I got my cash back today. :smile:

Absolutely disgusted with the response from eBuyer with reference to a cash back claim having already been made and the warranty status showing the unit as being 11-months old. They do not give a damn'. Emailed the CEO's office too. They are unwilling to help resolve the issue amicably and have refused to issue an RMA for a refund as they claim they're not obliged to do so. Think this is a 'vote with your feet and buy elsewhere' scenario. eBuyer's post sales service is abysmal. Absolutely abysmal. They're clearly a box shifter and do not want anything other than people's hard earned cash with no grief afterwards i.e. no customer service. Bought a lot from them too. Avoid them that's all I'm able to conclude. Awful company to deal with from what's been gathered. Absolutely awful. Fail to understand that without customers they would not exist.

I am selling mine with 32GB of RAM for only £300. If someone is interested and can collect from South London then message me.

You're welcome. I just got a text message from Lenovo:
"Congratulations, your Lenovo claim is validated and we ??ll pay you via bank transfer within 31 days. Please check your email for more information."

ESXi is a product by VMware, so they pretty much mean the same thing. It and XenServer both install directly on the host hardware.

I created a PDF of my invoice webpage, I bought mine through Laptops Direct, should be similar for eBuyer. I guess a screen shot should be OK as well.
The webpage to update warranty is http://lenovoemea.force.com/warranty?lang=en

Hi, That's an interesting read. Didn't think about checking the warranty status. Just checked and have been advised there's just over a month of warranty remaining. How did you go about uploading an invoice to Lenovo to confirm the original purchase date please?
Can't find how to do this via the warranty check URL (http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/gbweb/LenovoPortal/en_GB/config.workflow:ContinueWarranty).
Thank you.

Ok. I did a warranty check on mine as one died and both of them had expired in Jan 2016! You can submit a change to the warranty online by submitting an invoice. I had a few problems doing this and gave up after an hour and a half due to browser incompatibilities. I used my tablet in the end and the change was made the following morning. After reading your post, I entered my claim for the cash back and it went through the initial stage, phew. I'm just waiting for the next phase.

Think I may get this as a desktop machine to replace my ageing desktop. With the Xeon and add a ssd this should fly.

Hi, Thank you for your reply. Am I correct in saying ESXi etc. need to be installed on an OS themselves? At a guess similar to VMWare. Didn't spot the spelling mistake. Best Regards.

Hi, No sooner the serial number was entered it'd failed straight away stating a claim had already been made.
Frustrating.
Thanks for your reply though.

Hi, Can anyone recommend a particular OS for use as a VM for installing other OS's please? Think ESXi does this (might be wrong there though) but I've no idea whether this is available FOC for a Thinkserver as opposed to a Microserver. Any help/suggestions on this would be appreciated.
Thank you.
PS Anyone else had any issues with a cashback claim from an eBuyer bought product please? Tried a cashback claim and according to the manufacturer's a cashback claim has already been submitted. Shocked and upset by this considering bought on the proviso that the cashback claim would be processed with no issues.

Well first of all I got it wrong: it's actually Xen, not Zen.

I know what you're asking but ESXi (and Xen, and Hyper-V) are hypervisors, not OS's. There is a free version of ESXi, and VMWare is more popular, but Xen is free for features you'd have to pay VMWare for. I'm not sure if there are specific builds for the Lenovo, but the TS140 is deffo on the Hardware list so something will work. Since replying to you I think I've settled on Xen though!

Hi, Thank you for your reply. Much appreciated. Confusing as there doesn't seem to have been any other shipping labels that have been removed from the box. Emailed eBuyer asking them for their comments. Am I correct in thinking that ESXi is an OS in its own right that can be used as a VM for other host OS's and that this is an FOC download available to Lenovo and HP customers for personal use? Thank you.
PS Never heard of Zen but will Google this for more info'. Thanks.

Windows 7 isn't a supported OS so you need to dig a little for drivers, these are the ethernet drivers you need:

http://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/downloads/ds036723

Sorry to hear about the CB thing. Only thing I can imagine is that someone had returned the unit (albeit possibly unopened).

Regarding VMs, I was going to just chuck my lot in with ESXi (it should still be free), but I've left it so long that I'm wondering if there's other options now - Zen would be my second choice.

I have just received delivery of the Ts140.
I have just installed Windows 7 but cannot connect to the internet using a network cable - it says 'Windows did not detect a properly installed network adapter'. Any help please?

Just picked up one of these .. cannot get the DP connection to work while booting / BIOS or installing OS, only VGA. Is there something I need to enable?

It will be fine without an additional graphics card. I use Elements and Lightroom on mine with no problems. In fact, as it has DisplayPort graphics connections means it works well with higher resolution monitors (mine's currently running into a 2560 x 1600 display, and I've had it running a 4K display). To use it into an HDMI or DVI monitor you'll need an adaptor cable (< £10 from Amazon etc.)

Would it be OK for using Photoshop elements or is a graphics card necessary?

Many thanks

​molex to 8pin adapter solves that. got it about a year ago. solid quiet and ready for a nice gpu

Unless you're going to play games you don't need an additional graphics card. I'm using one as a desktop machine (running Windows 10). The Intel graphics on the CPU are fine for normal office/web/multi-media stuff.

Thanks. Do you have any graphics card recommendations?

I am looking to buy a new desktop PC - could someone be so kind as to explain...

Is it possible to use this as a desktop, simply by installing Windows 7 for example?
Many thanks.

All the more bizarre as the Laptops Direct and Servers Direct are essentially the same company (all are part of the same BuyitDirect group based in Huddersfield)

I ended up buying mine from Laptops Direct, with the cash back from Top Cash Back. Must be a quiet day for them as even though I selected the 3-4 days delivery, I just got an email saying it's been delivered on Monday, and I only ordered at around 4.20pm. Shame, as I'm busy on Monday.

I did originally try to order from Servers Direct. The free delivery page was working this morning, but disappeared this afternoon. When I placed the order it said if I rang the sales team, I could get a discount and free delivery. As I was ordering 2 I thought I'd give this a shot. Of course it was to good to be true, and all I was offered was a slight discount on the delivery, and that was cheaper on Laptops Direct anyway.

These TS140s are brilliant. I bought two last year when the cashback deal was on, one is a server with 4Gb and one is my desktop with 8Gb. I added a GTX750Ti card and it's also a fantastic games machine.
The only things I miss is a headphone socket on the front and there is no optical audio out.

It has been posted many times during 2015 on hotukdeals and is still a good deal with cash back today, even if some of the earlier deals were better, starting with the very slightly slower E3-1225 v3 (3.2GHz, rather than 3.3GHz) version, for the same price after cash back but with the additional attraction of free Lenovo Windows Server 2012 Essentials ROK (1-2 CPUs) which on its own was worth £180! Sadly that offer was not repeated. The cheapest it has been on Hotukdeals after cash back for the current spec was £174.99, six and a half months ago.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/lenovo-thinkserver-ts140-4gb-xeon-e3-1226-v3-3-3ghz-1tb-hdd-tower-server-299-99-2232551

The Xeon CPU performs similarly to the i5 4590, but if I remember correctly it has a larger cache size. The integrated graphics part of the XEON CPU is HD P4600, rather than the very similar HD 4600. The motherboard has a 1 PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, if you want to fit, say, a GTX 750TI, which several people here did, powered through the motherboard (the 450 watts 80 PLUS Platinum power supply doesn't have the direct-to plugs for a more powerful graphics card like a GTX 970). I am assuming this is the same version as of old that when posted on hotukdeals usually came with the Platinum power supply, rather than the 280W bronze rated power supply. The DVD writer is a slim model like in my old IBM Thinkpad laptop, manual rather than a powered tray. You press the DVD down onto the spindle to lock it in place and push the drawer home.
Here's a picture of the internals:-

http://www.lenovo.com/images/gallery/1060x596/lenovo-tower-server-thinkserver-ts140-side-open-5.jpg

Someone has fitted a second hard drive in this one. I like the quick fit hard drive bays.

http://www.lenovo.com/images/gallery/1060x596/lenovo-tower-server-thinkserver-ts140-side-open-detail-7.jpg

If anyone is interested in the R2 Server Essentials, I have a copy (somewhere) which I can't use; I did install to set up as a back-up server for my business at home, but BT did not allow this sort of thing. It's now operating as a regular machine with Win 10.

No problem with Windows 7 8 or 10 - does not have to be server OS. I am running 10 upgraded free from 7 - working perfectly. At the risk of being seen as a Microsoft groupie I think 10 runs brilliantly.

Can you only put a server O/S on these [e.g. Win 2008 R2 x64] ? Or can I put Win 7/8.1/10 (x64) on it?

I'm interested, i m placing an order for this now.

thanks

I bought one of these last January for this price, to use as a work server. I couldn't be happier! For a fairly small work environment (file server, few clients, free WiFi for customers, Active Domain) it is absolutely perfect.

I increased the RAM to 16GB and put ESXi free on it, then created a few VMs, first being Windows 2012 Essentials, the second being Untangle (for the free WiFi; captive portal) and other VMs such as a game server and such. I really cannot stress that for around £195+VAT after cash back, this is one of the best buys I have ever made for my business!

If you're thinking about it, DO IT!

There were many posts for this unit last year - search 'TS140' for specifics on:
- SATA ports (4x + 1x for DVD, but you can e.g. run FreeNAS from a USB with 5x RAID Z-1 drives),
- motherboard PSU connectors (proprietary, but you can get a 20-24 pin converter IIRC),
- changing the PSU (there are 2x psu options),
- changing the cpu (straightforward, no whitelisting as far as I know),
- HDD caddies,
- RAM options (takes some non-ECC types),
- noise (v. quiet) etc.
TL;DR - it's good, but has been down to £174.99 after cashback - not sure we'll see these prices again.

We have 6x and very happy with them...

>Has been cheaper you say? (& WITH O/S as well in the past too?, WOW!, i'm assuming Windows formally right?, or ..... ) when & where please?.

It was 175 after cb, but no OS.

I think Laptops Driect is the best deal. £217 with 2.1% cashback from topcashback

The free delivery T&Cs say... Promotion finishes 3/01/2013
I think Laptops Driect is the best deal. £217 with 2.1% cashback from topcashback

The free delivery T&Cs from the Servers Direct website say... Promotion finishes 3/01/2013
So I don't think that applies anymore.

I see these boxes are advertised as being useful for a business. Im just setting up and I was looking at getting the Mycloud DL400 for a straight out of the box backup solution:

http://m.wdc.com/en/product/1450

Should I go for this instead? I use Mac operating systems so what exactly would I need to get up and running? I see Windows server licenses but they seem very expensive but I imagine they are compatible?

Sorry for all the questions as I'm just starting out with setting up my business workspace. Thanks!

Bought one of these in June from last post. Used SeversPlus - Very efficient - no problem with cashback from Lenovo, just read the claim details carefully.Lenovo also very efficient, paid money into bank account. Superb build quality - No operating system- using as desktop backup rather than server, as I cannot get fixed IP address, other ways too much hassle. JUST REMEMBER - COST is 383 less 125 = 258 if NOT VAT Registered, otherwise 319 less 125 approx 195 IF VAT REGISTERED, assuming no Output tax to pay on the 125 - not sure what correct answer is.

Can't claim cashback when bought from ServerPlus
https://lenovo-offers.com/uk/en/pages/business/qualifying

Seems to be a lot cheaper here - http://www.serversplus.com/product.asp?s=SVLEN-70A50022UK

Very good machines got a few few for work

I bought one a while back. Great machine, has a GTX 960 in it and use it to gamestream games to Nvidia Shield TV

Thanx, I'm assuming that your 'MS server essentials' came with your version of this Server then right?, or .....

I said ugly beauty, not ugly?, I was using a cheeky guesture, as some on here earlier commented that they not like the 'bulky' size of this beast? .. personally speaking, its a server!, so ..... lol. :-)

I don't actually agree, (I have a previous model using the same case, with free MS server essentials). The important things are the usb3 ports are on the front and it's relatively short (nowhere near tower size) 40cm and 41cm deep but can still contain at least four 3.5" drives, the DVD drive is laptop size, so occupies little space and it's well ventilated. What's ugly?

thats beautiful from BOTH of you ..... thanx. :-)

isnt this about £50 more than it was posted last time around?

No idea about the Barclays thang?, but yeah .. Bespoke is DEAD now ('Liquidated' at the back-end of last year), its a shame. :-(

Every other week I think of re-posting this hotukdeals favourite. It has been cheaper and it has even come with operating system, but it still remains a great deal and a capable entry level gaming machine if you fit a GTX 750TI, which you will find a lot of people are using with this model. I like the quick swap mounting system for the hard drive. It does have its disadvantages, which RueFondary has mentioned. Also, mine came with a noisy fan but it was cheap to sort out. It's not a great looker and I am not fond of the old laptop style DVD writer but it's nice that it comes with one. Delivery from ebuyer was quick. Cashback was painless at the time that I did it, I wish I could say the same for my HP cashback misadventures, last year, which took a lot of calm letters to get sorted out. I even got a certain operating system to run on it (with full graphics acceleration from the Xeon's integrated HD P4600) that I purchased but that it isn't technically licensed to run. I have it running with that, Windows 10 and Ubuntu.

If you can live with the lack of features, the motherboard spec being more about what it lacks than what it has, the very basic bios and the spartan looks, it's decent value for money, considering the benchmarks. Once I got the noisy fan sorted out, it was and is very quiet-running. I'm guessing Lenovo will phase it out fairly soon and replace it with a Skylake server model, which might knock the price down a bit more on this one, if they re-run the cash back promotion, yet again. One of my best buys of 2015. Have some more heat!

Agreed. :-)

Been running an older ts140 xeon form y business as a test server for a year and its been flawless. Quiet machine too. Upgraded the ram to 28GB and put another drive in in raid 1 so if one drive dies then you dont lose everything.
I think i got the cashback deal too. Recommended.

Good machine (I got a very similar TS140 a year ago, for a comparable price), which can act as a quality barebone desktop or as an upgrade to the HP Microservers.

Keep in mind that it is a bit quirky (no standby or hibernation, video via 2 Display Ports and a VGA analog out... which can be a blessing or an issue, quality PSU but with a limited number of connectors, somewhat odd HD locations).
There are workaround for most issues -standby/hibernation excepted, and some of the features on offer (ECC memory, Intel AMT and virtualisation, ability to drive a 5K monitor, quiet fans) can be very valuable

Cracking deal considering the processor on it's own is £217!!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-E3-1226V3-Processor-LGA1150-Socket/dp/B00KASFY12

You can get it a couple of quid cheaper on laptops direct ie £342 + £4.96 delivery

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/lenovo-ts140-intel-xeon-e3-1226-v3-1-x-1-tb-4gb-ram-tower-server-70a50022uk/version.asp?refsource=LDadwords&crtag=LD&gclid=CNytoN72mMoCFUNmGwodVdcK9g

Yeah it is, not used it recently so you could well be right!

Is that the barclaycard thing? Looks like they've shut down now...

Bespoke offers isn't instant I'm afraid you paste the link into the website and they come back with a link to better price takes 24-48hrs.

Bespoke offers also beat this deal by about £15

It's been that price for a while, been, watching these that's why I knew straight away.

The power supply would likely be the biggest stumbling block. It has a 450W Platinum PSU, which could power a GTX 980 if it weren't for the fact that it only has a single 6-pin PCIe power cable, which limits you to a GTX 960 (for now at least). Of course, it uses a standard ATX form factor, so you could easily swap in another PSU. The motherboard is fine and has a full speed PCIe 3.0 16x slot. It'd still be a nice little gaming machine even with 'just' a 960.

It's a good deal - I have one as a desktop machine, but bear in mind the cashback takes several months to arrive after purchase (30 days before you can claim, then another 30 days before payment).

Indeed Hot

Shows as free delivery for me but yeah there is not much in it.

Free postage with all orders over £100 according to this page, using code: SDFR33D:

http://www.serversdirect.co.uk/Free_delivery/page.asp

Slightly cheaper here

I'm not really sure how this would work as a gaming rig... its not designed for that, but no reason why you couldn't give it a go!

cpu: http://ark.intel.com/products/80917/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1226-v3-8M-Cache-3_30-GHz



Have I made a mistake or is this not literally the best budget deal for a gaming machine without graphics included?

Have some heat, first post and seems decent enough.