Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 V4 Overview:

The Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 V4 is a flexible and powerful 2-socket, 1U rack server designed to address the needs of industries like cloud services and telecommunications. Whether optimizing for scale-out workloads or future-proofing your data center, the SR630 V4 offers meaningful upgrades over its predecessor, the SR630 V3. In this review, we examined what’s new and how Lenovo has fine-tuned this enterprise server to meet the challenges of modern IT environments.

Differences Between Lenovo SR630 V4 and SR630 V3

Processors

The processor capabilities mark one of the more significant upgrades in the SR630 V4. While the SR630 V3 relied on Intel Xeon 4th and 5th Gen Scalable Processors with up to 64 cores and Hyper-Threading, the SR630 V4 introduces the Intel Xeon 6700-series processors with up to 144 efficient cores (E-cores). This transition doubles the core count while focusing on efficiency, though Hyper-Threading support is omitted. Additionally, the V4 offers planned support for Intel Xeon P-cores, which could provide an even more significant boost for specific workloads. The higher core density in the V4 allows organizations to consolidate more applications on the same number of servers, reducing operational costs and physical server requirements.

Here’s a rundown of all of SR630 V4’s supported 6700-series processors:

Memory

Regarding memory, the SR630 V4 improves on the V3’s DDR5 memory, operating up to 5600 MHz by supporting DDR5 memory speeds of up to 6400 MHz for E-cores. Both systems feature 32 DIMMs (16 per processor) and two DIMMs per channel across eight channels per CPU. Still, the V4 introduces future-proofing with planned support for advanced memory technologies like Compute Express Link (CXL) and MCRDIMMs for P-cores.

While the SR630 V3 could support up to 8TB of memory, the V4 focuses on a more targeted capacity of 2TB for E-cores, optimizing cost and performance for specific workloads.

Storage

The Lenovo SR630 V4 storage capabilities demonstrate a shift toward high-performance NVMe drives while reducing reliance on traditional SAS/SATA options. The SR630 V3 provided flexibility with 3.5-inch SAS/SATA drive bays and up to 16 onboard NVMe ports. However, the SR630 V4 supports up to 12 NVMe drives across front and rear configurations, adding future options for E3.S drive formats, which promise greater capacities and density.

The V4 eliminates support for 3.5-inch drives but introduces M.2 hot-swap options for operating system boot, enhancing performance and serviceability. By focusing on NVMe and eliminating the need for additional adapters, the V4 maximizes I/O bandwidth and system efficiency.

Networking

For networking, the SR630 V4 builds on the V3’s single OCP slot by offering dual OCP 3.0 slots, both supporting PCIe Gen 5 x16. This upgrade doubles the networking flexibility, allowing for enhanced connectivity and throughput with dual-port 200GbE network adapters or other advanced networking solutions.

The increased PCIe bandwidth (32GT/s in Gen 5 vs. 16GT/s in Gen 4) means the V4 can better handle demanding data center and cloud workloads, making it a more versatile option for modern networking needs.

Power

Finally, the SR630 V4 offers enhanced power supply options, moving from the SR630 V3’s 750W–1800W AC Platinum/Titanium options to a broader range of 800W–2000W, including ErP Lot 9-compliant models for energy efficiency. The V4 also retains Telco-friendly -48VDC power supply support while introducing new 1300W HVDC options for specific regional requirements. These enhancements make the V4 more adaptable to diverse power environments, ensuring it meets the energy demands of more complex, high-performance configurations.

Overall, the SR630 V4 delivers a solid leap forward on paper to better address the need for more performance, flexibility, and efficiency in modern IT environments.

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 V4 Specifications

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 V4 Design and Build

The Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 V4 maintains the compact 1U form factor that is standard for many enterprise rack servers. Its design focuses on a combination of functionality, accessibility, and flexibility. We liked its straightforward yet efficient layout, which maximizes airflow, modularity, and ease of use for IT administrators.

Let’s dive into the specifics.

Front panel

The front panel supports up to 10x 2.5-inch hot-swap drive bays and offers flexibility for various storage configurations, including SAS, SATA, NVMe, or AnyBay drives. This allows enterprises to customize the storage to suit their workloads, whether they prioritize speed, capacity, or cost efficiency.

The front panel can also be configured with an optional Mini DisplayPort video port, which can be used for quick local monitoring and diagnostics without needing to access the rear of the rack. Up to two optional USB 3.0 ports are also available; one is designated explicitly for connecting to the Lenovo XClarity Controller (XCC). This connectivity simplifies management tasks, such as uploading firmware updates or running diagnostics directly from a USB device.

Lenovo has included an external diagnostics port on our system, which can be very helpful for on-site IT staff troubleshooting hardware issues (such as system health and failures). This can speed up problem resolution and minimize downtime. It also has a pull-out information tag to quickly access essential system details like serial numbers, configurations, and network information.

The front operator panel indicators and controls provide the usual at-a-glance information about system status and activity, including power and reset buttons and LED indicators for drive status and health.

Rear Panel

The rear panel includes hot-swap power supplies (800W to 2000W) located on each side of the system, which provide redundancy and can be replaced without powering down the system. The Dual OCP 3.0 slots support PCIe Gen 5 x16 for advanced networking, allowing high-bandwidth adapters like dual-port 200GbE cards. The panel also includes a video port, two USB 3.0 ports, and a dedicated XClarity Controller (XCC) management port for local and remote system management. LED indicators offer quick visual status updates for system health.

The rear panel includes a mix of low-profile and full-height PCIe slots for expansion, letting users add GPUs, storage controllers, or other adapters. Storage options include 2.5-inch hot-swap drives and M.2 hot-swap drives, providing flexible configurations for boot devices or additional storage. The back panel is also available in four air-cooled and two water-cooled configurations.

Internal

When you open the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 V4, you’ll see the dual CPUs surrounded by their respective DIMM slots. This chassis offers 16 DIMMs per CPU or 32 total, allowing for up to 2TB of RAM installed.

From the front, you’ll notice up to eight hot-swap fans lined up in a row, channeling airflow across the critical components and keeping everything cool under pressure. Our system has directly attached NVMe SSDs, which are cabled directly to the motherboard.

This direct-attached NVMe offers the highest available NVMe performance, although, for RAID, users must choose between software or hardware options like Graid.

In the rear, the PCIe slots are ready to house GPUs or other expansion cards, while the OCP slots add another layer of versatility for specialized networking needs. Hot-swap power supplies are easy to access and replace, minimizing downtime during maintenance.

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 V4 Performance

This section examines benchmark results from y-cruncher, Cinebench, Blackmagic, 7-Zip, and Geekbench. We compared the dual-CPU Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 V4 with the recently reviewed single-processor Supermicro Hyper 1U SYS-112H-TN. Both systems are powered by the Intel Xeon 6780E, which allows us to see how the 6780E scales from single- or dual-processor configurations.

In addition to the Supermicro, we added an older Intel Ice Lake Server, which was provided when the Ice Lake Xeon 8380 CPUs were first released. This highlights how the E-core models are positioned as a cost-effective upgrade for legacy platforms that prioritize efficiency over raw processing power. This compares the dual-processor SR630 V4 and Intel Ice Lake platform to the single-processor Supermicro Hyper 1U to illustrate the difference in performance.

Here are the configurations for each system.

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 V4 Configuration

• CPU: 2 x Intel Xeon 6780E (144-core)

• RAM: 512GB DDR5

• SSD: Samsung MZWL6960HFJA-00AW7

• Operating System: Server 2025

Supermicro Hyper 1U SYS-112H-TN Configuration

• CPU: Intel Xeon 6780E (144-core)

• RAM: 512GB DDR5

• SSD: Micron 7450 NVMe Datacenter SSD

• Operating System: Server 2022

Intel Ice Lake Server

• CPU: 2 x Intel Xeon 8380 (80-core)

• RAM: 512GB DDR5

• SSD:

• Operating System: Server 2025

Blender OptiX

First up is the Blender test, an open-source 3D modeling application. This benchmark was run using the Blender Benchmark utility. The score is samples per minute, with higher being better.

The Blender OptiX benchmarks reveal intriguing insights across the tested systems. The Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 V4 excelled with Blender 4.2.0, delivering 1,432 samples per minute in the Monster scene, while the Intel Ice Lake Server achieved 569 and the Supermicro Hyper 1U 112H-TN (running Blender 4.0) achieved 781. Lenovo reported 914 samples in the Junkshop scene, with the Intel Ice Lake Server’s 403 and Supermicro’s 514. The Classroom scene showed Lenovo with 657 samples, Ice Lake with 280, and Supermicro with 371.