Lenovo introduces latest ThinkServer lineup; Intel Xeon 5500, 128GB DDR3, 16 bays

Lenovo on Tuesday announced its latest line of ThinkServers, comprising the TD200 and TD200x tower servers and the RD210 and RD220 rack servers. The new servers are intended for small to mid-sized businesses and are "up to three times faster" than their predecessors, the company says.

The increased performance is the result of the use of Intel Xeon 5500 Series processors and up to 128GB of DDR3 memory. The rack models have up to 12 hard drive bays and the towers have up to 16 bays.

The new ThinkServers are virtualization-ready and are equipped with an onboard connector for an embedded hypervisor. Thanks to the expanded memory and capacity, Lenovo says customers can consolidate several legacy servers onto a single new ThinkServer to save on hardware costs and

energy usage. (Microsoft, Novell, VMWare and Red Hat are supported)

Lenovo says the new ThinkServers are "the most efficient servers from Lenovo yet," and some models are compliant with Energy Star for Servers 1.0, which provides a 30 percent reduction in power usage compared with non-compliant x86 servers. Lenovo says the ThinkServers' power supplies are more than 92 percent efficient.

The new ThinkServers come with the Integrated Management Module for "always-on," out-of-band server management capabilities via the Web. (In other words: remotely access and manage your ThinkServer from anywhere, anytime, even if the server has crashed or is turned off.)

Select models come with IMM Premium, offering full control of a ThinkServer (including mouse, keyboard and video) from remote locations.

Naturally, the ThinkServers come with support for hardware and software.

The RD210 and RD220 rack servers are available immediately for $1,699 and $2,199, respectively. The TD200 and TD200x tower servers will be available starting July 2009 for a special bid and $2,699, respectively.