The ThinkCenter Neo Ultra is a compact 3.6-liter desktop PC that features an integrated power supply and four fans. This new small PC, powered by Intel and NVIDIA hardware, was initially unveiled in January, with a planned release in the second half of the year. However, Lenovo has now announced that the new ThinkCenters are now available.
The company confirmed that the system would include up to a Core i9 model, which is true. However, despite the name, this is not the Core Ultra model, but rather the 14th generation Core series. Lenovo uses a range of 65W and 35W models for this system, with configurations offering between 14 and 24 cores. The top configuration includes the Core i9-14900.
Interestingly, this system packs an 8GB GeForce RTX 4060 (laptop GPU). Lenovo hasn’t revealed the TDP of this system, so it’s not certain. However, the PC is known to use a 350W PSU, and the RTX 4060 runs in a wattage range of 35 to 115W, suggesting that it could be the full-featured variant. As the Gen 1 name implies, there are likely to be updates to this form factor in the future. Upcoming laptops and mini-PCs will feature energy-efficient architectures from Intel (Lunar Lake) and AMD (Strix Point), though their integrated graphics won’t match the speed of the RTX 4060.
One notable change between the official materials published in January and the current information is that the system now features four fans instead of three. Additionally, the system supports independent NPU cards, separate from the GPU. It supports M.2 NPU AI cards, which are small co-processors that provide around 20 TOPS. In contrast, the RTX 4060 offers over 200 TOPS, depending on the configuration, making the GPU a more effective choice for such tasks.
The ThinkCenter Neo Ultra Gen1 is now available in Australia for AUD $3,299, roughly the same price as the Mac Studio with M2 Max. Lenovo’s model includes a Core i5-14500 CPU, RTX 4060 graphics, and 16GB of DDR5 memory. The discrete Kinara Ara-2 M.2 NPU card costs an additional $200.
Fountain: Lenovo
