Lenovo ThinkCentre M720q Tiny Compact PC Review

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ullbeking

Active Member
Jul 28, 2017
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These systems look wonderful and I immediately considered whether one would be suitable for home server requirements. Does Lenovo make proper servers in a small form factor and/or with low power consumption? Remote out-of-band management (IPMI 2.0) is a requirement. (Also interested in 1U.)
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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Don’t know that Dell does make small servers like HPE but more than likely they are more expensive than the larger ones
 

Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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Lenovo makes a lot of Xeon E-2100 servers. I am postponing our reviews of them until after the E-2200 server launch
 

ullbeking

Active Member
Jul 28, 2017
506
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London
Lenovo makes a lot of Xeon E-2100 servers. I am postponing our reviews of them until after the E-2200 server launch
I'm looking forward to this! Hopefully it's got IPMI, etc, and will be able to function as a nice, quiet, home server. I've been building an SFF home server but it's been a major PITA to tune the HSF cooling profile so it's not bouncing between full on and off every single minute. I think I will put it aside, sell the hardware, and just buy a nice little quiet system.

I am however getting very tired of Intel's insanely complicated, expensive, and hostile product stratification. E-2200 is really weird and I hope it's worth the wait.

As soon as Rome and a PCI-e 4.0 board is released, I'll be looking in that direction. But practical issues dictate I'll have to keep looking at Intel for a while longer, especially for remote colo.
 

Mam89

Member
Jan 14, 2016
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These systems look wonderful and I immediately considered whether one would be suitable for home server requirements.
Do to past experiences with these Micro Form Factor (MFF) PCs, from all brands, my advise is to stay far away from extended usage or intensive tasks, AKA Server. I've seen countless of these devices come in and have warranty work done because of failed motherboard, and never have I seen a vendor actually solve the base issue: Heat.

In the review it even points out, the CPU was at 72C. Which might not seem like much for processors that can handle up to 80C routinely, but personally I feel that's way too hot for a stock i5. The real issue is that the processor is packed in a small tight case with ZERO airflow besides over it's own little heatsink, all while baking the rest of the components it lives with. those components, which are not tested to 80C often times or are very cheap in order to maintain lower cost, are the points of failure. Add to the newer versions that they've added larger more powerful CPUs (TDP), NVMe (HOT) and other heat producing components, I'm thinking the same outcomes will happen.

On the other hand, I could be absolutely incorrect. But, I'm not willing to be the guinea pig haha.