Digital Home Thoughts: Lenovo's ThinkCentre M75e + Two L1951P 19' Monitors: Enterprise Computing Bliss?

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Monday, January 24, 2011

Lenovo's ThinkCentre M75e + Two L1951P 19" Monitors: Enterprise Computing Bliss?

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 09:00 AM

The Green Factor

When it comes to power usage, the M75e is quite eco-friendly. Using my Kill-A-Watt measuring tool, the tower on its own idles at 45 watts - not bad for a quad-core CPU machine with 4 GB of RAM. The CPU throttles down to 800 Mhz, which keeps power usage to a minimum. With both 19" monitors attached and running at 100% brightness, total power draw is only 85 watts. Compare that to the 3.6 Ghz overclocked Core i7 CPU with a 27" Dell Ultrasharp monitor slurping down 233 watts that I'm currently writing this review on, and the difference on the power bill is clear - especially once you multiply it by a few hundred workstations. If the M75e is placed under full load, with all four CPU cores grinding at 100%, it will pull down 142 watts of power. The CPU, at idle, is a cool 24 degrees Celsius; under maximum load, it still only rises to 50 degrees Celsius.

Figure 10: The secret to controlling every aspect of system power: the Lenovo Power Manager.

I ran into something weird with the primary monitor - it would continually go back to 49 out of 100 on the brightness, which was a little dim. I'd turn up the brightness to 100 using the monitor controls, but at random a few minutes later it would go back to the previous setting. These aren't particularly bright monitors when running at 50% brightness, so I wanted to have them ramped up to 100%. The VGA-connected secondary monitor stayed at 100% brightness, but the primary one would not...until I found the Lenovo Power Manager (pictured above). Once there, it was easy to figure out that it was the default Lenovo power profile that was causing the screen to ratchet back power.

Conclusion

If you're looking for a no-nonsense business desktop that takes up less space than a traditional tower computer, one that has enough CPU and GPU firepower to handle any office work yet still be power efficient, and one that can scale up to 16 GB of RAM, the Lenovo ThinkCentre M75e should be on your short list. Although I wish Lenovo had come up with a way to run a dual monitor system via a chassis mount, it's nothing that can't be fixed with a couple of monitor stands. The M75e offers a lot of value for the dollar, all backed up by a three year warranty.

Other reviews from around the Web on the Lenovo M75e:

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, his wonderful son Logan, and his sometimes obedient dog. He wishes more software would leverage multiple CPU cores.

Do you enjoy using new hardware, software and accessories, then sharing your experience with others? Then join us on the Thoughts Media Review Team! We're looking for individuals who find it fun to test new gear and give their honest opinions about the experience. It's a volunteer role with some great perks. Interested? Then click here for more information.


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