Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3 8U GPU Server
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3 8U GPU Server (Configure-to-Order) - Local Warranty
8-GPU AI Server With Dual AMD EPYC
The Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3 is an 8U air-cooled AI server with two AMD EPYC 9005 or 9004 processors (up to 128 cores each) and a choice of eight AMD Instinct MI300X, NVIDIA H100 or NVIDIA H200 GPUs.
Built for Large-Scale Training and Inference
Eight front PCIe 5.0 x16 slots with GPU Direct support take network adapters at up to 400 Gb/s, an NVIDIA BlueField-3 adapter serves the user and control plane, and up to 16 x 2.5-inch PCIe 5.0 NVMe drives hold up to 245.76 TB.
Managed by Lenovo XClarity
The SR685a V3 includes an integrated diagnostics panel with pull-out LCD, XClarity Controller 2 (XCC2), a Root of Trust module with TPM 2.0 and Platform Firmware Resiliency, and up to eight hot-swap 2600 W power supplies.
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3 Datasheet — Technical Specifications
General
| Product Name | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3 GPU Server |
| Machine Type | 7DHC (3-year warranty) |
| Form Factor | 8U rack server |
| Order Type | Configure-to-Order (processors, memory, GPUs, drives, network adapters, power supplies and support term chosen per order) |
| Lenovo Standard Warranty | 3 years; customer-replaceable unit and onsite, 9x5 next business day |
Processor & Memory
| Processors | Two AMD EPYC 9005 ("Turin") or 9004 ("Genoa") processors, up to 128 cores, up to 3.65 GHz, up to 400 W TDP, PCIe 5.0 |
| Memory Slots | 24 DIMM slots (12 per processor), 1 DIMM per channel, TruDDR5 RDIMMs and 3DS RDIMMs |
| Memory Speed | Up to 6400 MHz with 5th Gen AMD EPYC |
| Maximum Memory | 3 TB (24 x 128 GB RDIMMs or 3DS RDIMMs) |
GPU & Expansion
| GPUs | Choice of eight AMD Instinct MI300X 750 W OAM GPUs (192 GB HBM3 each), eight NVIDIA H100 700 W SXM5 GPUs (80 GB HBM3 each) or eight NVIDIA H200 700 W SXM5 GPUs (141 GB each) |
| PCIe Slots | 10 x PCIe 5.0 x16: 8 front FHHL slots with GPU Direct; rear 2 x FHHL, or 1 x FHHL + 1 x OCP 3.0 |
| Network | Up to 8 x adapters at up to 400 Gb/s with GPU Direct; NVIDIA BlueField-3 2-port 200Gb adapter for user/control plane; OCP adapter for management |
Storage
| Drive Bays | Up to 16 x 2.5-inch hot-swap PCIe 5.0 NVMe drive bays |
| Maximum Internal Storage | 245.76 TB (16 x 15.36 TB NVMe SSDs) |
| Boot | M.2 adapter with integrated RAID-1; 2 x NVMe M.2 drives |
| Storage Controller | Onboard NVMe (non-RAID) |
Management & Security
| Systems Management | Integrated diagnostics panel with pull-out LCD; Lenovo XClarity Controller 2 (XCC2); optional XCC Platinum |
| Front Ports | 1 x USB 3.2 G1, 1 x USB 2.0 (XCC local management), 1 x VGA |
| Rear Ports | 3 x USB 3.2 G1, 1 x VGA, 1 x RJ-45 1GbE management |
| Security | Power-on and administrator passwords, Root of Trust module with TPM 2.0 and Platform Firmware Resiliency (PFR) |
Power, Cooling & Physical
| Power Supplies | Up to 8 x hot-swap redundant 2600 W AC power supplies (220 V AC), up to N+N redundancy, 80 PLUS Titanium |
| Cooling | 5 x front dual-rotor fans and 10 x rear dual-rotor fans, N+1 redundant; front-to-rear airflow |
| Hot-Swap Parts | Drives, power supplies and fans |
| Dimensions (W x H x D) | 447 x 351 x 924 mm |
| Maximum Weight | 109.4 kg |
How to Configure Your Server — Sizing Checklist
Servers are built to order. Answer the questions below so we can size the right configuration for you.
Step 1: Hardware Requirements
- Which server form factor do you need: tower or rackmount?
- How many CPU cores, how much RAM and how much usable storage capacity do you require?
- How many processors: single-socket (1S), dual-socket (2S) or four-socket (4S)?
- Which RAID configuration do you need? Any specific HDD or SSD type, such as 7.2K or 10K rpm drives?
- Which network interface is required: 1GbE Base-T, SFP+ or Fibre Channel?
- How many years of maintenance support do you need? (Minimum 3 years)
Step 2: Deployment & Services
- How many server units are required?
- Will you run virtual machine workloads? Do you need a VMware licence, or Windows Server with Hyper-V?
- How do you store data today? Do you have existing NAS or SAN storage?
- How do you back up today? Would you like a backup proposal, such as an IDPA 8TB appliance?
- Do you require burn-in test services?
- Do you need hard disk retention services?
Operating Systems, Management & Workloads
Operating Systems
Ubuntu Server. Check Lenovo's OS interoperability guide for the exact versions certified with your GPU choice.
Management Tools
XClarity Controller 2 provides out-of-band console, monitoring and alerting; XClarity One, XClarity Integrator and XClarity Energy Manager cover fleet and power management.
Typical Workloads
Large language model training and fine-tuning, generative AI inference at scale and HPC, with a choice of AMD Instinct or NVIDIA accelerators.
Package Contents & Lenovo ThinkSystem Servers Ordering Information
What Is Supplied
The SR685a V3 is built to order: 8U chassis with the chosen eight-GPU board, processors, memory, drives, network adapters and power supplies specified on your quotation, plus rack rails and power cords where ordered. Plan rack space, floor loading and 220 V power for a 109 kg, eight-PSU system.
Lenovo ThinkSystem Servers
| Model | Key feature |
| ThinkSystem ST650 V3 | Tower, 2-socket 4th/5th Gen Intel Xeon |
| ThinkSystem SR250 V3 | 1U, 1-socket Intel Xeon E-2400 |
| ThinkSystem SR630 V3 | 1U, 2-socket 4th/5th Gen Intel Xeon |
| ThinkSystem SR650 V3 | 2U, 2-socket 4th/5th Gen Intel Xeon |
| ThinkSystem SR630 V4 | 1U, 2-socket Intel Xeon 6 |
| ThinkSystem SR650 V4 | 2U, 2-socket Intel Xeon 6 |
| ThinkSystem SR650a V4 | 2U, 2-socket Intel Xeon 6, up to 4 double-wide GPUs |
| ThinkSystem SR645 V3 | 1U, 2-socket AMD EPYC |
| ThinkSystem SR655 V3 | 2U, 1-socket AMD EPYC |
| ThinkSystem SR665 V3 | 2U, 2-socket AMD EPYC |
| ThinkSystem SR675 V3 | 3U GPU server, up to 8 GPUs |
| ThinkSystem SR680a V3 | 8U, 8 x NVIDIA SXM GPUs |
| ThinkSystem SR685a V3 (this listing) | 8U, 8 x NVIDIA SXM or AMD Instinct GPUs |
| ThinkSystem SR780a V3 | 5U, 8 x NVIDIA SXM GPUs, Neptune liquid cooling |
Datasheet & Downloads
| Product guide | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3 Product Guide (Lenovo Press) |
| Datasheet | Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3 Datasheet (Lenovo Press) |
| 3D tour | 3D tour: Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3 (Lenovo Press) |
| User documentation | ThinkSystem SR685a V3 documentation (Lenovo Docs) |
Frequently Asked Questions — Lenovo ThinkSystem SR685a V3
Is this a fixed configuration?
No. The SR685a V3 is configure-to-order. GPU type, processors, memory, drives, network adapters and the support term are specified to your workload; use the sizing checklist above to brief us.
Which GPUs can it take?
Eight AMD Instinct MI300X (192 GB HBM3 each), eight NVIDIA H100 (80 GB each) or eight NVIDIA H200 (141 GB each).
How much memory can it take?
24 DDR5 DIMM slots for up to 3 TB, at up to 6400 MHz with AMD EPYC 9005 processors.
What power does it need?
Up to eight 2600 W AC power supplies that require a 220 V AC supply, with up to N+N redundancy.
SR685a V3 or SR680a V3?
Both are 8U eight-GPU servers. The SR685a V3 uses AMD EPYC processors and offers AMD Instinct or NVIDIA GPUs; the SR680a V3 uses Intel Xeon processors with NVIDIA GPUs.
