Lenovo 4XG7A72948 ST650 V2 Gold 6342 24C 230W 2.8GHZ

Lenovo 4XG7A72948 Intel Xeon Gold 6342 Processor for ThinkSystem ST650 V2

Overview

The Lenovo 4XG7A72948 is a factory-configured Intel Xeon Gold 6342 processor option for the ThinkSystem ST650 V2 tower server — a 24-core, 48-thread chip running at 2.8 GHz base and boosting to 3.5 GHz under workload, rated at 230W TDP. If you're speccing a dual-socket ST650 V2 for compute-intensive workloads — virtualization hosts, AI inference, high-throughput database servers, or video analytics backends — this is the processor tier that gives you meaningful parallelism without stepping up to the full Platinum stack and its associated cost premium. The 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable architecture (Ice Lake, 10 nm) brings significant per-core IPC gains over the prior generation, which translates directly to more VMs per socket or faster analytics pipeline throughput.

Key Features

• 24 Cores / 48 Threads at 2.8 GHz Base: Forty-eight logical processors per socket means a dual-socket ST650 V2 presents 96 threads to the hypervisor — enough headroom to run 40–60 mid-weight VMs without contention, or sustain parallel analytics inference across dozens of concurrent streams without core-starved bottlenecks.
• 3.5 GHz Boost Frequency: Single-threaded workloads that can't be parallelized — license servers, certain database query planners, serial preprocessing stages — benefit from the 700 MHz headroom above base. The boost engages automatically under Intel Turbo Boost, no BIOS tuning required.
• Asymmetric Core Prioritization (12 High-Priority + 12 Standard): The 6342 splits its 24 cores into two tiers: 12 high-priority cores running at 2.9 GHz and 12 standard cores at 2.6 GHz. This matters for mixed workloads — latency-sensitive threads get scheduled to the faster cores while batch or background jobs absorb the rest, reducing jitter in real-time processing pipelines.
• 36 MB L3 Cache: The large on-die cache keeps frequently accessed working sets — lookup tables, model weights, in-flight transaction data — resident closer to compute, reducing DRAM round-trip latency. For analytics workloads cycling through object-classification models or video metadata indexes, this meaningfully reduces per-frame processing time versus smaller-cache predecessors.
• 10 nm Ice Lake Lithography: The move to 10 nm versus the 14 nm Cascade Lake generation delivers improved instructions-per-clock performance and better power efficiency per operation — not just a marketing claim. In practice, you get more compute per watt, which matters when planning rack power budgets in a tower-to-rack migration or UPS sizing exercise.
• 230W TDP: The 230W envelope is the key constraint to plan around. Verify the ST650 V2 power supply configuration supports dual 230W sockets before ordering a second CPU — total system draw under full load will approach or exceed 1,000W depending on DIMM population, storage, and GPU/PCIe cards installed. This is not a low-power option; it's a throughput-first configuration.
• LGA 4189 Socket / 11.2 GT/s System Bus: The LGA 4189 platform supports up to 8-channel DDR4 memory per socket and PCIe 4.0 — relevant when pairing with NVMe storage or high-bandwidth accelerator cards. The 11.2 GT/s UPI interconnect between sockets in a dual-CPU configuration keeps NUMA latency manageable for workloads that don't pin tightly to one socket's memory.
• 64-Bit Operating Mode: All major enterprise OS stacks — VMware ESXi, Red Hat, Windows Server, Ubuntu Server — run natively on this instruction set. No compatibility concerns with any current hypervisor or OS release.

Integration & Compatibility

The 4XG7A72948 is a Lenovo-qualified processor option for the Lenovo ThinkSystem ST650 V2 platform. Processor upgrades for enterprise tower servers should be sourced as Lenovo-qualified options to ensure correct thermal validation, firmware compatibility, and support entitlement alignment. The LGA 4189 socket is specific to the 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable family — this processor is not interchangeable with LGA 3647 (2nd Gen) or any other socket generation.

For deployments pairing this server with a network video recorder software stack or video management system, the 24-core configuration handles simultaneous decode, analytics, and storage management tasks across high-channel-count deployments. Pairing with a PoE switch infrastructure and NVR software allows this server to act as the central analytics and recording engine for large-scale IP camera deployments. Architects building out enterprise server infrastructure should verify memory channel population, PCIe lane allocation, and power delivery specifications against the ST650 V2 configuration guide before finalizing the BOM. For storage planning, review your NAS and storage options to complement this compute platform.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What server platform is the Lenovo 4XG7A72948 compatible with?

A: The 4XG7A72948 is a Lenovo-qualified Intel Xeon Gold 6342 processor option for the ThinkSystem ST650 V2 tower server. It is not a universal retail CPU — it is sourced and validated for this specific platform.

Q: How many cores and threads does the Xeon Gold 6342 provide?

A: The Gold 6342 delivers 24 physical cores and 48 threads via Intel Hyper-Threading. In a dual-socket ST650 V2 configuration, the total thread count presented to the OS or hypervisor reaches 96.

Q: What is the thermal design power (TDP) for this processor?

A: The Xeon Gold 6342 is rated at 230W TDP. Plan your power supply configuration and rack power budget accordingly — full-load system draw on a populated dual-socket ST650 V2 will be substantially higher than the CPU TDP alone.

Q: What is the boost frequency on the 4XG7A72948?

A: The processor boosts to 3.5 GHz under Intel Turbo Boost for single-threaded or lightly threaded workloads, up from the 2.8 GHz base clock.

Q: Is the LGA 4189 socket compatible with 2nd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors?

A: No. LGA 4189 is exclusive to 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake) processors. It is not backward-compatible with LGA 3647 (Cascade Lake / 2nd Gen) CPUs.

Q: What memory architecture does this platform support?

A: The LGA 4189 platform supports 8-channel DDR4 memory per socket and PCIe 4.0 connectivity — relevant for high-bandwidth NVMe storage and accelerator card deployments. Specific DIMM population rules are governed by the ST650 V2 configuration guide.

James Everett

The 4XG7A72948 puts Intel's Xeon Gold 6342 — 24 cores, 48 threads, 3.5 GHz peak, 36 MB L3 — into Lenovo's ST650 V2 tower platform, which is a configuration I'd steer toward when a customer needs serious compute density in a non-rack environment: a branch office server room, a distributed video analytics node, or a manufacturing floor compute appliance where tower form factor is either preferred or required by facility constraints.

Technical Highlights:

• Asymmetric Core Clocking: The 6342's 12 high-priority cores at 2.9 GHz and 12 standard cores at 2.6 GHz give the OS scheduler a real prioritization tool — latency-sensitive threads (real-time analytics, active database queries) get the faster tier while background indexing or batch encoding absorbs the lower tier. Fewer pipeline stalls on mixed-workload servers.
• 36 MB L3 Cache on a 10 nm Die: Ice Lake's on-die cache is large enough to keep most active model inference weights resident between frames on a video analytics workload, cutting the DRAM fetch penalty that stacks up when you're running 30+ camera streams through a classification pipeline simultaneously.
• 11.2 GT/s UPI Interconnect: In a dual-socket ST650 V2 build, this determines how fast the two CPUs share memory across NUMA nodes. At 11.2 GT/s, cross-socket memory bandwidth is sufficient for most enterprise workloads, but you'll still want to NUMA-pin latency-sensitive VMs to the local socket's DIMM population if you're running a hypervisor.

Deployment Considerations:

• The 230W TDP per socket is the planning number that bites people most often. Verify the ST650 V2 is configured with a power supply tier that supports dual 230W CPUs plus your expected DIMM, NVMe, and PCIe card population — the default PSU in some base configurations may not cover full-load dual-socket draw.
• LGA 4189 is a one-generation socket — do not assume any prior Xeon Scalable inventory in your parts room will drop in. If you're upgrading from a 2nd Gen Xeon system, the motherboard, memory, and cooling are not reusable.

For a distributed security or analytics deployment where the compute node lives in a wiring closet or small equipment room rather than a data center rack, the ST650 V2 with the Gold 6342 is a defensible choice: enough cores to handle multi-stream decode and analytics inference without a rack enclosure, with the Ice Lake IPC advantage over the previous generation making the per-stream compute cost meaningfully lower.