Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread

[besseddrest]

Is anyone offering 3D prints for baffles? I'd be interested in two baffles that would fit a QNAP-QXG-2G4T-i225 for an M920q. The "standard" 4 port baffle is not the right size and despite my impressive dremel skills, I'd prefer to have something that is a better fit.

interesting cause i have the 4 port mini DP issue on mine as well - I just have to settle to use 1 that is aligned

you might wanna try ebay because i bought one from a user who sells 3d printed ones for DP + HDMI, though he might do commissioned ones if you just ask - I have a feeling that person is also ITG Gear on YouTube

 

[notsonewbie]

Hey all,

I'm new to STH and wanted to give a shout out to all those that contributed to this thread; the information has been invaluable.

I've bought two P330s (i7 8700, 16gb of ram, 256gb nvme via Lenovo ThinkStation P330 Tiny Desktop Intel i7 8700 3.2GHz 16GB RAM 256GB Win 11 (Renewed): Minis: Amazon.com.au)

I'm looking to add in a NIC (Note: network is only 1gbe, so going to 10gbe is pointless) and wanted to confirm with people if I'm right on which ones are fakes and which ones are real - based on the pictures:

Real:

Intel I350-T4 Quad Port PCIe Network Adapter Card | eBay Australia

I350-T4 PCI- Exp ress PCI-E Four RJ45 Gigabit Ports Server Adapter NIC. ETA 3 to 8 busines.

www.ebay.com.au

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009667853014.html (2.5gbps but somehow cheaper than 1gbps)

DELL / INTEL I350-T4 QUAD PORT NETWORK CARD P/N: 0THGMP HIGH PROFILE BRACKET | eBay Australia

DELL / INTEL I350-T4 QUAD PORT NETWORK CARD P/N: 0THGMP HIGH PROFILE BRACKET

www.ebay.com.au

Fakes:

Intel RJ45 Ethernet Network Adapter for OCP 3.0 (I350-T4) for sale online | eBay Australia

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Intel RJ45 Ethernet Network Adapter for OCP 3.0 (I350-T4) at the best online prices at eBay Australia!

www.ebay.com.au

Pardon our interruption... (It's dell but something about it doesn't look right)

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009428591851.htm

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010275672188.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009816024388.html

If someone has a different trusted supplier that might be cheaper and ship to AUS, I'd love to hear about it. I've also looked at Realtek cards such as https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004557369503.html but there's not a whole lot of compatibility information online (mostly reddit, sth and personal blogs) about their use.

I'm also thinking about buying this riser: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/365446848614 which looks like it'll do the job.

Any help or thoughts would be much appreciated!

Cheers

 

[Nozle]

I'm not using the x16 riser anymore.

My X710-DA2 NIC is x8, but the riser is only x4, so the NIC won't fit.

To make the NIC fit, I cut a groove in the riser's PCIe connector, so the extra lanes of the NIC stick out the side:

View attachment 46162


It's a real hack job:

View attachment 46163


The NIC then uses just the four lanes:

# lspci -vv -s 01:00.0 | grep -i LnkSta
LnkSta: Speed 16GT/s, Width x4 LnkSta2: Current De-emphasis Level: -6dB, EqualizationComplete+ EqualizationPhase1+

So I did this, and my X710 DA2 now reaches C10 on both Lenovo M90Q Gen 4 and 5.

I'm wondering if x4 will be enough for this card, or if I'm blocking and limiting it.

It seems the Lenovo x8 riser doesn't allow it to go beyond C2 for some reason. Now, with the modified Lenovo x4 riser, as you suggested, it reaches C10 effortlessly.

 

[CoAXx]

Does anybody here got any experience with this card?

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闲鱼 - 闲不住？上闲鱼！

闲鱼，中国领先的闲置二手交易平台，趣味生活社区，从最初的C2C交易，到用户在这里分享技能、兴趣与经验，从物品到服务、从交易到交流，如今闲鱼累计用户数超5亿，日均交易额已突破10亿，每天都有400万件闲置物品在平台上发布。同时，闲鱼以闲置交易为起点，还发展出一键转卖、极速回收、验货宝、闲鱼小法庭等服务；并在2024年闲鱼成立十周年之际推出了闲鱼简历功能，通过闲置时间、技能来赚钱，让你的人生另起一行。

www.goofish.com

全闪NAS 联想 P330 NEC8 M920 转接卡扩展卡安装_哔哩哔哩_bilibili

联想Tiny5修改BIOS及转接卡安装教程，适用于P330 M920X M920Q M720Q NEC8机器，刷机工具可放在百度网盘，祝各位玩的愉快。工具地址： https://pan.baidu.com/s/1p2oZbz2xUwf22brCszmFbQ?pwd=c4g1, 视频播放量 10732、弹幕量 11、点赞数 142、投硬币枚数 63、收藏人数 375、转发人数 25, 视频作者 复活de四叶草, 作者简介 ，相关视频：全闪NAS 10盘整活视频 Tiny5 M920，联想M910x...

www.bilibili.com

 

[WifiCable]

Does anybody here got any experience with this card?

聯想M920X M9...-淘寶Taobao | 天貓Tmall

歡迎來到淘寶Taobao/天貓Tmall 虎際科技，選購聯想M920X M9...，好評率100%，18用戶購後寫下真實評論。快來查看更多買家秀和測評，讓你放心淘到寶！

ca.world.taobao.com

闲鱼 - 闲不住？上闲鱼！

闲鱼，中国领先的闲置二手交易平台，趣味生活社区，从最初的C2C交易，到用户在这里分享技能、兴趣与经验，从物品到服务、从交易到交流，如今闲鱼累计用户数超5亿，日均交易额已突破10亿，每天都有400万件闲置物品在平台上发布。同时，闲鱼以闲置交易为起点，还发展出一键转卖、极速回收、验货宝、闲鱼小法庭等服务；并在2024年闲鱼成立十周年之际推出了闲鱼简历功能，通过闲置时间、技能来赚钱，让你的人生另起一行。

www.goofish.com

全闪NAS 联想 P330 NEC8 M920 转接卡扩展卡安装_哔哩哔哩_bilibili

联想Tiny5修改BIOS及转接卡安装教程，适用于P330 M920X M920Q M720Q NEC8机器，刷机工具可放在百度网盘，祝各位玩的愉快。工具地址： https://pan.baidu.com/s/1p2oZbz2xUwf22brCszmFbQ?pwd=c4g1, 视频播放量 10732、弹幕量 11、点赞数 142、投硬币枚数 63、收藏人数 375、转发人数 25, 视频作者 复活de四叶草, 作者简介 ，相关视频：全闪NAS 10盘整活视频 Tiny5 M920，联想M910x...

www.bilibili.com

View attachment 46814

This is a fun one, I considered making one like that myself as well but didn't have the time to, so I'm glad someone else made it real (though it would've been nice if the source files were available). It makes use of the fact that PCIe lanes from the Intel PCH can be reconfigured in firmware (I have an explanation about that here, though it seems they streamlined the flashing process for this specific adapter and platform).

In this case it's splitting the x4 link into 4 x1 links and using a clock buffer to split the refclk to the 4 slots. That gets you 4 drives running at PCIe 3.0 x1 off of the PCH, so up to just under 1GB/s per drive, and you still have the full PCIe x8 slot from the CPU as well (though with the SSDs installed you won't have much space lol).

It's a pretty cool riser in theory. I haven't seen it in practical use, but I imagine it works just fine. Seems to be using an extra buck converter to run the SSDs off of the beefier 12V rail so there should be no concerns about going over the tiny's onboard 3.3V regulator's limit, it just counts to the maximum total shared with the 12V for the PCIe slot now.

 

[Lurifx]

Earlier this spring i won an auction for a M920x and just now got around to play around with the machine. I'v installed 2 nvme drives already but i'm wondering if it's possible to use the wifi slot with an A/E key adapter to have as a boot device for Proxmox, if yes what is a known good adapter that is working. Would also like to expand with more nvme devices, preferably 2 of them. While trying to search this up i'v found that i need a PCI-E adapter, this is the right one i think 01AJ940. Will i have to do some kind of mod to the motherboard for something like this to work?

 

[notsonewbie]

Earlier this spring i won an auction for a M920x and just now got around to play around with the machine. I'v installed 2 nvme drives already but i'm wondering if it's possible to use the wifi slot with an A/E key adapter to have as a boot device for Proxmox, if yes what is a known good adapter that is working. Would also like to expand with more nvme devices, preferably 2 of them. While trying to search this up i'v found that i need a PCI-E adapter, this is the right one i think 01AJ940. Will i have to do some kind of mod to the motherboard for something like this to work?

You'll need a PCIE A/E key -> M Key, something like this; M.2 Nvme SSD Convert Adapter, M.2 A E WiFi Port PCIe 4.0 M Key Nvme SSD Convert Card, M.2 NGFF M Key SSD Convert Card for Nvme SSD : Amazon.com.au: Computers

Make sure you buy it from somewhere with a great return policy - I'm talking about 7 days, no questions asked, return it.


You could also try and find a direct A/E key NVME drive like this one; Industrial M.2 2230 (A+E key) Embedded Module - T425 but I hear they're extremely difficult - and costly - to source and be warned.. they will be slow - I'm pretty sure it only uses 2 PCIe lanes but don't @ me.


And yes, that's right PCI-E Riser Adapter.

 

[suryaya]

You'll need a PCIE A/E key -> M Key, something like this; M.2 Nvme SSD Convert Adapter, M.2 A E WiFi Port PCIe 4.0 M Key Nvme SSD Convert Card, M.2 NGFF M Key SSD Convert Card for Nvme SSD : Amazon.com.au: Computers

Make sure you buy it from somewhere with a great return policy - I'm talking about 7 days, no questions asked, return it.

I'm curious if something like this will work with the M710Q?

 

[Lurifx]

You'll need a PCIE A/E key -> M Key, something like this; M.2 Nvme SSD Convert Adapter, M.2 A E WiFi Port PCIe 4.0 M Key Nvme SSD Convert Card, M.2 NGFF M Key SSD Convert Card for Nvme SSD : Amazon.com.au: Computers

Make sure you buy it from somewhere with a great return policy - I'm talking about 7 days, no questions asked, return it.


You could also try and find a direct A/E key NVME drive like this one; Industrial M.2 2230 (A+E key) Embedded Module - T425 but I hear they're extremely difficult - and costly - to source and be warned.. they will be slow - I'm pretty sure it only uses 2 PCIe lanes but don't @ me.


And yes, that's right PCI-E Riser Adapter.

Got the PCIE A/E key on order and a disk for it. Would the drive be to slow for using as the vm drive as well? Using a SSD today for the boot device and storage for vm's. Will probably have the stuff by friday so i can test then but still curious.

 

[Gr3yh0und]

Got another x8 riser for my P3G2/M90Q Gen6 and neither X710/XVV710 are recognized by it. It stops in C1 though, so it seems to be "present".

With the x4 riser both are fine, but C2 is max. Seems like Arrow Lake in the Tiny doesn't go lower - Sad. Need to accept this now or look for a Gen 5 as the prior generation seems to support that.

 

[wiggy]

So I did this, and my X710 DA2 now reaches C10 on both Lenovo M90Q Gen 4 and 5.

I'm wondering if x4 will be enough for this card, or if I'm blocking and limiting it.

It seems the Lenovo x8 riser doesn't allow it to go beyond C2 for some reason. Now, with the modified Lenovo x4 riser, as you suggested, it reaches C10 effortlessly.

PCIE 4 x4 is a bit under 8 gigabytes per second, each way at the same time, so the X710 is fine.

 

[akariii]

Anyone know the pin out for the CPU fan connector on an m720q/m920q? I'm trying to adapt a 4 pin pwm fan to it and am unsure and don't want to burn something out.

I know it's a 4 pin picoblade 1.25 connector but that's about it

 

[WifiCable]

Anyone know the pin out for the CPU fan connector on an m720q/m920q? I'm trying to adapt a 4 pin pwm fan to it and am unsure and don't want to burn something out.

I know it's a 4 pin picoblade 1.25 connector but that's about it

Looks like the pinout is the same as a standard 4-pin PC fan, just a smaller connector

Pin 1: Ground
Pin 2: 12V
Pin 3: Tacho
Pin 4: PWM


The pin numbers 1 and 4 are written on the board next to the connector so you can tell the orientation.

 

[akariii]

Looks like the pinout is the same as a standard 4-pin PC fan, just a smaller connector

Pin 1: Ground
Pin 2: 12V
Pin 3: Tacho
Pin 4: PWM

View attachment 46856
The pin numbers 1 and 4 are written on the board next to the connector so you can tell the orientation.

Hmm I'm seeing conflicting info. Found a source that say the ground and 12 are switched for the cpu fan and also found someone's video for the fan where pins 1 and 2 and then 3 and 4 are switched. Might have to test it myself with a multimeter. Thank you

 

[Moxivus]

Is anyone offering 3D prints for baffles? I'd be interested in two baffles that would fit a QNAP-QXG-2G4T-i225 for an M920q. The "standard" 4 port baffle is not the right size and despite my impressive dremel skills, I'd prefer to have something that is a better fit.

sent to a dm. I’m happy to give it a shot.

 

[Moxivus]

I don't know of any no. The riser has some slots on it that one could mount to in theory, but I never designed one, don't have a 3D printer. If you find or make one info about it would be very welcome!

@WifiCable

I’d be happy to take a shot at designing one. Happy to provide the files once we have something that works, and I can print a few samples as well.
Shoot me a message.

 

[sw1]

This is a fun one, I considered making one like that myself as well but didn't have the time to, so I'm glad someone else made it real (though it would've been nice if the source files were available). It makes use of the fact that PCIe lanes from the Intel PCH can be reconfigured in firmware (I have an explanation about that here, though it seems they streamlined the flashing process for this specific adapter and platform).

In this case it's splitting the x4 link into 4 x1 links and using a clock buffer to split the refclk to the 4 slots. That gets you 4 drives running at PCIe 3.0 x1 off of the PCH, so up to just under 1GB/s per drive, and you still have the full PCIe x8 slot from the CPU as well (though with the SSDs installed you won't have much space lol).

It's a pretty cool riser in theory. I haven't seen it in practical use, but I imagine it works just fine. Seems to be using an extra buck converter to run the SSDs off of the beefier 12V rail so there should be no concerns about going over the tiny's onboard 3.3V regulator's limit, it just counts to the maximum total shared with the 12V for the PCIe slot now.

On a P330 that’s 6 total drives (7 accounting for the WiFi slot). With a short 2x10GbE SFP+ NIC you can make a full Proxmox virtualization host with a NAS without modifying the case. 4 NVMe drives in RAID10 or something like that for the NAS and the NIC on the custom riser, WiFi slot for the boot drive and two mirrored NVMe drives on the stock slots for the Proxmox VMs

That’s pretty much my setup these days. I have 4 SAS drives though connected to an HBA card but it’s a mid tower case so like 20 times the size so it’s a fair compromise for some people to be able to fit all that in a much smaller device (specially considering how small living spaces are becoming these days).

 

[suryaya]

I'm curious if something like this will work with the M710Q?

Well, after reading more, I saw no reason it wouldn't work. Sharing in case anyone else finds this helpful, since this is a really easy way to fit a full size ssd

I bought an A+E key adapter that was able to mount the m.2 device the opposite way. See pic:



Then I inserted my 2280 m.2 SSD:



Are there any repercussions to this? The ssd is just sitting there on top of the other electrical components. The backside of the SSD is just the green solder mask which should insulate the components. It's not really moving around either — the blue pin from the opposite side of the board which secures the other SSD from the primary slot also happens to sit right against the edge of this preventing it from popping out. One pin two SSDs lol.

Anyway, debian detected right away. I was able to list the contents and format it to ext4. I also ran a write test with fio and got a speed of 1928MB/s. I'm going to host a seafile container on there and will report back.

EDIT: A week in and no issues so far. I am using this SSD to sync my files using syncthing. I also have a daily job that reads and copies the entire disk for backup. So no issues with read/write.

 

[Yariops]

Are there any repercussions to this?

Buy eletronic tape for protection. something like https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005008143989716.html

 

[Microcosm]

What is this DC connector in the M720q motherboard?

Hw manual, page 5