Tech Spec Spec it right!

Lenovo ThinkStation P720

Dual-socket 36L tower workstation for first- and second-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors up to 165 W each, with 12 DIMM slots for up to 768 GB of ECC RDIMM and room for two dual-slot pro GPUs. Lenovo positions it between the single-socket P520 and the larger dual-socket P920.

Memory

Slots
12 DDR4 DIMM: 6 per CPU, 6 channels per CPU (one DIMM per channel)
Type
DDR4-2666 or DDR4-2933 ECC RDIMM, 1.2 V (no LRDIMM listed)
Max
768 GB (12 × 64 GB RDIMM, two CPUs)
DIMM sizes
8 / 16 / 32 / 64 GB RDIMM, any combination (user guide)
Single CPU
Only the six CPU 1 DIMM slots can be used
Fill order per CPU (Lenovo)
1 DIMM: slot 3; 2: slots 3, 5; 3: slots 1, 3, 5; 4: slots 3, 4, 5, 6; 6: all. 5 per CPU works but is not recommended
Speed by CPU (HMM)
Bronze 2133, Silver 2400, first-gen Gold/Platinum 2666, second-gen Gold/Platinum and Xeon W-3200 2933 MT/s

Storage

Support (PSREF)
Up to 6 × 3.5" SATA HDD / 10 × 2.5" SATA HDD / 8 × 2.5" SAS HDD / 10 × 2.5" SATA SSD / 4 × 2.5" PCIe SSD, plus 9 × M.2 PCIe SSD and 2 × PCIe add-in SSD
Internal bays
2 × 3.5" standard; 2 more with the 3rd-disk or Storage Bay Upgrade Kit; 2 more via the flex bays
2.5" doubling
The 4 internal 3.5" bays can hold 2 × 2.5" drives each (up to 8); needs a 9440-8i or 9460-16i adapter and other parts
Onboard M.2
2 × M.2 PCIe NVMe (PCIe 3.0 x4) on the board
More M.2
Up to 9 M.2 SSDs in total; Lenovo lists a Quad M.2 PCIe adapter and a PCIe x4 to M.2 adapter
SATA ports
9 × SATA 6 Gb/s connectors plus 1 × eSATA on the board
Drive sizes offered
3.5" SATA HDD 1–6 TB; 2.5" SATA HDD 500 GB; 2.5" SAS HDD 300/600 GB; 2.5" SATA SSD 256 GB–2 TB; M.2 NVMe 256 GB–2 TB; 2.5" PCIe (U.2 Optane) 1.5 TB; PCIe add-in (Optane 905P) 480 GB
Onboard RAID
Intel RSTe SATA RAID 0/1/5/10
Optional RAID
Broadcom 9440-8i (SAS/SATA, 0/1/5/10); Broadcom 9460-16i (0/1/5/6/10, 4 GB cache, SuperCap); Intel VROC NVMe Basic (0/1/10), Premium or Intel SSD only (0/1/5/10)
Optical
Up to two half-height or 9.0 mm slim drives: DVD-ROM, DVD±RW, Blu-ray
Card reader
SD card reader on almost all PSREF models; optional 15-in-1 reader on the flex module

Graphics

Top configuration (PSREF)
Up to two NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 48 GB with NVLink
Quadro (Pascal/Volta/Turing)
P400, P600, P620, P1000, P2000, P2200, P4000, P5000, P6000, GP100, GV100, RTX 4000, RTX 5000, RTX 6000, RTX 8000
NVIDIA T / RTX A
T400 2 GB/4 GB, T600, T1000 4 GB/8 GB, RTX A2000 6 GB/12 GB, RTX A4000, RTX A4500, RTX A5000, RTX A5500
RTX count vs PSU (Lenovo 2018 matrix)
900 W: up to 1 × RTX 8000/6000/5000 or 2 × RTX 4000. 690 W: 1 × RTX 4000 only
GPU power by PSU (Power Configurator)
690 W: one card up to 180 W with dual CPUs of 115 W or less; bus-powered (75 W) cards only with dual 120–150 W CPUs. 900 W: 1 × 250 W or 2 × 180 W. 1000 W: 2 × 295 W with dual CPUs up to 125 W (up to 150 W with onboard Intel storage); with 165 W CPUs 2 × 265 W (onboard Intel storage) or 1 × 300 W + 2 × 75 W or 2 × 180 W
Aux power
Board-mounted GPU power headers: 690 W has only GFX_PWR1 live with one 8-pin (6+2) drop; 900 W both headers, two 8-pin (6+2) drops; 1000 W two 8-pin + 6-pin drops
Onboard video
None; displays run from the graphics card

Expansion

Slot 1
PCIe 3.0 x16, full height, full length, 75 W, CPU 2 (full length only if the onboard M.2 slots are unused)
Slot 2
PCIe 3.0 x16, full height, full length, 75 W, double-width, CPU 1
Slot 3
PCIe 3.0 x8, full height, full length, 25 W, open-ended, CPU 1
Slot 4
PCIe 3.0 x16, full height, full length, 75 W, double-width, CPU 1
Slot 5
PCI (conventional), full height, full length, 25 W
Slot 6
PCIe 3.0 x4, full height, half length, 25 W, open-ended, PCH
Flex bays
2 × 5.25" flex bays: 2 × half-height ODD, 2 × slim ODD, slim ODD + 2 × 3.5"/2.5" drives, a Front Access Storage Enclosure, or a flex module (slim ODD plus 15-in-1 reader, 2 × Thunderbolt or 4-digit diagnostic display; front USB-C or eSATA ports)

Networking

Onboard
2 × Gigabit Ethernet: Intel I219-LM and I210-AT, 2 × RJ-45, Wake-on-LAN, PXE
Optional Ethernet
Up to two more adapters (up to four extra 10 GbE ports): Intel I210-T1, I350-T2, I350-T4, X540-T2, X550-T2, X710-DA2 (SFP+); Broadcom BCM5719, BCM5720; Marvell AQtion AQN-107 (10 GbE), AQN-108 (5 GbE); Bitland BN8E88
WLAN
Optional Intel Wireless-AC 8265 + Bluetooth 4.2, or Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 + Bluetooth 5.1

Power

PSU options
690 W, 900 W or 1000 W fixed, 92% efficient, 80 PLUS Platinum, autosensing
Input
100–240 V AC, 50/60 Hz, C14 inlet
Design
The PSU plugs into the board through an edge connector and GPU aux power is cabled from the board, so a PSU upgrade needs no disassembly (Power Configurator)

Ports

Front
4 × USB 3.2 Gen 1 (one Always On / fast charge), headphone/mic combo jack, SD card slot
Front optional
2 × Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C, flex module, one with video out), 1 × USB-C 3.2 Gen 1, 1 × eSATA
Rear
4 × USB 3.2 Gen 1, 2 × USB 2.0, 2 × RJ-45, line-in, line-out, mic, 2 × PS/2
Rear optional
2 × USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (PCIe card), 1 × Thunderbolt 3 (PCIe card), 1 × serial
Video
From the graphics card only (DisplayPort, mini DisplayPort or DVI depending on card)

Physical

Form factor
Tower, 36 L
Dimensions (W×D×H)
175 × 485 × 446 mm (6.89 × 19.1 × 17.6 in, with feet)
Weight
25.7 kg (56.7 lb) maximum configuration (PSREF); the user guide gives 24 kg (52.91 lb)
Machine types
30BA, 30BB
Motherboard
Custom ATX, 334 × 378.5 mm
Cooling
One front and one rear system fan, one fan per CPU, two memory fans, PSU fan
Security
Discrete TPM 2.0 (TCG, FIPS 140-2), chassis intrusion switch, Kensington slot (3 × 7 mm), padlock loop, optional access-panel lock kit (common or unique key)
Operating temperature
10–35 °C (50–95 °F)

Management

Remote
Intel vPro with Intel AMT 11
BIOS
AMI UEFI, 32 MB flash
Diagnostics
ThinkStation Diagnostics, Lenovo UEFI Bootable Diagnostics, front signal LED and photoelectric sensor for Lenovo PC Diagnostics (Android/iOS), optional front 4-digit diagnostic display
Model dates (PSREF)
Model announce dates 2017-09-26 to 2023-11-09
End of support (PSREF)
2029-04-30 for most models (2025-10-26 for a few)

Operating systems

Preloads
Windows 11 Pro for Workstations, Windows 10 Pro for Workstations (including Windows 11 downgrade), Ubuntu Linux LTS, no OS
Certified / supported
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5 certified (PSREF); tech specs also list RHEL 7.3 and 8.2 and Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04 and 20.04 LTS

Processors

  • Intel Xeon Bronze 3104
  • Intel Xeon Bronze 3106
  • Intel Xeon Bronze 3204
  • Intel Xeon Bronze 3206R
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4108
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4109T
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4110
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4112
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4114
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4114T
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4116
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4208
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4209T
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4210
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4210R
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4214
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4214R
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4215
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4215R
  • Intel Xeon Silver 4216
  • Intel Xeon Gold 5115
  • Intel Xeon Gold 5118
  • Intel Xeon Gold 5120
  • Intel Xeon Gold 5120T
  • Intel Xeon Gold 5122
  • Intel Xeon Gold 5215
  • Intel Xeon Gold 5217
  • Intel Xeon Gold 5218
  • Intel Xeon Gold 5220
  • Intel Xeon Gold 5222
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6128
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6130
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6134
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6136
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6138
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6142
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6146
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6148
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6226
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6226R
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6230
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6234
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6238T
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6240R
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6242
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6244
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6246
  • Intel Xeon Gold 6248
  • Intel Xeon Platinum 8160T
  • Intel Xeon W-3223
  • Intel Xeon W-3225