Lenovo ThinkCentre M75q Tiny Gen2 35W AMD Ryzen 5000 Powerhouse

[Patrick Kennedy]

We take a look at the Lenovo ThinkCentre M75q Tiny Gen2. We see how this 35W AMD Ryzen 5000 series unit performs and handles upgrades

The post Lenovo ThinkCentre M75q Tiny Gen2 35W AMD Ryzen 5000 Powerhouse appeared first on ServeTheHome.

Continue reading...

 

[EasyRhino]

would this be a platform that would maybe support unbuffered ECC ram? I know the ryzen's can, but don't know if Lenovo enabled it.

 

[bryan_v]

@WANg quick question since you knew about the BAR limitation in V1500 series: do you know if this R5000 supports reBAR, and hence VF NICs from the X710? (and probably also >7 VFs with the CX3/CX5)

I did a quick scan of the tech sheet and product spect for the Ryzen Pro 5000 series and couldn't find anything

 

[WANg]

@WANg quick question since you knew about the BAR limitation in V1500 series: do you know if this R5000 supports reBAR, and hence VF NICs from the X710? (and probably also >7 VFs with the CX3/CX5)

I did a quick scan of the tech sheet and product spect for the Ryzen Pro 5000 series and couldn't find anything

Depends on the BIOS support - the hardware can do it, but it depends on the AGESA firmware variant included.

 

[ReturnedSword]

Disappointing it doesn’t have a PCIe slot available. AFAIK, the Ryzen 4000 series M75q gen2 also didn’t have a PCIe a lot. Would be interesting to see what HP has.

 

[bryan_v]

Ok so that's what I forgot to ask last time, is there a way to find out which AGESA FW is rolled into the BIOS?

Also Whoah!!! @ReturnedSword thanks for pointing that out, I didn't even notice that in the pictures. Without a PCIe slot, the whole 10G/25G NIC and VFs discussion is pretty moot. So sad that all that horse power is locked behind a sad Realtek 1G NIC. By comparison my 2 year-old i5-8700T M720q can do more with it's handicaped X710.

@Patrick I just flipped through the new Alder Lake Elite Desk article like you said and it sounds like it's handicapped by the same problem, no PCIe slot and no 10G. I assume you didn't order the Nvidia 3050 Ti version since it looks like it'll either be soldered or a proprietary AIC.
Alder Lake Lenovo Tiny might be our last hope for either native 10G or support for a 10G PCIe NIC putting it in the same weight class as the 10G Mac Mini.

 

[ReturnedSword]

@bryan_v The HP EliteDesk 805 G8 (and possibly G6) has a PCIe slot since in normal supply chain times, it can support a dGPU (a dGPU, presumably a GTX 1660 Ti, isn’t available for configuration as of the last time I checked). I’m not sure about the PCIe lane config on it though. I couldn’t find any relevant info in the technical support manual. But I would assume it supports at least PCIe x8 which should be sufficient for a fiber card. Then the bracket would likely need to be a custom 3D printed bracket.

 

[Patrick]

@ReturnedSword I have one with a 1660 Ti on order, but the one without the GPU had an original 18 day lead time at the time of order that is now two and a half months.

 

[bryan_v]

@ReturnedSword Sorry I meant the Elite Mini article that Cliff posted on the main site on the 24th. The 3050 Ti that is feeding the extra DP ports seems to be a proprietary connector and not a standard PCIe card.

I just saw a teardown of the HP EliteDesk 805 G6 Mini Desktop Review (AMD Ryzen 7 PRO) and it looks like it too has two M.2s but no PCIe (

)

Also because I thought I was going crazy, I double checked the service manual for the HP EliteDesk 805 G8 while eating breakfast, and the little cartoon they drew of the GPU card doesn't have a normal PCIe connector. (Can't find any realworld pictures or video of the internals of the G8)

Did you mean the HP EliteDesk 805 G8 SFF has a PCIe slot?

 

[fossxplorer]

Thanks for the article. This one is hard to get in my country.

I wonder when HP will use a new AMD chip in their future t750 and t650? Zen3 based Ryzen Embedded would be nice, probably not even announced! If we can do 8C/16T at ~35W it would be really cool.

 

[Patrick]

The 805 G6 has a proprietary PCIe connector.

Also, it uses the Flex IO v2. In theory, you can also get a 2.5GbE port for it. The downside is that it is not compatible with Flex IO (v1) so it is hard to find.

I have the 805 G8 with the 1660 Ti and 2.5GbE on order. Allegedly it gets built on 2/1.

 

[ReturnedSword]

@ReturnedSword Sorry I meant the Elite Mini article that Cliff posted on the main site on the 24th. The 3050 Ti that is feeding the extra DP ports seems to be a proprietary connector and not a standard PCIe card.

I just saw a teardown of the HP EliteDesk 805 G6 Mini Desktop Review (AMD Ryzen 7 PRO) and it looks like it too has two M.2s but no PCIe (

)

Also because I thought I was going crazy, I double checked the service manual for the HP EliteDesk 805 G8 while eating breakfast, and the little cartoon they drew of the GPU card doesn't have a normal PCIe connector. (Can't find any realworld pictures or video of the internals of the G8)

Did you mean the HP EliteDesk 805 G8 SFF has a PCIe slot?

I’m expecting the EliteDesk 805 G8 Mini at the very least (and possibly G6 also) to have a dGPU option, which would need some kind of PCIe slot.

The additional ports, such as the DP you mentioned, would be Flex IO, which is proprietary

Thank you @Patrick for confirming the PCIe slot is proprietary. It’s a big shame. But at the same time, the slotted bracket space on the back of the unit appears to be smaller than standard HHHL cards anyway. If I do end up picking up one of these HP Minis, I probably won’t go for a dGPU one. Might as well wait for “next gen” since the 805 G6/8 Mini series was actually soft “released” last July 2021 IIRC. The supply chain issues have been brutal.

 

[WANg]

The 805 G6 has a proprietary PCIe connector.

Also, it uses the Flex IO v2. In theory, you can also get a 2.5GbE port for it. The downside is that it is not compatible with Flex IO (v1) so it is hard to find.

I have the 805 G8 with the 1660 Ti and 2.5GbE on order. Allegedly it gets built on 2/1.

Yeah, seems like HP enjoys putting in propietary connectors for their dGPU setups - the Z2 Mini G4 features an MXM based setup…who even uses MXM anymore?

 

[WANg]

Ok so that's what I forgot to ask last time, is there a way to find out which AGESA FW is rolled into the BIOS?

Also Whoah!!! @ReturnedSword thanks for pointing that out, I didn't even notice that in the pictures. Without a PCIe slot, the whole 10G/25G NIC and VFs discussion is pretty moot. So sad that all that horse power is locked behind a sad Realtek 1G NIC. By comparison my 2 year-old i5-8700T M720q can do more with it's handicaped X710.

@Patrick I just flipped through the new Alder Lake Elite Desk article like you said and it sounds like it's handicapped by the same problem, no PCIe slot and no 10G. I assume you didn't order the Nvidia 3050 Ti version since it looks like it'll either be soldered or a proprietary AIC.
Alder Lake Lenovo Tiny might be our last hope for either native 10G or support for a 10G PCIe NIC putting it in the same weight class as the 10G Mac Mini.

How to check? CPU-Z, probably.

 

[WANg]

Thanks for the article. This one is hard to get in my country.

I wonder when HP will use a new AMD chip in their future t750 and t650? Zen3 based Ryzen Embedded would be nice, probably not even announced! If we can do 8C/16T at ~35W it would be really cool.

Don’t expect the tx50 thin clients until at least 2023/24. That being said, Dell Wyse is due for a 5070 refresh, and that might get the Ryzen V3000/R3000, whenever that releases…

 

[bryan_v]

How to check? CPU-Z, probably.

LOL, so obvious! I don't know why that didn't occur to me! Props++

Also waiting for my SFP28 Melanox CX4, it should just barely fit into the M720q, and hoping it stays cool enough without a fan.

Looking at the Lenovo M75q I get a feeling the reason the mainboard doesn't have a PCIe slot is because there's no dGPU option for the AMD R4000/5000 models...

The strangest thing though is that it looks like the traces and through-holes are preset on the mainboard; so someone at Lenovo might have thought it was important enough to save the $1.5 and not attach the slot to the traces. I'm so tempted to order or salvage a PCIe slot from another Tiny unit and reattach it it to the through-holes just to try it out. (I'm less confident in my SMT skills, so the second M.2 is probably out of the question)

 

[geoffct]

The 805 G6 has a proprietary PCIe connector.

Also, it uses the Flex IO v2. In theory, you can also get a 2.5GbE port for it. The downside is that it is not compatible with Flex IO (v1) so it is hard to find.

I have the 805 G8 with the 1660 Ti and 2.5GbE on order. Allegedly it gets built on 2/1.

Sorry to resurrect an old post, but I stumbled on to some news in the PSREF / Parts Catalog of Lenovo:

The M90Q Gen 3 specs are here:

https://www.lenovo.com/content/dam/lenovo/pcsd/global/en/products/desktops/thinkcentre-series/thinkcentre-tiny/thinkcentre-m90q/gen-3/thinkcentre-m90q-gen-3-datasheet/ThinkCentre%20M90q%20Gen%203%20Datasheet.pdf

The notable changes:

• 12th Gen Intel, upto 12900T
• DDR5 ram
• GEN 4x8 PCIe slot
• optional 2.5GBe RTL8125BGS in "Second FlexIO port"
• (minor) 2nd front USB-A port

I'm not clear if the 2.5GBe is a simply a very short PCIe card that just fills the bottom punchout, or it uses the FlexIO riser / port inside. (Hopefully the latter and I'll try M75q-2 compatibility.)

Just seems like something of interest for those following TMM news.

 

[geoffct]

Sorry to resurrect an old post, but I stumbled on to some news in the PSREF / Parts Catalog of Lenovo:

The M90Q Gen 3 specs are here:

https://www.lenovo.com/content/dam/lenovo/pcsd/global/en/products/desktops/thinkcentre-series/thinkcentre-tiny/thinkcentre-m90q/gen-3/thinkcentre-m90q-gen-3-datasheet/ThinkCentre%20M90q%20Gen%203%20Datasheet.pdf

The notable changes:

• 12th Gen Intel, upto 12900T
• DDR5 ram
• GEN 4x8 PCIe slot
• optional 2.5GBe RTL8125BGS in "Second FlexIO port"
• (minor) 2nd front USB-A port

I'm not clear if the 2.5GBe is a simply a very short PCIe card that just fills the bottom punchout, or it uses the FlexIO riser / port inside. (Hopefully the latter and I'll try M75q-2 compatibility.)

Just seems like something of interest for those following TMM news.

Also adding a bit more from the Part side:

There's a new part for the Gen3 that is listed as:
BLD Tiny8 BTB Type-C card 100W 5C50W00907 - No clue which way the 100W works.

BLD Tiny8 BTB LAN card 5C50W00908 is likely the 2.5GBe card. It is listed as a BTB and 5C50W# which differs from the i350 intel which is listed as a PCIe card and a general part number

Bitland MR Tunderbolt miniLP 5C50V94334 - Interesting by all means, but does it use the PCIe slot?

Sunix 4COM card for Tiny8 5C50W00898, a 4 serial port card? It could be of interest for people on the industrial side.

***

M75q-2 related items, I found a few part numbers of interest

There is a 4 port USB option for the Gen2 Lenovo Tiny machines:
5C50W00919 / 5C50W00895 / 5C50W00896 (I believe each number is a different supplier and Bitland -895 may be actively embargo'ed to the USA)

There is a 2 port USB option:
5C50W00918 / 5C50W00891

Finally for those who didn't get a thumbscrew with their tiny EDIT: (and can justify $17 ea, didn't check the price first):
01EF086 / 5S10U51599

 

[WANg]

We take a look at the Lenovo ThinkCentre M75q Tiny Gen2. We see how this 35W AMD Ryzen 5000 series unit performs and handles upgrades

The post Lenovo ThinkCentre M75q Tiny Gen2 35W AMD Ryzen 5000 Powerhouse appeared first on ServeTheHome.

Continue reading...

Eh, good little box. Just bought one as a mini-hypervisor for work. Performance is solid, and even it's Vega 7, it's still rather performant.
Uncapping the framerate limiter and it can pull 50+ fps on Zelda BOTW within CEMU during my weekend "burn-in" session (yes, I know, that's an h264 based cutscene but I forgot to take some screenshots of it during gameplay. Wiped, tossed in a pair of DDR4-2400 16GB SODIMMs and installed Debian 11 on it. Works just fine.



Granted, I still prefer playing it on my TMM2Go machine, but that's "a different story".