Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread

[ZombieBiceps]

ok so around 350 - 400€ max could be a good price. @ZombieBiceps I'm in France PM me if interested

I'm actually looking to sell off all my machines, collected far too many now. Just going to stick with the P340 and sell my P330, two m75q-1's and a m75q-2 if anyone is interest PM me, I will post them in the for sale thread in the next day or two

 

[ZombieBiceps]

Hi, after scrolling the thread back and forth I would love if someone could share their experience:
I've got a M920x, with a non-T i5 8500, and an AMD W6400 GPU (basically an RX6400 with a nice blue shroud), which draws up to 50W.
I've seen people successfully use those with the 35W CPU's, but there's limited resources about using a dGPU with a 65W CPU in those Tiny's.
Does anyone have experience with a 65W CPU + dGPU and could confirm it will run in gaming workloads, or is the motherboard itself going to limit powers and would switching to a 35W CPU be the solution?
I do plan on adding a 140mm fan to the top cover to keep the thermals at bay, but not sure if I'll hit board limitations rather than thermal first.

I believe I had a OEM card that was similar to the RX6400 and that was fine with a 65w cpu. I was using it for gaming and typically I was gpu bound so the cpu was never being taxed 100%. Not one crash or shutdown though after around 8 months usage.

 

[agregjones]

I had a TinyRiser on order but it was just cancelled due to tariffs. Any other source for a riser for an m720q with an m.2 slot?

 

[WifiCable]

I had a TinyRiser on order but it was just cancelled due to tariffs. Any other source for a riser for an m720q with an m.2 slot?

Where did you order a Tinyriser? I'm not selling any at the moment and I'm not aware of anyone else selling them either.

 

[agregjones]

Where did you order a Tinyriser? I'm not selling any at the moment and I'm not aware of anyone else selling them either.

I misspoke. I ordered a PowerRiser by nandFarm -> PCIe riser for Tiny5.

 

[WifiCable]

I misspoke. I ordered a PowerRiser by nandFarm -> PCIe riser for Tiny5.

Ahh okay got it, that one exists yeah. Other options are ordering the pcbs of available designs and putting it together yourself if you're comfortable with that, or you can try your luck with some clones made in China that I've documented here lol Xianyu copies · Issue #9 · a-little-wifi/Tinyriser, if you're able to import those.

 

[senso]

I everybody!
Time for some dumb ideas

So, I have an M720Q with a WifiCable tiny riser, currently I have an NVME in the extra m.2 slot and a LSI SAS3008 HBA, while the original WiFi m.2 slot sits empty, and here comes the dumb idea...
Could I use something like a m.2 to PCIe riser and plug the LSI card into into and then use the free PCIe slot to run a graphics card, like a P600?
I know that the PCIe riser will need external power, but all that I find assumer that its for GPU usage and only have at best a header to provide 5V and 12V, but the original/full PCIe slot also provides 3.3V..
Do I need something like a custom riser that also has a 3.3V rail?

I was thinking something like this:

https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005005164621602.html

Or is it better to grab something like this (its a bit on the expensive side TBH):

https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005004833386620.html

 

[Bacterium]

Lenovo P360 Tiny hangs at splash screen with Intel X710-T4L NIC installed

I’m running into a boot issue with my Lenovo P360 Tiny and an Intel X710-T4L 10 GbE NIC, and I’d really appreciate any advice from anyone who’s tried something similar.

Hardware setup:

• System: Lenovo ThinkStation P360 Tiny
• Riser: Lenovo PCIe riser 5C50W00910
• NIC: Intel X710-T4L (quad-port 10 GbE)
• OS: Proxmox VE (systemd-boot) on M.2 NVMe

Problem:

When the X710-T4L is installed, the system hangs at the Lenovo splash screen and never progresses to boot.

If I remove the NIC, the system boots Proxmox normally. The NIC is detected fine in another system and works perfectly.

If I install an NVIDIA GPU in the riser, the system boots fine and the GPU is detected - so the riser and slot are working.

Inside the BIOS, the NIC actually shows up in the boot device list, so the motherboard is detecting it electrically at least. But as soon as I try to boot with the card installed, the machine gets stuck at the splash screen indefinitely.

Thanks in advance for any pointers. I’m hoping someone here has managed to make this NIC work, or at least confirm that it’s a hard limitation so I can move on to a different card.

 

[Parallax]

Lenovo P360 Tiny hangs at splash screen with Intel X710-T4L NIC installed

Thanks in advance for any pointers. I’m hoping someone here has managed to make this NIC work, or at least confirm that it’s a hard limitation so I can move on to a different card.

I have no pointers to offer I'm afraid, just to unhelpfully confirm I have the same problem in a P350 as well. I wonder if it's a vendor firmware issue, because someone on Reddit said they had an x710 working in a P350.

ETA so maybe I do have a pointer after all! But no idea if it's accurate.

 

[Parallax]

Hello Tiny friends, just to say after months of putting it off I've started the long journey to update the first post with more information from the thread. You should find I've clarified the riser situation and the configuration of the PCIe lanes, which I think is the most significant discovery of the past couple of years. I'll continue to make edits and let you know what's been changed, in the meantime :

• Let me know if there are things you think are a high priority to be updated or added.
• There was some discussion earlier as to whether to split up the first post into several new threads. I don't think this is viable option given the number of outside links to here but happy to have the discussion. I know the length of this thread is tough to navigate.

 

[Parallax]

I everybody!
Time for some dumb ideas

So, I have an M720Q with a WifiCable tiny riser, currently I have an NVME in the extra m.2 slot and a LSI SAS3008 HBA, while the original WiFi m.2 slot sits empty, and here comes the dumb idea...
Could I use something like a m.2 to PCIe riser and plug the LSI card into into and then use the free PCIe slot to run a graphics card, like a P600?
I know that the PCIe riser will need external power, but all that I find assumer that its for GPU usage and only have at best a header to provide 5V and 12V, but the original/full PCIe slot also provides 3.3V..
Do I need something like a custom riser that also has a 3.3V rail?

I was thinking something like this:

https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005005164621602.html

Or is it better to grab something like this (its a bit on the expensive side TBH):

https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005004833386620.html

I think there's some risks, it depends on the power draw, you can't get more than 75W out of the slot and you'll need to think about the heat and output of your power supply as well.

The WiFi slot is only x1, also.

 

[Parallax]

Oh, and - a Tiny7 riser card :

GitHub - qq8322302/P350Tiny-riser-card: Lenovo P350 Tiny7 PCIE Card

Lenovo P350 Tiny7 PCIE Card. Contribute to qq8322302/P350Tiny-riser-card development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

... which gives you the 8x PCIe plus four (4!) m.2 slots, though low speed and one is SATA.

And Tiny6 :

GitHub - qq8322302/Tiny6-P340-pcie-bifurcation-expansion-card: Lenovo Tiny6 P340 PCIE Bifurcation Expansion Card

Lenovo Tiny6 P340 PCIE Bifurcation Expansion Card. Contribute to qq8322302/Tiny6-P340-pcie-bifurcation-expansion-card development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

And @WifiCable is working on a Tiny6 riser as well.

 

[senso]

I think there's some risks, it depends on the power draw, you can't get more than 75W out of the slot and you'll need to think about the heat and output of your power supply as well.

The WiFi slot is only x1, also.

I have an external ATX PSU, to power 6 HDDs that are connected to an LSI HBA card.

 

[besseddrest]

Has anyone successfully got a GPU to work in the M90q Gen 3?

The RX 6400 I ordered arrived today, however when in the M90q Gen 3 the fan on the RX 6400 spins up when powered on, it will never output anything on the Bios and is not detected in Windows. (The Bios / Windows will still output on the iGPU with the RX 6400 present).

I’ve attempted changing the active video from Auto to PEG for PCIe, along with changing the PCIe version in the Bios between 3 and 4.

• 5C50W00933 / BA7K78 Rev1.2 PCIe x16 riser purchased directly from Lenovo
• XFX SWFT105 Radeon RX 6400 Low profile Gpu
• 230w Lenovo power supply

The RX 6400 does work in another machine to rule out that been faulty.

hey there - i'm wondering if by any chance you were able to get this working on your m90q Gen 3?

I have a p3 tiny Thinkstation Gen 1 and bought an ASRock RX 6400 LP-Same model riser, same experience, blank screen when plugged into DP of RX 6400 , still get to BIOS via iGPU, tried Auto & PEG, switched btwn Gen 3 & 4 - no luck

Fan turns on, which is the only good sign so far - have yet to try HDMI port. I think the only significant differences - I'm running Linux, I bought the riser off Amazon, and my power supply is generic. I can boot up my system and run on iGPU just fine.

Any luck on your end? I might have come across some details saying it requires an older BIOS but i'd need to look deeper into that.

 

[wiggy]

Hello,

Apologies if this has been asked before. I have searched but couldn't find this specific question.

m90q gen 5 - how do I tell which m.2 slot is which?

The datasheet (ThinkCentre_M90q_Gen_5_Spec.pdf) suggests there is a difference between the slots:



I guess the 'Performance' slot is wired to the CPU, and the other is to the PCH.

How can I tell which slot is which? One is cream-coloured, the other is black. I didn't find any marking on the m90q, nor anything in the Hardware Maintenance Manual. Apologies if I'm being an idiot.

Thanks!

 

[mooms]

Hi,

I'm looking for a 65W heatsink for M720Q, apparently the model numbers are 01MN631/01MN632.

They are very expensive, even on Aliexpress I can't find them below 70€, some models are even more expensive, more than 100€ !

Anyone knows where could I find one cheaper ? I'm from France.

They look like this:

 

[Fritz]

Hi,

I'm looking for a 65W heatsink for M720Q, apparently the model numbers are 01MN631/01MN632.

They are very expensive, even on Aliexpress I can't find them below 70€, some models are even more expensive, more than 100€ !

Anyone knows where could I find one cheaper ? I'm from France.

They look like this:

They're pricey on eBay too. Wonder why.

 

[wiggy]

Hi,

I'm looking for a 65W heatsink for M720Q, apparently the model numbers are 01MN631/01MN632.

They are very expensive, even on Aliexpress I can't find them below 70€, some models are even more expensive, more than 100€ !

Anyone knows where could I find one cheaper ? I'm from France.

Hello,

40 Euros directly from Lenovo. I assume there'd be postage to pay also. Any good?

 

[mooms]

Hello,

40 Euros directly from Lenovo. I assume there'd be postage to pay also. Any good?

View attachment 45773

That's only the fan, I need also the reference 01MN631 (it's currently out of stock in France)

 

[ZombieBiceps]

Hi,

I'm looking for a 65W heatsink for M720Q, apparently the model numbers are 01MN631/01MN632.

They are very expensive, even on Aliexpress I can't find them below 70€, some models are even more expensive, more than 100€ !

Anyone knows where could I find one cheaper ? I'm from France.

They look like this:

That heatsink in the image is for the P320, the P330/M720Q heatsink does not have any heatpipes. For what its worth I wouldn't bother with the 65w heatsink and fan, I have tried both with a 65w CPU and noticed no difference in temps and general performance as the power limit kicked in before thermal limit.