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Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread

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bobbysteel

Member
Nov 20, 2022
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The problem was apparently not with the DAC cable. I finally gathered my wits and tested the AOC-STGN-i2S in my main desktop and it worked just fine with all of my DAC cables no matter what the encoding. So the problem is definitely with running it in the M90q Gen 3.

I did try all of the following in various combinations:
  • Disabled network boot for the NIC in the BIOS
  • Changed PCIe settings from "Auto" to "Gen 3" and then later "Gen 2"
  • Updated the M90q Gen 3 BIOS to the latest version M4GKT22A (The upgrade froze at the "Backup BIOS" step, but the M90q was able to recover, when I power-cycled it after waiting for 9 hours.)
Nothing helped and now I am at the end of my wits. Perhaps I should purchase the x4 riser to try that out, but I'm not particularly keen on spending even more money on this.
I think that's the most logical choice though.
 

MrWahWah

New Member
Jul 29, 2022
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Does anybody in the forum has this pack: M90q Gen 1+ riser x16 + AOC-STGN-I2S + 65w power supply?
Did anyone have any problems in order to turn it on?

In my particular situation everything is ok until I connect the DAC cable...then it doesn't boot.

Any help would be appreciated
 
Last edited:

986box

Active Member
Oct 14, 2017
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Does anybody in the forum has this pack: M90q Gen 1+ riser x16 + AOC-STGN-I2S + 65w power supply?
Did anyone have any problems in order to turn it on?

In my particular situation everything is ok until I connect the DAC cable...then it doesn't boot.

Any help would be appreciated
mine m920q with 135W boots without issue with 10G DAC cable from ipolex.
 

Parallax

Active Member
Nov 8, 2020
417
208
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London, UK
Does anybody in the forum has this pack: M90q Gen 1+ riser x16 + AOC-STGN-I2S + 65w power supply?
Did anyone have any problems in order to turn it on?

In my particular situation everything is ok until I connect the DAC cable...then it doesn't boot.

Any help would be appreciated
Up to 35W CPU + 5-7W for the motherboard + 5W per SSD + 10W for the NIC and let's assume the 65W power supply is 80-85% efficient.

It's just not enough power headroom for the device, buy a 90W power supply if you must or 135W if you can. I bought good 135W non Lenovo ones for ~£18-20 each here in the UK, it's not worth risking the stability of the machine with an overloaded power supply.
 

MrWahWah

New Member
Jul 29, 2022
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Up to 35W CPU + 5-7W for the motherboard + 5W per SSD + 10W for the NIC and let's assume the 65W power supply is 80-85% efficient.

It's just not enough power headroom for the device, buy a 90W power supply if you must or 135W if you can. I bought good 135W non Lenovo ones for ~£18-20 each here in the UK, it's not worth risking the stability of the machine with an overloaded power supply.
Ok, any particular good brand?
 

a5ian300zx

New Member
Aug 26, 2012
25
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Does anybody in the forum has this pack: M90q Gen 1+ riser x16 + AOC-STGN-I2S + 65w power supply?
Did anyone have any problems in order to turn it on?

In my particular situation everything is ok until I connect the DAC cable...then it doesn't boot.

Any help would be appreciated
I had a M720q + Riser x16 + Asus XGC100C 10Gbe + 65w PSU and worked fine. I even tried the X550-T2 which also worked fine.

My other one is M720Q + Riser x16 + Lenovo i350-T4 +135W PSU also works fine.

I now have a P360 + Riser x4 (also bought the Riser X16) + 230w PSU - still waiting for baffle for the T4 Nic so i can install my 10Gbe card (has a gap on both sides but it does not bother me.

I do also have a SuperMicro AOC-S25G-m2S which is also backward compatible with 10Gbe (I do have a 10GBe RJ45 to SFP+ Transceiver, cannot remember the make as i bought a few to test out for compatibility)
 
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Antec

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Dec 18, 2022
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As im planning to use the P320 as a pfsense box, has anyone made a list of bios options to switch off for maximum power savings?
 

Parallax

Active Member
Nov 8, 2020
417
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London, UK
Hello to all Tiny owners!
I bought an M720q (i3-8300T/16/256)+135W power supply and want to install an XFX RX6400 Low Profile graphics card in it. The maximum consumption of the video card is 53 watts. Dimensions 15.5 x 6.8 x 1.5 cm.

Has anyone installed something like this on this computer?
Is there enough PCI-E power for the normal operation of the graphics card?
What about the video card mount?

Thank you in advance for any information!
Sorry for the late reply, I missed this one. I think your card will be 0.5cm too long, but you may be able to get it in if you mess with the front fascia and remove the WiFi antenna block.

As long as the card will run on the standard power applied by the PCIe slot, you should be ok. Lenovo wants you to only use a T (ie 35W TDP) processor with it so you should be fine from that angle. You will obviously need to remove the back PCIe bracket/baffle from the card.

Apart from that, I think you should be fine except for the question mark about the heat. You can buy uprated CPU coolers and a vented top chassis panel/lid (spare part for the M920x), I think there are FRUs for all that in the first post.
 

Antec

New Member
Dec 18, 2022
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Tiny P320, came with a P600 dGPU and riser prefitted.

Spec:
i5-7500T
16Gb
512GB nvme
10Gb Mellanox ConnectX-3 MCX312A-XCBT
1x 10Gb DAC
1x 10GBASE-T SFP+ RJ45 Transceiver Module (FS.com SFP-10G-T)
3x Zyxel XGS1210-12 around the house

running pfsense in Proxmox, internal temps around 41c, and 15w idle



 

Parallax

Active Member
Nov 8, 2020
417
208
43
London, UK
Tiny P320, came with a P600 dGPU and riser prefitted.

Spec:
i5-7500T
16Gb
512GB nvme
10Gb Mellanox ConnectX-3 MCX312A-XCBT
1x 10Gb DAC
1x 10GBASE-T SFP+ RJ45 Transceiver Module (FS.com SFP-10G-T)
3x Zyxel XGS1210-12 around the house

running pfsense in Proxmox, internal temps around 41c, and 15w idle


Oooh, nice! I'm planning to move to 10GbE too. Welcome to the family. :D
 
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Parallax

Active Member
Nov 8, 2020
417
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London, UK
As im planning to use the P320 as a pfsense box, has anyone made a list of bios options to switch off for maximum power savings?
No, but I think with virtualisation generally and firewalling specifically, it's not a good idea to enforce power savings in the BIOS. Spinning things up and down on the host when the guest machine expects them to be there can cause failures that are notoriously hard to troubleshoot. These boxes are very frugal on power - that's one of the main reasons for using them - so putting stability at risk for the sake of a watt or two of power saving isn't worth it. 2W saved over a month in the UK (even with the current extortionate energy pricing) is just 49p, and running 24/7 at an average of 15W a Tiny costs only ~£3.67 a month - less than a coffee round where I live. :oops:
 
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LeroyLim

New Member
Jan 1, 2023
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I was just thinking of getting a M720Q Tiny for a 10G PFsense build.
Does anyone have any recommendations of a specific 10G card to use?

And also anything I should take note of?

I saw a Chelsio card that looks interesting - T422-CR (Dual 10G SFP+, Dual 1 Gbase-T), but not sure whether it would fit - T422-CR | Chelsio Communications
 

Parallax

Active Member
Nov 8, 2020
417
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London, UK
Probably not; it's too long by almost 1.5cm I'm afraid, and I'd be worried about the heat too if it consumes 15W. The first post contains the physical space (15cm long and half height) and also some suggestions for 10GbE cards; personally I'm collecting Supermicro AOC-STGN-I2S version 2.0 cards (2x 10GbE) when I see cheaper ones appear on eBay. Two down, two to go...
 

LeroyLim

New Member
Jan 1, 2023
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Probably not; it's too long by almost 1.5cm I'm afraid, and I'd be worried about the heat too if it consumes 15W. The first post contains the physical space (15cm long and half height) and also some suggestions for 10GbE cards; personally I'm collecting Supermicro AOC-STGN-I2S version 2.0 cards (2x 10GbE) when I see cheaper ones appear on eBay. Two down, two to go...
Thanks for providing your help. Just wondering, if you have any baffles and 10G NIC for sale for the M720Q?

Down here, I'm able to get the i3-8100T and I5-8500T M720Q. Which do you think I should get for 10G routing?

Also, what's the difference between V1 and V2 of that particular card? Is it still worth it to get V1?
 

Parallax

Active Member
Nov 8, 2020
417
208
43
London, UK
Thanks for providing your help. Just wondering, if you have any baffles and 10G NIC for sale for the M720Q?

Down here, I'm able to get the i3-8100T and I5-8500T M720Q. Which do you think I should get for 10G routing?

Also, what's the difference between V1 and V2 of that particular card? Is it still worth it to get V1?
No, I'm afraid I don't have anything for sale. I tend to sell my older stuff to fund my newer stuff so there's usually not much overlap time-wise and I only do it every 2-3 years.

There's a person on Reddit listed in the first post who can 3D print baffles for certain cards, they ship to the US and I've not yet asked them if they'll do overseas.

You can refer to the first post for the relative CPU processing speeds, things like Opnsense tend to rely more on single thread speed so best to focus on that. The 8500T will have more cores so that will help if you need to virtualise several things, otherwise the two are roughly equivalent on a per core basis. There's a thread in the networks section from someone who calculated theoretical throughout per CPU, might be worth having a look at that (I should probably link it from the first post). Remember the CPU is socketed so you can always buy the low end one first and then buy a faster one separately later.

The difference between the two cards is mostly size, the V2 is considerably smaller and I need a bit of space to put a SATA SSD in there with it. :p