Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a Rack Server
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3 (Configure to Order) - Singapore Local Warranty
Before You Read On: A Status Question We Could Not Settle
Lenovo's product guide for this server carries no withdrawal notice and reads as current, and Lenovo's product index lists it as active. But Lenovo's own datasheet for the same machine is titled "(withdrawn product)". Two Lenovo documents disagree about whether this server is still sold, and we are not going to pick the answer that suits us. Everything below is accurate to the product guide, which is the more detailed and more recently updated document. Before you commit to this machine, ask us and we will get its lifecycle status confirmed in writing by Lenovo — on a purchase of this size, knowing whether the product is still in production matters as much as the specification.
An AI Server, and We Should Be Precise About Which Kind
Eight accelerators in a single chassis, with the interconnect to make them work as one. Lenovo calls it "the ultimate Generative AI server" — modelling, training, simulation, rendering, financial technology and scientific research, with "best-in-class modularity, thermal performance and reliability".
The Accelerators Are the Machine
On a server like this the GPU complex is most of the cost and all of the point, and it is chosen as a chassis base at order time — it is not a card you add later. The full published detail is in the specification table below, including which accelerators Lenovo lists and how much total accelerator memory each option gives you. That last figure is usually the one that decides whether a given model will fit in memory.
Everything Around the Accelerators Is Sized to Match
Up to 3 TB of system memory, PCIe 5.0 throughout, and networking to 400 Gb/s so the machine can be fed as fast as it can compute. Storage is direct-attached NVMe across sixteen 2.5-inch PCIe 5.0 NVMe bays. Management is through XClarity Controller 2.
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3 Datasheet — Technical Specifications
General
| Product | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3 |
| Lenovo's Full Product Name | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3 |
| Lenovo Press Document | LP1910 |
| Lifecycle Status | Two Lenovo documents disagree — see the note above |
| Form Factor | 8U rack |
| Sockets | 2 sockets — a single-processor configuration is not supported |
| How It Is Bought | Configure-to-order through Lenovo's Data Center Solution Configurator. The price on this listing is an indicative starting figure for a base chassis, not a quotation |
| Local Warranty (Singapore) | Included with every SourceIT purchase, with GST invoice |
Platform
| Processors | 5th Generation AMD EPYC 9005 "Turin" up to 128 cores at 3.65 GHz and 400 W, or 4th Generation EPYC 9004 "Genoa" up to 96 cores at 3.6 GHz and 360 W |
| Memory | 24 DIMM slots (12 per socket), DDR5 RDIMM or 3DS RDIMM, maximum 3 TB, up to 6400 MHz with 5th Generation processors. All 24 DIMMs must be populated — Lenovo does not support other quantities |
| Operating System Support | Ubuntu Server only. Lenovo publishes no Windows Server, Red Hat or VMware support for this machine |
| Management | XClarity Controller 2 (XCC2), optional XCC Platinum, with an integrated LCD diagnostics panel |
Storage and Expansion
| Drive Bays and Capacity | 16 x 2.5-inch hot-swap PCIe 5.0 NVMe across two 8-bay backplanes, maximum 245.76 TB; up to 2 x M.2 NVMe on a Marvell RAID adapter. The main NVMe drives are onboard and not RAID-protected |
| Storage Controllers | RAID on the M.2 boot pair only, via a Marvell adapter |
| PCIe Expansion | 10 x PCIe 5.0 — 8 at the front, x16 full-height half-length with GPU Direct; the rear is either 2 x x16 or 1 x x16 plus an OCP 3.0 slot at PCIe 5.0 x16 |
| Accelerators |
The widest accelerator choice in this range, and the only machine here that takes AMD Instinct. Eight accelerators, chosen as a chassis base at order time and mutually exclusive: AMD Instinct MI300X in OAM format — 192 GB HBM3 each at 750 W, 1.5 TB total accelerator memory, Infinity Fabric at 128 GB/s per link and 896 GB/s total NVIDIA H100 SXM5 — 80 GB HBM3 each at 700 W, 640 GB total, NVLink at 900 GB/s NVIDIA H200 SXM5 — 141 GB HBM3e each at 700 W, 1.1 TB total The accelerators are integrated in the lower half of the chassis. GPU Direct runs through the front PCIe 5.0 slots |
Networking, Power and Cooling
| Networking | The front GPU Direct slots take up to eight adapters at 100, 200 or 400 Gb Ethernet or InfiniBand, including NDR 400 Gb/s InfiniBand. The rear control plane takes 10, 25, 100 or 200 GbE or a BlueField-3 200 Gb DPU. The OCP slot takes 10, 25 or 100 GbE, with one port optionally shared with the management controller |
| Power Supplies | Up to eight hot-swap 2600 W supplies, 80 PLUS Titanium, up to N+N. Requires a 220 V AC supply |
| Cooling | Air-cooled, front to rear — 5 front and 10 rear dual-rotor fans with N+1, plus a fan in each power supply |
| Total System Power Draw | Not published by Lenovo. Lenovo states that the configurator calculates power consumption precisely for a specific build. Any figure derived from multiplying the power supplies together is a capacity ceiling, not a draw — ask us and we will run the real calculation for your configuration |
| Physical | 447 x 351 x 924 mm deep; maximum weight 109.4 kg |
Warranty and Support
| Lenovo Base Warranty | Lenovo publishes three years or one year, model dependent, customer-replaceable unit and onsite limited warranty with 9x5 next business day |
| Service Level | 9x5 next business day, customer-replaceable unit and onsite. Faster response and committed-fix upgrades are available from Lenovo as chargeable options and are cheaper bought with the server |
| Local Warranty (Singapore) | Included with every SourceIT purchase, with GST invoice |
Compatibility & Fit
Deployment requirements: this is data-centre equipment
Worth stating plainly, because the specification list does not shout it. This server is 8U rack, 924 mm deep and weighs up to 109.4 kg, and it draws power through up to eight hot-swap 2600 W Titanium supplies, up to N+N, on a 220 V AC feed.
What that means in practice:
- Rack depth. At over 900 mm the chassis will not fit many standard 1000 mm cabinets once you allow for cable management and rear-door clearance. Measure before ordering
- Floor loading and installation. Over 100 kg in a single chassis is a two-person-plus-lift-aid installation, and it is worth checking the rack's own load rating and the floor's
- Power. Eight Titanium supplies at 2600 W apiece configured N+N is a rack-circuit and PDU conversation, not a wall-socket one. Lenovo does not publish a total system power draw — the configurator calculates it precisely for your actual build, and we can run that for you
- Cooling. Air-cooled front to rear, which means the room has to be able to take the heat away
Tell us where this is going before you order it. We will check the rack, the power and the cooling with you, and if the site cannot take it we will say so rather than ship it.
Model numbers are reused across generations — check which one you are buying
Lenovo reuses ThinkSystem model numbers across generations that sit on completely different processor platforms. There have been several distinct machines called SR630 and several called SR650, on different sockets, different memory generations and different PCIe generations. A quotation that says only "SR650" is genuinely ambiguous, and the machines it could mean are years apart.
This page describes Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3, which is the machine Lenovo documents in LP1910. When you compare quotes, compare the full name including any V-number, and ask for the machine type. We will always put both on ours.
How these are actually bought, and what the price on this page means
A ThinkSystem server is not a product you take off a shelf. It is configure-to-order: the chassis is one line item, and the processors, memory, drives, RAID controllers, network adapters, accelerators, power supplies and the warranty term are all selected separately, through Lenovo's Data Center Solution Configurator. Two machines with the same model name can differ by an order of magnitude in price.
Lenovo publishes no list price for any ThinkSystem server — not in Lenovo Press, not in PSREF, nowhere public. The figure on this listing is our indicative starting price for a base chassis, so that the product has a number against it and can be found and compared. It is not a quotation, and it does not describe a fully populated machine. Tell us the workload and we will configure and quote it properly. That conversation is genuinely worth having: on a server, the difference between a good configuration and a merely adequate one usually costs less than the mistake does.
The warranty is a choice you make at order time, not a fixed number
This is worth reading, because server warranties do not work like laptop warranties and the difference matters when something fails at two in the morning.
Lenovo's published base warranty on this server is three years or one year, model dependent, customer-replaceable unit and onsite limited warranty with 9x5 next business day. The term is fixed by the machine type you order — on several ThinkSystem servers Lenovo assigns one machine type to the one-year build and a different machine type to the three-year build, so the term is a configuration decision made at the point of order rather than something that can be added afterwards.
Read the service level as carefully as the term: it is 9x5 next business day, customer-replaceable unit and onsite. Business hours, next business day — not 24x7, and not four-hour response. For a machine running production workloads that is often not enough, and Lenovo sells the upgrades: 4-hour and 2-hour response, 6-hour committed fix, and term extensions. They are chargeable options and they are considerably cheaper bought with the server than bolted on later. Ask us to price the service level alongside the hardware — it is the part of a server quotation people most often regret leaving out.
Every unit SourceIT sells also carries local Singapore warranty support and a GST invoice.
Package Contents & ThinkSystem Ordering Information
In the box, per Lenovo PSREF:
- The ThinkSystem SR685a V3 chassis, built to the configuration on your order
- Processors, memory, drives, controllers and network adapters as configured
- Power supplies as configured
- Rail kit and cable management arm, where selected
- Documentation and warranty information
A configure-to-order server has no fixed carton contents — what arrives is what was configured on the order, built and tested at the factory. That is why this page describes what the chassis will take rather than what is in the box. Your quotation is the bill of materials, and we will walk you through it line by line before you sign it. Rack rails, cable management and the rack itself are separate line items and are easy to forget — we will not let you.
Lenovo ThinkSystem Server Ordering Information
| SR250 | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR250 — 1U, 1 socket, Xeon E-2200. Withdrawn — successor SR250 V3 |
| SR530 | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR530 — 1U, 2 socket, Xeon SP Gen 1/2. Withdrawn, line discontinued |
| SR550 | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR550 — 2U, 2 socket, Xeon SP Gen 1/2. Withdrawn, line discontinued |
| SR630 | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR630 — 1U, 2 socket, Xeon SP Gen 1/2. Withdrawn — successors V3 and V4 |
| SR650 | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR650 — 2U, 2 socket, Xeon SP Gen 1/2. Withdrawn — successors V3 and V4 |
| SR645 | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR645 — 1U, 2 socket, AMD EPYC. Withdrawn — successor SR645 V3 |
| SR655 | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR655 — 2U, single socket, AMD EPYC. Withdrawn — successor V3 |
| SR665 | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR665 — 2U, 2 socket, AMD EPYC. Withdrawn — successor SR665 V3 |
| SR670 | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR670 — 2U/3U GPU server. Withdrawn — no current generation exists |
| SR675 | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR675 V3 — 3U AI server, 4 or 8 GPUs. Current |
| SR680a | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR680a V3 — 8U, 8 x NVIDIA SXM5 AI training node |
| SR685a (this listing) | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3 — 8U, 8 x AMD MI300X or NVIDIA SXM5 AI training node |
| SR780a | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR780a V3 — 5U, 8 GPUs, liquid-cooled — needs facility water |
| HS350X | Lenovo ThinkSystem Ready Node HS350X V3 — 2U storage node, 24 bays, 576 TB. No GPUs. Withdrawn |
Datasheet & Downloads
Lenovo Press is Lenovo's own technical documentation library and is the authoritative source for ThinkSystem servers — richer than PSREF for this range, and the only place Lenovo publishes withdrawal status. The product guide linked above is the document every figure on this page is taken from. If you need a specification we have marked as not published, ask us and we will raise it with Lenovo rather than guess at it.
Frequently Asked Questions — Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3
Is this server still current?
Lenovo's own documents disagree. The product guide shows it as current and Lenovo's index lists it as active, but Lenovo's datasheet for the same machine is titled "(withdrawn product)". We would rather show you the contradiction than pick the convenient answer. Ask us before committing and we will get the status confirmed in writing by Lenovo.
Why is there a price on the page if it is configure-to-order?
Because a product with no price cannot be found, compared or shortlisted. The figure is our indicative starting price for a base chassis, and Lenovo publishes no list price for any ThinkSystem server. The real number depends on the processors, memory, drives, controllers, network adapters, accelerators, rails and warranty term. It is not a quotation and it does not describe a fully populated machine. Send us the requirement and we will quote it properly.
What warranty does it come with?
Lenovo publishes three years or one year, model dependent, customer-replaceable unit and onsite limited warranty with 9x5 next business day The service level is 9x5 next business day, customer-replaceable unit and onsite — business hours, not 24x7. On several ThinkSystem servers the term is fixed by the machine type ordered, so it is a decision made at the point of order rather than something added afterwards. Lenovo sells 4-hour and 2-hour response and committed-fix upgrades, and they cost considerably less bought with the server. Ask us to price the service level alongside the hardware. Every unit SourceIT sells also carries local Singapore warranty support and a GST invoice.
What do I need in the rack for this?
More than most people expect. It is 8U rack, 924 mm deep and weighs up to 109.4 kg, with up to eight hot-swap 2600 W Titanium supplies, up to N+N, on a 220 V AC feed. Check the cabinet depth — over 900 mm will not fit many standard 1000 mm racks once cabling is allowed for — check the rack and floor load ratings, and treat the power as a PDU and circuit conversation rather than a socket. Lenovo publishes no total system power draw; the configurator calculates it for a specific build and we can run that for you. Tell us where it is going before you order.
Which accelerators can it take, and how much accelerator memory is that?
The accelerator complex is a chassis base chosen at order time and cannot be changed afterwards, so this is the decision to get right. The full published detail, including total accelerator memory per option, is in the Storage and Expansion table above. We have listed only the accelerators Lenovo names for this specific machine — not a generic list — because the options genuinely differ between these servers, and one of them takes AMD Instinct where the others do not.
How do I know which generation I am being quoted?
Ask for the machine type and the full model name including any V-number. Lenovo reuses model numbers across generations built on completely different processor platforms — there have been several distinct machines called SR630 and several called SR650. A quote that says only "SR650" could mean hardware years apart in capability. This page describes Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3. Ours will always name both.
Can you help size it?
Yes, and it is the part of this we are actually useful for. Tell us the workload — how many virtual machines or users, how much data and how fast it grows, what has to keep running when a component fails, and whether it is going in a data centre or a comms room. We will come back with a configuration, a bill of materials that includes the rails and the service level, and an honest note on anything we think is over- or under-specified.
