I need help to turn on a Lenovo ThinkStation S20 motherboard

[Razzee]

Hi.

 

I recently bought a Lenovo ThinkStation S20 motherboard in a bundle, and it had a pre-installed Xeon W3550 processor. I want to make it work.

 

However, I've ran into some issues:

 

1. The slots for SPEAKER, FRONT_PANEL and FRONT_USB don't follow desktop standards. How to connect them using desktop cases? I've asked about on Lenovo forums but I don't think I'll get an answer.

 

2. It comes with a Xeon W3550, which is supported according to the manual. I have a Xeon L5640, which has 2 extra cores, but it's not listed. Why? The Xeon X5660 (superior), for instance, is "supported".

 

3. Why does the motherboard support only 24 GB (4 GB per slot)? It has support for the Xeon X5660, which supports up to 288 GB. In this case, am I limited to double-sided (low density) 4 GB sticks?

 

4. The motherboard has a 4-pin "AUX_12V" connector, which I don't have a PSU for. However, I currently have a Dell PSU that has two separate cables for two processors (that is 2x 4+4 EPS). Can I use half of it?

 

I'll leave the images inside the spoiler.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obs.: the system itself had a manual available, but the motherboard not. I'm very suspicious of the very little info available, like it allegedly supporting non-ECC RAM or supporting SLI.

 

Thanks in advance.

[AndreiArgeanu]

27 minutes ago, Razzee said:

FRONT_USB

I've found this on Lenovo forums, which is about an S30, looks pretty similar, may work.

28 minutes ago, Razzee said:

SPEAKER

That's for an actual speaker I think, not a buzzer for the bios or whatever. There seem to be various 2 pin lenovo speakers around. Might be worth looking at consumer/bussiness machines released by lenovo around that time since they probably use the same kind of speaker and it could make finding one easier. Although I don't think it's required.

34 minutes ago, Razzee said:

FRONT_PANEL

Probably a standard front panel with 2 missing pins, maybe there's no hard drive activity LED on the thinkstation s20? You could also try probing around and checking with a multimeter. But I can't find any info on that.

35 minutes ago, Razzee said:

2. It comes with a Xeon W3550, which is supported according to the manual. I have a Xeon L5640, which has 2 extra cores, but it's not listed. Why? The Xeon X5660 (superior), for instance, is "supported".

 

3. Why does the motherboard support only 24 GB (4 GB per slot)? It has support for the Xeon X5660, which supports up to 288 GB. In this case, am I limited to double-sided (low density) 4 GB sticks?

It could be that the parts either weren't tested, or not available at the time to test, or that the motherboard simply doesn't support them. You could just try it out to see if it works, but it'd probably be best to get the machine running with supported hardware first before trying anything else.

 

37 minutes ago, Razzee said:

 

4. The motherboard has a 4-pin "AUX_12V" connector, which I don't have a PSU for. However, I currently have a Dell PSU that has two separate cables for two processors (that is 2x 4+4 EPS). Can I use half of it?

That AUX 12V is most likely additional power for the PCIE slots. It's most likely not needed. The system should boot without it. It does look like a standard 4pin EPS CPU connector so you can use half of that, just make sure you use the right half such that the clip on the connector is on the same side as the protrusion, just in case although it may make no difference. So you can use another PSU to power it if needed.

[svmlegacy]

47 minutes ago, Razzee said:

3. Why does the motherboard support only 24 GB (4 GB per slot)? It has support for the Xeon X5660, which supports up to 288 GB. In this case, am I limited to double-sided (low density) 4 GB sticks?

When Bloomfield and Gulftown launched, there were no 8 GB unbuffered DIMM's available. Thus the system was only ever tested & approved with 4 GB DIMM's. Usually 8 GB DIMM's work, allowing you to use 48 GB of RAM.

 

288 GB is only available on systems which use registered memory (Server applications).

 

Quote

2. It comes with a Xeon W3550, which is supported according to the manual. I have a Xeon L5640, which has 2 extra cores, but it's not listed. Why? The Xeon X5660 (superior), for instance, is "supported".

The L5640 most likely works.

[Razzee]

Thanks to everyone who replied. Your answers were helpful to me and I'm sure they will be helpful to anyone visiting this thread in the future (if they are crazy enough to use this then ancient motherboard).

 

Updating the subject, I completely overlooked this, but I've ran into another wall.

 

 

 

The "CPU_12V" has 10 pins, not 8. 

 

I found several adapters, but they convert the ATX_12V (24-pin) to Lenovo's standard (10-pin). 

 

 

Having a PSU with two EPS connectors was just a coincidence, but I'd need two PSUs, one for the 24-pin connector and another to convert to 10-pin.

 

EDIT:

 

I found another sort of adapter, which converts it to an extra 12v and an extra ground pin:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/8-pin-to-10-pin-ATX12V-CPU-adapter-cables-for-Lenovo-Thinkstation-D20-Lot-of-2-/124194598024?_ul=IL

 

Therefore, I wouldn't be risking the motherboard by using an EPS cable, right?

 

EDIT 2:

 

The PSU powers on and off when connected to both "CPU_12V" and "AUX_12V" without any sort of adapter.

 

The CPU cooler spins for a brief while and then stops. The CPU itself gets a little hot. I tested the PSU on another PC and it's fine.

[Razzee]

I'm still very temped on getting this motherboard to work. However, I still need to address the issue with the 10-pin connector.

 

The only adapters I found are able to convert the 24-pin connector to the 10-pin connector. But the motherboard needs both.

 

The only EPS to 10-pin adapter I found was being listed by a Canadian seller who does not even ship to Brazil, so my options are limited to the 24-pin.

 

If I connect an extra PSU to the motherboard through an adapter, will it even turn on both at once? 

 

The (adapter) seller told me that I can choose between the 24-pin and 10-pin connector, but I took notice that the original PSU has both:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/402723328979

 

It is really this way or an uneducated guess?