Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread
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SSDs? Get one of the custom risers:
3.5" drive? You can run a SATA extension outside the chassis with a single solder joint (see GitHub - kaysond/m920q-3.5in-drive-mod: Simple mod to use a 3.5" drive in a Lenovo M920q) or just use USB3. The bandwidth is much higher than the drive's read/write rate anyways.
In case anyone sees this, turns out the issue was the Dell branded ones. Never was able to fix it. The ones I thought were Intel branded were actually Lenovo cards (PN: 00YK615) so I bought more and returned the Dells. They all worked out of the box. I ended up cross flashing the latest Intel firmware on them too, just because. (See Crossflashing Intel official firmware on Dell / Lenovo PCIe X710-DA2 nics? Solved)
is this thunderbolt card New USB-C PCIe Thunderbolt 3 flex Port l85064-001 for HP 600 800 Z1 Z2 G5 G6 table - AliExpress 7 works with m920 tiny?
Should a B+M keyed M2 SSDs be able to interface with a m720q's M2 slot on the back of the motherboard?
I'm just testing a bare bones m720q I picked up awhile back but only have some old WD M2 SSDs with B+M keys (which I believe makes them SATA devices). Neither of my two drives seem to be detected when plugged into the M2 slot on the back of the motherboard but if connected via a USB adapter are picked up no problem. I currently have truenas running from one of the drives via a USB enclosure for a test drive.
Wondering if I have a damaged M2 slot or maybe the BIOS only supports SATA?
I'm just testing a bare bones m720q I picked up awhile back but only have some old WD M2 SSDs with B+M keys (which I believe makes them SATA devices). Neither of my two drives seem to be detected when plugged into the M2 slot on the back of the motherboard but if connected via a USB adapter are picked up no problem. I currently have truenas running from one of the drives via a USB enclosure for a test drive.
Wondering if I have a damaged M2 slot or maybe the BIOS only supports SATA?
Hoping someone can help. I have 3 M70q Gen1 machines and purchased the 2.5GBe realtek cards mentioned from ebay to replace the wifi cards. I was able to swap 2 of them and get them working with Proxmox 8.1, but the 3rd one will not recognize the card at all. I have swapped the M.2 cars to a working machine, and that working one still functions as expected. It still could be the cable or socket side of the package I guess. I checked the Bios and both machines (working and non-working) are on the same version. I have not updated either hoping to find a solution first.
Of course this happens to the last one when I do not have extras kicking around.
What else should I look at? Next steps are:
1) Swap cables and port side
2) Bios Update
3) ?
Of course this happens to the last one when I do not have extras kicking around.
What else should I look at? Next steps are:
1) Swap cables and port side
2) Bios Update
3) ?
I looked for something in the bios that showed whether it was enabled or disabled, but I could not find anything specifying that port. Is there a specific menu I should be looking under? I removed the existing wifi card when i did it, so I assumed it was enabled like the other two
Not sure if you got an Answer in the meantime, but I tried the UEFITool + ifrextractor + setup_var.efi + UEFI Shell Script to Automate the "Patching" (there are also other Possibilities although I didn't manage to get them working yet).
You can try to follow the Steps I outlined in my Repository to see if you CAN at all find such Option in your BIOS (hidden of Course) and then attempt to change it if it exists following the Procedure I describe (pretty much what setup_var.efi describes, although some Points I tried to clarify hopefully a bit better).
Check of course the other Points as well (ACTIVATE ASPM, check dmesg for FADT ACPI Issues, correctly set the CPU Governor, ...)
As I tested on much older Platform (Supermicro X10SLM+-F Xeon E3 1230 v3 and ASUS P9DWS Xeon E3 1245 v3) that Option obviously doesn't exist yet. And on the ASUS at least (didn't test the Supermicro yet), no matter what I do, it would be stuck on Package C-State PC2.
Hi All,
I am looking to buy any of the tiny or small form factor hardware, used or new but i have some requirements i do not know if they are even possible. Someone here probably knows if its possible (and what the costs might be) This is all for a homelab/server setup (i will install proxmox):
Tiny / SFF (i prefer tiny ofcource, do not have a lot of room to place it)
4 slots for storage (2x boot disk raid1(small ones) and 2x vm disk raid1 (larger ones)
atleast 2 network interfaces with 2,5gigs. I want to serve my home with some vm's but also fiddle around with networking labs (hence 2 ports) and if even possible more ports (like 4) are even better. I have no use for 10G.
All this, with a modest power consumption, but it's not a bad thing if it uses somewhat more power when i am actively labbing etc.
Is this even possbile to buy (so no building it myself) such a system? Lenovo thinkcentre comes quite close, but do not have the 4 slots for storage.
I think i need 4 because thats what seems advisable when installing proxmox on a system for disk failures.
I am looking to buy any of the tiny or small form factor hardware, used or new but i have some requirements i do not know if they are even possible. Someone here probably knows if its possible (and what the costs might be) This is all for a homelab/server setup (i will install proxmox):
Tiny / SFF (i prefer tiny ofcource, do not have a lot of room to place it)
4 slots for storage (2x boot disk raid1(small ones) and 2x vm disk raid1 (larger ones)
atleast 2 network interfaces with 2,5gigs. I want to serve my home with some vm's but also fiddle around with networking labs (hence 2 ports) and if even possible more ports (like 4) are even better. I have no use for 10G.
All this, with a modest power consumption, but it's not a bad thing if it uses somewhat more power when i am actively labbing etc.
Is this even possbile to buy (so no building it myself) such a system? Lenovo thinkcentre comes quite close, but do not have the 4 slots for storage.
I think i need 4 because thats what seems advisable when installing proxmox on a system for disk failures.
With an M920x (or modded M920q) and a custom riser, you can get 4x m.2 slots and a pcie slot for dual NIC. Idle can be ~6-10W. If you search through my past comments on this thread you'll find links and examples etc.
I think on the security menu there is a sub-section to enable/disable the USB ports, audio jack, and PCIe slots, not totally sure since I haven't looked into the BIOS of my tiny in over a year.
@Parallax the baffle part number for M90q gen 3 for graphic cards is 5M10U50348 it can be found on amazon and iFixIt
New Caddy Bracket Replacement for 5M10U50348 Lenovo ThinkCentre M90q P340 P350 P360 Tiny6 7 8 P620 P1000 T600 Graphic Card Bezel : Amazon.ca: Electronics
5M10U50348 - Lenovo PCI Bracket Assembly for P620/P1000 Graphics
New Caddy Bracket Replacement for 5M10U50348 Lenovo ThinkCentre M90q P340 P350 P360 Tiny6 7 8 P620 P1000 T600 Graphic Card Bezel : Amazon.ca: Electronics
5M10U50348 - Lenovo PCI Bracket Assembly for P620/P1000 Graphics
Wow, nice job! But that’s to much modding for me, i am trying to find an option that has less work. Adding a few bits should'nt be an issue if they fit right away but i am not a tinkerer.
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One can only hope about their durability but CWWK now make a varient of their X86-P5 with 4 extra NVME slots *and* a case. Weaknesses are lack of PCIe lanes and a tendency to use more watts than they might. X86-P5 4*M2 NVMe 12th Generation Intel N100 i3-N305 DDR5 4800MHz Firewall PC 2x i226-V 2.5G Network Card
Depending on what you live you may also find in on amazon and aliexpress from both cwwk and resellers.
But i think the cpu might be somewhat underwhelming for the tasks i want to use it for. Basics are some vms but i also want to lab networking with eve-ng and i might need to go up to 20 devices in such labs, without severly impacting the performance of the normal vms like homeassistant, plex etc.
Just uploaded my library of baffles!