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Lenovo ThinkStation P7 Manual
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Lenovo ThinkStation P7 Manual

Lenovo ThinkStation P7 Manual

Storage configurator
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Storage Configurator
Lenovo ThinkStation P7

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Summary of Contents for Lenovo ThinkStation P7

  • Page 1 Storage Configurator Lenovo ThinkStation P7...

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    Table of Contents Overview ......................... 3 Section 1 – P7 Storage Summary ................4 Section 2 – P7 M.2 SSD Details ................5 Section 3 – P7 SATA Hard Drive Details ............... 36 Section 4 – Appendix .................... 47 Revision History ....................49...

  • Page 3: Overview

    Overview ThinkStation P7 is a single processor, 39L tower added to the Lenovo workstation portfolio in the spring of 2023. P7 offers multiple different storage options for M.2 and 3.5” SATA drives. This document describes the P7 storage subsystem and provides configuration guidelines to help you set up the optimal storage solution for your needs.

  • Page 4: Section 1 - P7 Storage Summary

    Section 1 – P7 Storage Summary The tables below give a quick snapshot of the type, capacity, and quantity of storage devices supported on P7. Table 1 – P7 Storage Types Drive Type and Speed P7 Supported Capacity M.2 PCIe SSD Gen4 x4 Up to 4TB 3.5”...

  • Page 5: Section 2 - P7 M.2 Ssd Details

    Section 2 – P7 M.2 SSD Details The P7 platform supports a variety of different M.2 SSD storage options. The two tables below give details on the features, compatibility, and required parts for M.2 SSDs. Installation location and information for each of the M.2 SSD options can be found in the subsequent pages.
  • Page 6 Table 5 – M.2 compatibility and required parts Location Compatibility Requirements and parts • M.2 Carrier and Heatsink kit standard on Onboard (OB) motherboard • Limits PCIe slot 7 to half length Third onboard • Not compatible with double-wide GFX •...
  • Page 7 Onboard M.2 SSD installation The location of the two standard onboard M.2 SSDs can be seen in this picture: Each M.2 module consists of the M.2 carrier, heatsink, and the drive itself.
  • Page 8 1. Open the side cover of the P7 and remove any PCIe adapters that may interfere with accessing the onboard M.2 slots. 2. Rotate the red latch counterclockwise to release the M.2 carrier. 3. Tilt the front side of the M.2 carrier up slightly and pull to the right to remove it from the socket.
  • Page 9 4. Lay the M.2 carrier flat on a desk and carefully separate the heat sink from the carrier by gently pushing two of the tabs on one side away from the heat sink. 5. Remove the plastic insert as well as the thermal pad plastic film. 6.
  • Page 10 7. Reinstall the heatsink on top of the M.2 drive within the carrier by inserting the feet on one side of the heat sink into the openings of two of the tabs on one side of the carrier. Then press down on the other side of the heat sink until the feet engage the tabs on the heatsink.
  • Page 11 Third onboard M.2 kit installation The third onboard M.2 kit is an optional kit that will need to be purchased separately if it was not ordered when the original system was built. The kit is mounted on the rear of the internal 3.5” drive bays, as seen in the following pictures.
  • Page 12 …and from the other side:...
  • Page 13 The third onboard M.2 kit consists of the vertical holder w/ interposer card and the M.2 carrier, as seen in the following photos. 1. The M.2 carrier itself is identical to the one used for the onboard M.2 drives, so please follow the installation instructions from the previous section to install the M.2 drive and heatsink into the carrier and then the carrier into the vertical holder.
  • Page 14 Then, when looking at the inner side of the SATA drive bay, you will also find two mounting channels on the chassis and a card connector socket directly beneath on the motherboard: In order to mount the M.2 holder, insert the mounting tabs into the channels, align the interposer card edge connector with the socket as shown below, and press the whole assembly straight down until you feel it lock into place.
  • Page 15 FLEX bay M.2 kit installation The front access FLEX bay is located on the front of the P7, as shown here: The FLEX bay can hold a single M.2 drive, which can be installed as long as the internal 3.5” bay M.2 drive kits are not in use. The M.2 drive is mounted into a FLEX bay carrier, which is then inserted into the FLEX bay slot.
  • Page 16 1. Install the FLEX bay into the FLEX bay frame through the bezel. Push the bay until the retention tab locks the bay into place in the frame. 2. To install the M.2 SSD into the FLEX Bay M.2 carrier, remove the screws from each side of the carrier.
  • Page 17 5. Remove the M.2 retention screw from the carrier base. 6. Insert the M.2 SSD into the M.2 slot in the carrier base at a slight 15-degree angle (1). Gently lower the M.2 into place with the round notch lining up with the screw hole in the carrier base (2).
  • Page 18 8. Insert the M.2 carrier into the FLEX bay through the front opening. Push firmly until the carrier latches into place in the FLEX bay. 9. After installing the M.2 carrier, you need to install the FLEX bay fan on the inside of the system.
  • Page 19 10. Align the tabs with the notches in the chassis directly above the FLEX bay: 11. Press down on the tab on the other side of the fan until you feel it latch into place.
  • Page 20 12. Plug the fan power cable into the matching connector on the motherboard. 13. To remove the carrier, press the eject button on the side of the FLEX bay.
  • Page 21 14. The FLEX bay also includes 2 keys in a mountable key carrier. These keys can be used to lock the M.2 carrier into place once it has been inserted.
  • Page 22 15. On the back of the system chassis there are two locations for storage of key carriers for both the side door keys and the FLEX bay keys, as needed. If there is no lock for the side door, both of these locations will be available. Both locations are identical and either can be used.
  • Page 23 Internal 3.5” bay M.2 kit installation Another storage option is available via two internal 3.5” drive bay M.2 kits. Up to two M.2 drives can be installed, given that the following conditions are met: 1. No 3.5” SATA HDDs are installed in the standard slots 2.
  • Page 24 The 3.5” bay M.2 kits consist of the internal tray with the M.2 carrier, the blind connect board (BCB), and the 200mm 84-pin NVME Gen5 cable, shown here: 1. The M.2 carrier itself is identical to the one used for the onboard M.2 drives, so please follow the installation instructions from that installation section to install the M.2 drive and heatsink into the carrier and then the carrier into the internal tray.
  • Page 25 2. At the bottom of the 3.5” bay cavity, you will see 4 threaded screw holes and 2 alignment dimples, as shown here: 3. This is where the BCB circuit board needs to be installed. On the BCB itself, you will see 4 screw pilot holes and 2 alignment holes, as shown here: 4.
  • Page 26 The properly aligned BCB should look like this: 5. Make sure that the card edge connector contacts protrude into the empty cavity just beyond the inside wall of the 3.5” bay: 6. Secure the BCB into place with the 4 provided M3 Phillips head screws.
  • Page 27 7. Lower the right angle end of the NVMe Gen5 cable into the cavity mentioned in the previous step and align it with the card edge connector contacts from the BCB. Press the right angle connector onto the BCB to make a secure connection.
  • Page 28 8. Route the other end of the NVMe Gen5 cable to the card edge connector on the system motherboard labeled “NVME STOR” and connect it securely, as shown in this picture: The completed routing of the NVMe Gen5 cable should look like this:...
  • Page 29 9. Now that the M.2 drive is inserted into the tray and the BCB is installed, you are ready to install the tray into the 3.5” drive bay. Rotate the tray cover up and slide the tray down into either 3.5” drive bay:...
  • Page 30 10. When the tray is fully inserted, rotate the cover down as shown to lock the tray into place:...
  • Page 31 11. Here is a picture of both 3.5” drive bays being used for M.2 storage:...
  • Page 32 Quad M.2 Gen3 PCIe Add-In-Card (AIC) installation It is possible to add up to four (4) additional M.2 drives to your P7 using an optional PCIe based Quad M.2 adapter card. See the Appendix at the end of this document for additional information and images of parts.
  • Page 33 3. Install M.2 solid-state drives in the alphabetic order as shown. 4. If necessary, move the retention latch to an appropriate location to suit the length of the new M.2 NVMe drive and remove any film on the thermal pads on which you want to install the M.2 NVMe drive. 5.
  • Page 34 6. Hold the new drive by its edges so as not to touch the circuit board and ensure that the circuit board side is facing upward. Align the notch in the new M.2 NVMe drive with the slot key in the M.2 slot. Insert the drive into the corresponding slot on the PCIe adapter until it is firmly seated.
  • Page 35 8. Install the cover as shown. Then, slide the cover latches to the locked position. 9. Install the M.2 NVMe drive PCIe adapter in a PCIe x16 card slot on the system board. Note: Although the Quad Adapter supports multiple M.2 sizes, all of the Lenovo qualified drives are 2280 M.2 drives.

  • Page 36: Section 3 - P7 Sata Hard Drive Details

    * The drive trays for the internal bays each have the ability to convert, without any additional parts, and hold a 2.5” drive. However, at the time of writing, only 3.5” drives have been certified by Lenovo on the P7.
  • Page 37 Table 7 – SATA HDD compatibility and required parts Location Compatibility Requirements and parts • SATA 2-drop power cable included standard (supports both bays) Internal 3.5” bays Not compatible with internal 3.5” bays M.2 • Standard SATA signal cable count (SATA) ...
  • Page 38 1. Pinch the arrowed tabs and pull the drive tray out of the system. Note: this picture shows the drive bays from P5, but the tray removal process is identical for P7. 2. Insert the drive, bottom down, into the tray with the signal and power connections on the same end as the arrowed tabs.
  • Page 39 4. Install the drive/tray assembly by fitting the tray into the channels of either of the 3.5” bays. Slide the assembly down until you hear it latch into place.
  • Page 40 5. Connect the SATA power and data cables as shown in the following photo. One dual drop SATA power cable and one single drop SATA data cable are installed as standard parts in every P7. If you are installing a second 3.5”...
  • Page 41 6. Plug the SATA data cables into SATA ports 1 and/or 2. The overall location of the SATA ports is shown on the previous photo is zoomed in on here:...
  • Page 42 HDD bay kit installation 3.5” HDD can be installed in a tray that mounts above the CPU An optional 3 cooling duct, as shown here: 1. The 3 HDD bay kit consists of the tray, drive carrier, and SATA cables, as shown here: 2.
  • Page 43 Power 2) and C17 (SATA 3) motherboard connectors that are shown on the side cover motherboard connector diagram. 3. Reinstall the cooling duct and route the cables through the cable management clip and then the slot at the front of the chassis. 4.
  • Page 44 5. Insert the lower mounting posts into the lower slots. Then, using the lower posts as a pivot point, rotate the top of the tray down until the upper posts latch into place in the corresponding slots on the chassis. 6.
  • Page 45 7. Align the drive, upside down, so that the signal and power plugs are on the end of the carrier as seen in the below image. 8. Line up the holes on the side of the drive with the posts on the inside of the carrier and insert the posts into the holes.
  • Page 46 11. Plug the SATA power and data cables into the drive:...

  • Page 47: Section 4 - Appendix

    Section 4 – Appendix The ThinkStation P7 platform contains all new mechanical parts for different storage device options. Here are some pictures representing a few of these parts. Part Picture Onboard M.2 Carrier + Heatsink M.2 Vertical holders for OB 3rd M.2 SSD...
  • Page 48 Internal tray for M.2 SSD FRU: 5M11C16906 BCB for internal NVME drives FRU: 5C51K23022 84-pin NVME Gen5 cable FRU: 5C10U58383...

  • Page 49: Revision History

    Revision History Version Date Author Changes/Updates 6/7/2023 Jim P Initial Version...