Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread
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For reference, while this seems to fix the issue for the B50, I have a separate NIC that refuses to initiate even though everything is kaptan'd off (against shorting). Directly when it POSTs the activity led on the NIC just dies out. On a P320 it keeps working after post and also successfully sets up a link to the other device.
Anyone have a suggestion for a fix? I'm still going to send Lenovo an email.
Every found an answer to that question? M75q gen2 continues to receive BIOS updates, I wonder if anyone eventually got it working with ECC.
EDIT: well, few minutes later, another member solved this myster once and for all: the ECC alens on gen2 are not connected.
Would you pleae be able to check the M75q1 schematics as well to see whether there's any safe 12V source for the same?
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The M75q gen 1's 12V regulator is only rated for 1A continuous (OCP 5.1A) since it's only meant to power the fan and some other small things. It was never designed to support a PCIe riser slot or anything so it'll be very limited in what you could even use it for. I have the schematic but not the boardview so I can't really tell you where all you could best get access to the 12V rail.
Hi, new here, although reading through this forum helped me a lot with my home server project.
I bought a M920x (mainly for the double nvme slots) that came with a I7-8700 (65w) processor.
Because of space constraints and consequently thermal constraints I am thinking of undervolting the CPU to gain a couple of degrees (I already cleaned it, applyed new thermal paste and set the governor to powersave). Before I deployed the server I updated the bios to the last version - M1UKT77A. The problem now is, that I dont know if the "Overclocking lock" that needs to be disabled is still at 0x7BD like in the previous bios version or not. Can't find the information for my specific bios version anywhere, and don't know how to check it myself.
Anyone knows if "setup_var 0x7BD 0x00" is still the correct command for bios version M1UKT77A? And if not, does anyone have the correct address? Don't want to brick my machine...
Thank you.
I bought a M920x (mainly for the double nvme slots) that came with a I7-8700 (65w) processor.
Because of space constraints and consequently thermal constraints I am thinking of undervolting the CPU to gain a couple of degrees (I already cleaned it, applyed new thermal paste and set the governor to powersave). Before I deployed the server I updated the bios to the last version - M1UKT77A. The problem now is, that I dont know if the "Overclocking lock" that needs to be disabled is still at 0x7BD like in the previous bios version or not. Can't find the information for my specific bios version anywhere, and don't know how to check it myself.
Anyone knows if "setup_var 0x7BD 0x00" is still the correct command for bios version M1UKT77A? And if not, does anyone have the correct address? Don't want to brick my machine...
Thank you.
Hi there,
currently I'm runnning a Tiny M73 with an i7 4765T and 16GB RAM as Proxmox Server. Bought that in 2022 for 99 Euro.
The biggest VM is HomeAssistant and some smaller things like PiHole, Unifi Controller, Syncthing and Docker.
My next project would be something like Immich or Photoprism for my large photo collection.
I could get a old Tiny P330 with an i7 9700 (65W) and 32GB for 260 Euro.
Is this a good price?
Is this worth the upgrade or should try to find a 32GB RAM Kit for my M73 and keep using that?
currently I'm runnning a Tiny M73 with an i7 4765T and 16GB RAM as Proxmox Server. Bought that in 2022 for 99 Euro.
The biggest VM is HomeAssistant and some smaller things like PiHole, Unifi Controller, Syncthing and Docker.
My next project would be something like Immich or Photoprism for my large photo collection.
I could get a old Tiny P330 with an i7 9700 (65W) and 32GB for 260 Euro.
Is this a good price?
Is this worth the upgrade or should try to find a 32GB RAM Kit for my M73 and keep using that?
Hi got an ThinkCentre M90q Gen 6, its one of the their latest lenova thinkcentres with the intel core ultra cpus (235T), amazing and stable little mini pc with 3 nvme slots, their custom pci-e 8x slot.
I got this
Plugged it into that custom lenova pci-e 8x slot it fits fine, but it does not detect any pci-e addon card (raid, sata, network etc).
Its possible its dead, but the lights do go on to show the device has got power ie nvme slot card. But no detection in windows 11 device manager or in ubuntu latest. Bios all defaults and all slots enabled also.
Is there any magical trick to get it working?
I got this
Plugged it into that custom lenova pci-e 8x slot it fits fine, but it does not detect any pci-e addon card (raid, sata, network etc).
Its possible its dead, but the lights do go on to show the device has got power ie nvme slot card. But no detection in windows 11 device manager or in ubuntu latest. Bios all defaults and all slots enabled also.
Is there any magical trick to get it working?
Some quick early test of the ThinkCentre M90q Gen 6, this was with 2.5gb ethernet and thunderbolt 3/4 addon card installed.
Intel 235T cpu
32gb DDR5
3 x WD 8TB drives
20-22 watts idle in windows (sitting on desktop not doing much), linux was less 18-19 watts (sitting in desktop not doing much)
On average load ie some surfing/downloading, 35-45 watts in windows and linux was 32-38 watts.
Can ramp up to 80-120 watts when fully used ie cpu/gpu stress test under both windows/linux.
Overall very energy efficient given the extra horse power it has. If I remove the 2.5g realtek card and thunderbolt I can save 6-8 watts. Lowest idle was 15-17 watts in truenas (sitting in truenas with 4x 8tbs)
did a bit more write up on the cons and why I am returning the lenova here
Intel 235T cpu
32gb DDR5
3 x WD 8TB drives
20-22 watts idle in windows (sitting on desktop not doing much), linux was less 18-19 watts (sitting in desktop not doing much)
On average load ie some surfing/downloading, 35-45 watts in windows and linux was 32-38 watts.
Can ramp up to 80-120 watts when fully used ie cpu/gpu stress test under both windows/linux.
Overall very energy efficient given the extra horse power it has. If I remove the 2.5g realtek card and thunderbolt I can save 6-8 watts. Lowest idle was 15-17 watts in truenas (sitting in truenas with 4x 8tbs)
did a bit more write up on the cons and why I am returning the lenova here
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No. It seems the x16 physical riser does only work for graphics cards on the arrow lake platform. I have the same issue with my P3 Tiny G2. The x4 riser does work.
You do have the Thunderbolt Card in the PCI Express riser? So the riser does work for you?
Compile powertop from the latest source and check which power states you can enter on Linux. Whatever I put into my riser, I am limited to C2/C3, not C8 anymore.
These values are with connected mouse, keyboard and display? I just got a M90q Gen 5 with an i5-14600T and 32GB RAM. With only the internal NIC connected to the network it idles at ~4.6W. (Debian Linux) With two NVMEs and an i350-T4 it's at ~6W. Essentially the same idle values as my old M920x.
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Its a extra power source for the thunderbolt card or one of the B2B slots I believe. I purchased the cable when Lenovo had it on their parts sale, part number is 01YW371. Never got around to using it as I ended up getting a P340.
Actually it might be for Sunix Tiny5 4 COM card (part number 01AJ932).
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I get 3-4W with a 235, 48GB RAM and 2x 2TB 970 Evo. So Arrow Lake is capable of similar values. It's just the C package states which are flawed as soon as you add any PCI Express card to any riser (either x16 phys or x4 phys). Then you drop to C3 from C8 and its up to ~11-13W. Then add 3-4W for a PCie Express NIC and you're at 18W.
thanks for confirming this issue, had a feeling it was just for that gpu in there but it would have been nice to have other pci e cards work with it. Gonna have to sell £50 worth of riser cards now.
The realtek 2.5gb and thunderbolt 4 adaptor go in 2 expansion separate type slots, lenova was the only one that allowed me to actually add on the cards, dell and hp were useless on their sites or not in stock:
This way you get direct access from the io panel from back of unit:
I won't be able to do any testing sadly, its a lovely bit of kit but I really needed that pci-e 8x/riser kit to work so its packed and ready to ship back to lenova for a refund.
Done a separate post here discussing the cons and why I am returning the lenova.
Yeah these extra pci-e devices always seem to mess with power states and savings.
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Well this was the issue for me, £480 with black friday discounts with 235T, 8gb DDR5 and 512gb nvme and thunderbolt 4 and realtek 2.5gb nic but the price has gone through the roof due to memory prices so its £740 now, so its not worth it.
Overall though Its a lovely bit of kit with 3 year warranty and has all the bios/driver support, but its not worth the money imo, you could buy 2-3 mini pc computers from aliexpress for less. GMKtec K12 and K15s barebones going for £230-250 from aliexpress and have usb 4.0, oculink port and 3x nvme slots.
re-edited my post, meant to say just sitting in windows desktop not doing much, ie few websites open and few apps running in background.
Yes with keyboard/mouse and ethernet connected, wireless and 4K/60 on LG C2 TV.
I think it got to around similar like 3-4 watts when in that deeper idle sleep state.
At least for (genuine!) Intel i350-T4 NICs I can say that both my M920x and m90q Gen 5 can hit C7 without problems. Not only in a synthetic test but in real circumstances. The M920x (32GB, 2x 1TB NVME) has several Incus containers spun up, an attached 2.5" drive, some NFS and CIFS shares and also my OPNSense libvirt VM. According to powertop it hits C7 ~80% of the time and stays below 11W on average(24h). I bought the m90q not only for the additional CPU power but also for propper IOMMU groups so I can switch the OPNSense network interfaces from virtual devices to passed through SR-IOV ones. Righ now even 200 MBit/s of traffic will bring up energy consumption to around 25W and I will finally get a Gigabit Internet conneciton soonish.
Edit: Maybe the Thunderbolt or Realtek card do not support ASPM or need some additional parameters to allow deeper C states?
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Forgot to add above in regards to the ThinkCentre M90q Gen 6, the expansion addon cards of 2.5gb (realtek) and thunderbolt 4 are great to use along with the 3 x pci 4.0 nvme slots but the issue is you can't then use the pci-e 8x slot since there is no clearance space for any pci cards there fully blocked by the addon cards.
So you have to decide what you want 2.5gb ethernet/thunderbolt or other expansion or pci-e gpu and not both, if they added just an inch clearance at the back they could have run all 3.
Not sure why any manufacturer would release £700-1K+ pcs without USB 4/thunderbol4 or 2.5gb ethernet in 2025/2026, but it appears dell, hp and lenova are still doing just that. Its something patrick mentioned on his most recent lenova review YT.
The ThinkCentre M90q Gen 6 also has overheating nvme issues (WD 8TB) on the underside due to lack of cooling/heatsink, also they have used a strange CPU heatsink design where a part of metal fin is poking outwards which seems to serve little purpose other then block any taller nvme heatsinks from being used on the top of motherboard nvme slot.
Patricks recent lenova think centres with snapdragon cpu review show they have now improved and possibly fixed this nvme design issue mentioned here. I have to imagine this would thermal cool double sided 4tb or 8tb drives.
Really I expected lenova to test their products considering this is the latest and greatest think centre, but it falls into the many issues of thermal limits/throttling just like many mini/pcs have accept the lenova is miles bigger and shouldn't really have these issues given the cost and size of the form factor.
So you have to decide what you want 2.5gb ethernet/thunderbolt or other expansion or pci-e gpu and not both, if they added just an inch clearance at the back they could have run all 3.
Not sure why any manufacturer would release £700-1K+ pcs without USB 4/thunderbol4 or 2.5gb ethernet in 2025/2026, but it appears dell, hp and lenova are still doing just that. Its something patrick mentioned on his most recent lenova review YT.
The ThinkCentre M90q Gen 6 also has overheating nvme issues (WD 8TB) on the underside due to lack of cooling/heatsink, also they have used a strange CPU heatsink design where a part of metal fin is poking outwards which seems to serve little purpose other then block any taller nvme heatsinks from being used on the top of motherboard nvme slot.
Patricks recent lenova think centres with snapdragon cpu review show they have now improved and possibly fixed this nvme design issue mentioned here. I have to imagine this would thermal cool double sided 4tb or 8tb drives.
Really I expected lenova to test their products considering this is the latest and greatest think centre, but it falls into the many issues of thermal limits/throttling just like many mini/pcs have accept the lenova is miles bigger and shouldn't really have these issues given the cost and size of the form factor.