Lenovo has just announced a tiny workstation PC that packs the sort of components you’d find in a traditional mid-tower chassis into a 4L box, with a couple of corners cut along the way to achieve that level of compression.
The ThinkStation P360 Ultra supports Alder Lake Intel processors up to the 16-core Core i9-12900K CPU, up to 128GB of DDR5 memory and up to an Nvidia RTX A5000 mobile. Expansion capabilities are restricted; there’s two PCIe Gen 4x4 M.2 slots and a 2.5-inch SATA port for an optional SSD or HDD, plus there’s a PCIe 4.0 x 16 expansion slot for the GPU and another for a lone PCie 3.0 x4 card.
Given its size, Lenovo did a brilliant job when it comes to connectivity. Although there’s no card readers, you will get four USB ports, two LAN ports (1GbE and 2.5GbE), up to three full size DisplayPort ports (powering up to 8K monitors) and up to WiFi-6E (Intel AX211) in the vPro-capable system.
Tiny powerhouse
Unsurprisingly, the casing of the P360 Ultra has more holes than a gruyère cheese to help dissipate heat as quickly as possible, alongside a powerful (and likely noisy) fan. The CPU alone has a maximum turbo power dissipation of 241W with the GPU’s TGP hitting 150W under load.
As for powering the parts, Lenovo wisely removed the power supply unit from outside the chassis, which helps a bit with cooling. Since these PSUs go up to 300W, they are unlikely to be the new compact GaN model. It might be a smart move to compare it with mobile workstations if you are not fussed about the form factor.
Lenovo does manufacture even smaller workstations; the P360 Tiny is a 1L mini-PC, but can’t compete with the Ultra when it comes to sheer grunt.
The cheapest P360 Ultra will cost around $1,299 when it launches in a few days. Lenovo has not yet confirmed whether the workstation will be widely available outside the US.
