Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Tiny Gen 2 Max Power Consumption and Noise
With its small size, the P3 Tiny is somewhat deceptive about its power usage. Unless you were to take a look at its included 330-Watt power supply, you would likely never guess that the system could pull so much power. Lenovo has put a fairly powerful selection of hardware in this system, but it comes at a cost of power consumption – and to a lesser extent noise.
At idle, we measured power consumption in the range of 29 Watts, with some bobbles as high as 46 Watts while Windows was bouncing around. Unlike systems based on laptop hardware, a desktop-based system does not get to fully power down the video card, so we are seeing desktop-like idle power consumption here. Meanwhile, under a full load with CPU-Z’s stress test, we saw power consumption peak at around 240 Watts before dropping to a steady-state around 185 Watts – much higher than your typical 1L SFF PC, but still respectable for a desktop hardware system.
In practice, we suspect that peak load power is actually even higher – we have not pushed the discrete RTX A1000 video card as high as it can go – underscoring why Lenovo needed to include such a high-capacity power supply with the system. Conversely, however, even with 90% energy efficiency, this is likely impacting the idle power load as it is moving so far to the left side of the PSU’s efficiency curve.
As for acoustics, the amount of noise generated is rather low even with the desktop-like idle power consumption. We measured it at 37 to 38dBA in our 34dBA noise floor studio, which, although not dead silent, was silent enough that when needed elsewhere, Patrick forgot the system was even on his desk. You will not forget about the system under load, however. We measured a peak noise level of 45dBA 1 meter from the system. Between the blower for the CPU and the blower integrated into the included video card, the system can and will move a substantial amount of air to keep itself cool under heavy load.
Key Lessons Learned
We have looked at over a dozen 1-liter systems as part of our Project TinyMiniMicro at this point, and even now we are still finding some new and interesting things as we continue to dive through the world of these ultra-compact PCs.
Since we started Project TinyMiniMicro in 2020, we have found these 1L PCs getting better and better in terms of features and performance. These improvements have not come for free. The P3 Tiny Gen 2, in particular, is really pushing what can be packed into such a small volume of space. Still, it provides a wider range of system offerings in a similar form factor. Lenovo, in particular, is taking advantage of that with the P3 Tiny Gen 2 by offering so much performance in a 1L package.
Besides being an accomplishment just in terms of performance density, putting a desktop-grade system into such a tiny PC also opens the door to some fun project possibilities. These styles of systems are incredibly easy to mount in small or hard-to-reach places – Lenovo even offers a VESA mount as an option with this system – so the P3 Tiny can easily be stuffed behind a TV or monitor. Which is admittedly unremarkable for a 1L system, but rather remarkable for such a powerful system.
And finally, while not a feature that we look at as part of our reviews, the P3 Tiny is in rare company with its support options. Lenovo offers optional next-day on-site support, which is something that the smaller boutique SFF PC vendors cannot offer.
Final Words
By packing a full desktop’s worth of hardware inside a 1-liter case – including a discrete video card – Lenovo’s ThinkStation P3 Tiny Gen 2 is a machine with few peers. There are more powerful SFF PCs, and more power-efficient 1L PCs, but the P3 Tiny occupies a very interesting niche on the performance/size curve that packs a surprising amount of performance into such a small system.
Lenovo is, of course, no stranger to 1L PCs, but the Tiny P3 stands apart from them thanks to its workstation lineage. This is not a box assembled out of laptop parts and put in a PC chassis, but instead it is a full-fledged and fully-upgradable workstation that has been made to work inside the same tiny space. Particularly with the inclusion of a PCIe slot – even one that can only accept half-height, half-length cards – really helps to set it apart from the competition by giving the P3 Tiny access to a wide array of upgrade options (assuming you do not go with a video card).
If you need all the performance and flexibility that comes with a workstation, but in the fraction of the size of a normal tower or more spacious mini-PC, then Lenovo’s ThinkStation P3 Tiny Gen 2 is well-suited for serving that role.
Where to Buy
If you wanted to find the Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Tiny Gen 2 online, here is an affiliate link for the family over at Lenovo’s web store or another for B&H Photo. Here is an Amazon affiliate link to a model Lenovo has there as well.
Can I populate all nvme slots at the same time? Could I fit double sided nvme? With PLP?
@Florian
Yes, all of the M.2 slots can be populated at the same time. As for double-sided drives, I’m afraid I don’t have a well-informed answer for you. Lenovo provides no official guidance in their manuals; they don’t explicitly list DS drives as supposed, but they don’t list them as unsupported, either. Thermal pads are pretty squishy, though, so I would be surprised if you couldn’t make it work.