Lenovo puts Haswell chips in budget workstations

ThinkStation E32 line offers performance on a budget with Xeon E3 1200 v3 or desktop Core chips

Lenovo has unveiled an entry-level workstation based on Intel's Haswell Xeon E3 and 4th generation Core processors, aimed at professionals working in fields such as CAD, product development or architecture.

Available from 6 September, the ThinkStation E32 line offers a budget workstation option for engineers. As such, the system is available with just a single processor socket, offering a choice of Xeon E3 1200 v3 or desktop Core i7 and Core i5 processors, all of which have Intel's current Haswell architecture.

The ThinkStation E32 is available in either a tower or small form factor (SFF) chassis, with the first offering space for up to four drives (two 5.25in and two internal bays for 3.5in or 2.5in), while the latter has three internal bays.

Both can be configured with up to 32GB of 1600 MHz DDR3 memory, with a choice of using the integrated Intel graphics or adding a discrete Nvidia Quadro NVS 310 PCIe card.

Although it is only a single processor design, Lenovo claims the ThinkStation E32 has enough performance to meet the needs of professionals in various industries, including medical imaging, media, entertainment and financial services.

Rob Herman, director of product and vertical marketing for Lenovo's ThinkStation business unit, said: "The ThinkStation E32 is a design workhorse, giving users workstation-level performance and effortless productivity on a PC-sized budget."

Pricing for the new line starts at $729 in the US, with UK pricing yet to be confirmed. Select models of the ThinkStation E32 ship with a 60-day free trial of Autodesk's AutoCAD LT 2014 software, according to Lenovo.