I have already ordered the Bios flashing kit from Aliexpress so I can start with updating the bios even if I don't have the new CPUs just yet.
It's not clear for me which Xeon CPUs are compatible, and which ones require to upgrade the cooler, but I will read through all the 14 pages of this thread to try to understand more precisely
My Lenovo Tiny computers are the following:
- 6x Lenovo Tiny m910q (i5-6500T, 2 cores, 4 threads)
- 1x Lenovo Tiny m900 (i7-6700T, 4 cores, 8 threads)
- 1x Lenovo Tiny m700 (i5-6500T, 2 cores, 4 threads)
I will try to contribue back to the thread once I have understood everything a bit more precisely
If you can share the modded BIOS for the M700 I'll be happy: I doubt the seller can hack it but never say never I guess.
The Coreboot image for M700 I built (made by mkopec) works perfectly under Linux and has been tested with Skylake/KabyLake/Coffelake cpus, until "9" gen (cofeelake refresh). Any Xeon/i3/i5/i7 "mutant" of gen 6/7/8/9 should work OOB.
The only issue is the wifi/pcie slot not working on M700, but mkopec is generously working in it.
M910q is no problem usually, because you can just run the hack/utility "coffeetime" over a BIOS image and patch it with PCU microcodes.
The only "issue" is that you'll have to use a hardware flash/SPI programmer to read/patch/reflash the BIOS, not a big deal.
As for heat issues: the M910q can run 65W cpus, so a six or even eight core mobile Xeon (usually they sell engeneering samples on aliexpress...) is no problem, they have a 45W TDP.
A word of advice: AVOID the "sync cores" hack if you use Coffeetime in a M910q bios. It makes the cpu cores run all at the same frequency, it will OVERHEAT. Just insert microcodes and do not touch anything else.
The M700 I own can be safley run with a Kaby Lake 7100/Skylake 6100 cpu (non-T) that has a 51W TDP, a 45W mobile Xeon/i5/i7 should be no problem.
The power draw I measured with those dual core cpus (7100/6100 non-T) is 33W MAX.
A 6600T (rated for 35W) I tested can peak to 44W for a few seconds, but it generally sits around 20/30W.
Windows is pretty poor in power consumption, since it runs like A TON of background processes, defender is a hog, windows update too.
For some reason (better code I guess) Coreboot BIOS is FAR better then Lenovo OEM BIOS in heat/power management.
If you use any Linux distro, Coreboot is far superior, imo.