Desktop PCs come in all shapes and sizes, but the recently-revealed Lenovo ThinkStation PX has one heck of a unique claim to fame, in that luxury car manufacturer Aston Martin co-designed it. It’s resulted in a sleek device with a bold red trim that’s as functional as it is stylish.
As part of Lenovo’s most powerful ThinkStation PCs to date, the PX (pronounced “P10”) comes alongside the P7 and P5 desktops aimed at individuals and companies needing high-performance computing. Just looking at some of the specs housed within these machines, there’s some serious grunt involved.
Lenovo ThinkStation PX takes inspiration from Aston Martin
If you look at the PX and think it bears a striking resemblance to a car grille, you’re absolutely right. In fact, when collaborating with Lenovo, Aston Martin designed the PC’s front based on the iconic DBS car. More than just an aesthetic choice, it actually helps with the device’s airflow, optimising component cooling. Plus, the side handle on the ThinkStation PX chassis also borrows from Aston Martin’s door handle design, making it easy to open the PC and swap components in and out.
On the topic of internals, the ThinkStation PX uses the latest 4th-Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, housing up to 120 CPU cores, with roughly 53% higher performance than the previous generation. Plus, the PC supports up to four Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Generation GPUs for intense visual processing work. Additionally, it supports up to 2TB of DDR5 RAM and PCIe Gen 5 slots for further customisation.
In comparison, the P7 and P5 ThinkStations run on the Intel Xeon W processors and have less room for GPU cards, but they’re still power-packed machines. The P7 supports up to 56 CPU cores in a single socket, and up to three RTX 6000 GPUs. Meanwhile, the P5 supports up to 24 CPU cores plus two GPUs.
Who are the new ThinkStations for?
Not your standard desktop PCs, these devices have a range of potential uses. In particular, the PX and P7 are rack optimised, meaning you can use them as standalone workstations or as part of a server stack to run large-scale computations.
While these ThinkStations contain more power than the average user could dream of, anyone who works with high-end visual processing tasks could benefit. This includes 3D animators, designers, engineers, and plenty more users who need to render many visualisations as quickly as possible. Another major use case involves research scientists running massive sets of data, requiring high-performance computing to handle complex models and calculations.
As part of the new ThinkStation announcement, Lenovo hosted a presentation that featured a look at how other companies use its technology, including animation studio DreamWorks. The studio’s recent Puss in Boots: The Last Wish film comprised over 300 million computation hours during production, just to give you an idea of how these computers get used.
Due out starting from May 2023, Lenovo’s new computers, including the Aston Martin-inspired ThinkStation PX, have a website section where you can register your interest. While ultimately a niche product, it’s a cool collaboration and a fascinating glimpse into high-end PC technology.
