Graphics go up when second memory stick installed and dual channel mode kicks in.
To enter BIOS press F1 the moment you see first text or logo after you turned it on.
Did I mention it has remote management capability? Startup/shutdown only though?
Update 12/16/2013:
Added 4 GB memory for second channel: Crucial Technology CT51272BD160B 4GB, 240-pin DIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800 CL=9 Dual Ranked Unbuffered ECC 1.35V 512Meg x 72 Memory, installed into blue slots.
Windows experience index for Win 7 64 bit with memory in dual channel mode:
CPU: 7.3
Memory: 7.6
Graphics: 6.6
Gaming Graphics: 6.6
UPDATE Deb. 23, 2014
I have this server working as Windows 7 Mediacenter fed by HDHomerun Prime with Cable card. Used old small SSD as OS disk and two WD Greed 3 Tb for recording. JBOD, no RAID on any kind. It easily handles 3 channel recording and playback. Any significant CPU usage only observed when compskip kicks in to mark commercials.
I first attempted to connect TV via VGA port on motherboard but no avail. Unless there is another monitor attached to the display port it would refuse to display through VGA to the TV. I ended up using very old PCI_E v1 video card GeForce 8500GT I had from 2007 with loss of video performance. Was still ok though even with 1080 video. It works well when you have regular display attached to VGA even with 2560×1440 resolution but not when attached to 1080p TV.
I bought cheapest Display Port to HDMI female-female cable of fleabay. Standalone video card was removed and both video and audio are fed through that cable. HDCP works for protected content with TV; it did not work with Dell monitor. Plenty of power and memory remains to run few small VMs and transcoding. Typical power usage with two HDDs while recording is about 30W.
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|Lenovo Thinkserver TS140 70A4000HUX,
I have done a more in-depth review of the Xeon processor version of the TS140. This Intel i3-4130 is an only slightly less capable version of that one. This 4th generation i3-4130 is at least equivalent to a 3rd generation Intel i5 processor in terms of cache memory, and computational power.
At the price I purchased this i3 version of the TS140 ($235) it was a no-brainer purchase. These TS140’s make great data servers for a SOHO environment if you add at least 4GB of ECC UDIMM RAM to get the dual memory feature. I have made really great HTPC’s for clients starting from this base TS140. If you compare the price to add a SSD OS drive and a HDD for storage, you still will be well under the price of buying the equivalent home or office PC. These TS140’s are just priced right.
This server version came with only 4GB of RAM and no Drives. There are two empty 3.5″ drive bays with cheap plastic drive caddy’s already installed. While there are plenty of 15-pin SATA power connections (6 total) available, the server only comes with one 7-pin SATA III cable to connect up one drive. Make sure to have the extra SATA cables before you start your build or it will slow you down.
The included O.D. is a CD/DVD reader in full height configuration. The 70A4001LUX version with the Xeon processor has a low profile CD/DVD reader/writer in the top 5.25″ bay and a fan cooled 3.5″ drive bay in the second 5.25″ bay. This 70A$000HUX version has the second 5.25″ bay empty. Both versions have an empty 3.5″ bay available.
There are 5 SATA III ports available on the motherboard. The O.D. takes up one of those ports. There is a USB 2.0 port available on the M.B. which could be used for the O.D. if you get a 7-pin SATA to 6-pin USB 2.0 adapter cable. I used the included SATA III cable for the O.D. and installed four hard drives (SSD for the OS drive and HDD for the storage drives) to fill up the bays.
There are lots of ways to configure this server if you want. It all depends on your preferences.
Key features to be aware of for all the TS140 servers:
1. Do NOT use Buffered or Registered Memory Modules. The will not work.
2. Both ECC and Non-ECC Memory Modules work as long as they are NOT Buffered/Registered.
3. The BIOS has no adjustment for RAM clock speed or CAS Latency (CL). Use PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 modules with CL of 11 or, PC3-10600 DDR3-1333 CL9 modules only. If you use higher performance modules (like PC3-12800 CL9) in these servers, they will default to a lower performance state (slower).
4. Use 1.5 volt modules, not 1.35 volt modules.
5. Lenovo does NOT recommend Kingston RAM memory modules. Their tech support and forum specifically state that Kingston is NOT recommended. The tech support person I talked to directly said that they have had a lot of compatibility issues with Kingston. Go to the Lenovo forum for further discussion on this issue.
6. The RAM that ships with Lenovo TS140 servers is either Hynix or Samsung.
7. I have found that G-Skil Ripjaw X modules worked.
8. On-Board Remote access is NOT available for the i3-4130 70A4000HUX versions of the TS140. You have to upgrade to the Xeon processor version to get that.
9. The PCIe slots are either 2.0 or 3.0. They are NOT compatible with older PCIe 1.0 cards – no matter what they say about backward compatibility. Be aware that you may have to purchase new PCIe cards for peripherals and your old cards may not work in these servers.
10. Only Intel or Lenovo branded Gigabit Ethernet Adapter cards work in the TS140’s. The i350-T2 and i350-T4 in particular that are Intel or Lenovo branded are the only ones I found that work. Older Intel cards and other Branded (Dell) versions didn’t work for me. The machines would not even boot up with alternative cards in them. I have not tried other manufacturers cards like SYBA.
11. Make sure to go to the Lenovo website (lenovo.com) to download all the drivers onto a USB flashdrive BEFORE you start your installation. Especially if you intend to install Windows 7 or Windows 8 OS. The included driver CD only has limited drivers for most Sever OS’s. The video, audio, and ethernet drivers are particularly sensitive to driver version. Get the newest and avoid the hassle up front.
12. On Board RAID is available with the Xeon processor version. There seems to be a software raid version available for the i3-4130 version available to download from the website. I have no direct experience with this since I have built Media Servers out of these units and use other severs for data server and backups. There are references by other users on the various forums where they were not able to initiate RAID 5 arrays with this 70A4000HUX version of the TS140.
In conclusion, This Intel i3-4130 makes a great media server, HTPC, or light data server. It has all SATA III busses,…
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|Quiet, Power Efficient, Flexible and Economical,
Things you should know:
1. It is whisper quiet. You can’t hear it running unless you put your head right up next to it. It doesn’t resonate even when on a hard surface and full of spinning hard drives.
2. It has a 280 watt bronze power supply. Being a server, the 280 watt power supply can actually put out 280 watts 24x7x365. The power supply doesn’t have any PCI-E 6 pin connectors (just SATA) so those looking to install a power hungry GPU will need to purchase two SATA to PCI-E 6 pin adapters. About $3 from your favorite vendor.
3. It has a single PCIe 3.0 x16 slot at the top of the motherboard and a second PCIe 3.0 8x slot further down. The board will accommodate a sizable Graphics GPU BUT you will likely have to unplug the front USB 3.0 ports as their connection to the motherboard will block insertion of a long card. Also, the card cannot have any additional thickness above the PCIe 3.0 x16 slot as a long card will touch the hold downs for the memory (insert any memory and then your graphics card).
That said, it will easily accept and run an overclocked AMD R9 270x 180 watt GPU with the stock 280 watt power supply. The voltages delivered under a full load CPU/GPU stress test are exactly the same as at idle without any additional cards/accessories installed. This machine was built to be a work horse.
4. It uses the Intel 226 chipset which has excellent Raid 0,1, 5, 10 capabilities when combined with the RSTe (E for enterprise) drivers. Yes – you can mirror pre-existing single drive data to multiple disks using the RSTe Windows utility without wiping/reloading (just follow the onscreen instructions).
5. It uses the Intel 226 chipset which is primarily for servers and has NO, NONE, ZERO sleep/hibernate power saving capabilities. That doesn’t mean it’s a pig – it just means you will have to either shut it off or let it idle the processor and spin down any disks.
6. It consumes 13 watts idling with 2 – 2.5″ drives. It uses about 60 watts under a full CPU/SSD stress test. 13 watts is roughly $2 a month if left on 24×7 for a month. Pretty green for a server.
7. It fully supports BitLocker Driver Encryption with the on board TPM, Secure Boot (even while running the Intel RSTe drivers in RAID mode), and Windows 8.1.
8. The factory sound card sounds great. The stock graphics card is adequate for all but gaming. The factory network card will fill a full Gig-e connection.
9. The server supports Virtualization and meets the necessary requirements to run either Hyper-V 2012r2 or Hyper-V in Windows 8.1.
Why is this not a 5 star review:
I didn’t give it a 5 start review due to the poor placement of the front USB 3.0 connection on the motherboard which interferes with long PCIe cards. Some may feel the lack of sleep support is an issue but as this machine was engineered to be a server first, you can’t ding it for that.
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