Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread

[TinyLenovo]

Okay, my Tiny 1U NAS/server is coming along. Using the front half of a 1U chassis for it's shallow depth as it's going to be mounted in a network rack.

Question: Looking for suggestions to get 1) a single power supply which can feed everything in the case, AND 2) be switched on/off with the Tiny?
For testing purposes I've just been running the drives off of in-line AC power adapters, but these are on all the time unless I unplug them, and each requires it's own outlet.

Of course, then there's the question of how do I switch the power supply? Or do I even need to if I plan to run this 24/7?
If my 1U chassis had a typical PSU I understand you can use a pin or buy an adapter that will force it to turn on, but I don't know that I want or need a several hundred watt power supply for this and still need to find a way to switch it.

 

[bigfellasdad]

Oh, if I'd seen that I might have opted for a M910q instead. Definitely an option I could consider. Any experience with either passing it through to an opnsense VM on proxmox or using it as a paravirtualised card in proxmox?

openwrt and proxmox see it out of the box, esxi7 see's it with the fling add-on. All good I always as a matter of course create a vmbr for all nics under proxmox and I dont see any performance hit in doing so, i realise there is no benefit for a WAN interface..

 

[bigfellasdad]

Question: Looking for suggestions to get 1) a single power supply which can feed everything in the case, AND 2) be switched on/off with the Tiny?
For testing purposes I've just been running the drives off of in-line AC power adapters, but these are on all the time unless I unplug them, and each requires it's own outlet.

I used to have a smart plug that I could power on/off with alexa for my 'occational use' bits of my home lab. I know its not 'techy', but more of a KISS thing

 

[chbmb]

openwrt and proxmox see it out of the box, esxi7 see's it with the fling add-on. All good I always as a matter of course create a vmbr for all nics under proxmox and I dont see any performance hit in doing so, i realise there is no benefit for a WAN interface..

Brilliant, that's good to know. My M920q has arrived and I've installed proxmox and got opnsense installed, just waiting for a riser card which I'd already ordered and I can play around with an old Intel NIC I have lying around before I make a final call on what direction I'm going to go. Some of this is dependent on how much FreeCAD I can learn to leverage my 3d printer.

 

[TinyLenovo]

I used to have a smart plug that I could power on/off with alexa for my 'occational use' bits of my home lab. I know its not 'techy', but more of a KISS thing

Thanks for the suggestion! I might do this for the trigger, though Home Assistant would be controlling this and it'll be running on the machine as a VM, so I suppose these drives would power up after their respective VMs have already booted, unless I added a fair amount of startup delay.

Can I safely daisy chain a single power supply to the Blu Ray, 6 SSDs (two SATA power connectors), and a single 3.5 Spinner?
I'm a bit confused on the right power as the Blu Ray says it can do 5v/1.5a or 12v/2a, and I believe spinners can handle similar power, but pretty sure I don't want to connect my SSD cage to 12v. Presumably a 5v/ ~6-8a power supply could work?

 

[badger707]

Can someone share M920x board schematics for repairs (circuit diagram)?
I want to see what will take to convert my few M920q to M920x so I could use 2 NVME slots for storage. I have no problems with micro soldering, just cant find circuit diagram anywhere to identify which SMD caps/resistors to solder.
Any pointers?

 

[flame7487]

Can someone share M920x board schematics for repairs (circuit diagram)?
I want to see what will take to convert my few M920q to M920x so I could use 2 NVME slots for storage. I have no problems with micro soldering, just cant find circuit diagram anywhere to identify which SMD caps/resistors to solder.
Any pointers?

I found only like this : Y676.00 https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=693044441181

2023-03-03 12:44:12 They can communicate on chat only in Ch fashion
fasghgd:kefu01 as follows
A ... This circuit board has been sold,...
Q ... Can you explain more technical data about the mentioned above item ?
A... Our technicians are on break now and are not at work...

 

[badger707]

I found only like this : Y676.00 https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=693044441181

2023-03-03 12:44:12 They can communicate on chat only in Ch fashion
fasghgd:kefu01 as follows
A ... This circuit board has been sold,...
Q ... Can you explain more technical data about the mentioned above item ?
A... Our technicians are on break now and are not at work...

Thanks for sharing/suggesting. I've got 920x schematics on reddit, now in process of identifying all components what I need to order for this upgrade...
From what I can see/trace, most components needed to be soldered back on are located on top of the board around SATA connector and Wi-Fi card slot area, still need to check the bottom side of the board. It will be a fun challenging project for next 1-2 weeks

 

[robbo2k]

Everyone advises against installing a processor other than the "T" series to the Lenovo M72e Tiny because it will explode. As you can see, it works without any problems with the i5-3335S.

Passmark 3943 very comparable to the i5-4790T

 

[damex]

@Parallax May i suggest some extra info in the first post:
- M720Q / M920Q models have the x8 PCI-E slot directly wired to the CPU
- M90Q G1 has the x8 PCI-E slot wired to the PCH
The latter impicates that the port is capped at x4 speed maximum, and shares the DMI bandwith with SATA,NIC,USB ports.

I did not find anything regarding this topic but it is very important at least for me. After figuring this out, i'm glad i did not sell the tiny4's yet. And now have 3 m90q FS in Europe if anybody interested, bundled with x4 risers.

Is it the same for later models?

i think about getting more p330 with 9500t for 250~260$ (no ram, no storage, no gpu. Riser is present in place, 90w psu) while it is available or just keep looking for newer models with 11th gen cpu, 12h gen or newer

want to use dual or quad sfp+ card in there

 

[damex]

Thanks for sharing/suggesting. I've got 920x schematics on reddit, now in process of identifying all components what I need to order for this upgrade...
From what I can see/trace, most components needed to be soldered back on are located on top of the board around SATA connector and Wi-Fi card slot area, still need to check the bottom side of the board. It will be a fun challenging project for next 1-2 weeks

did you find schematics for m920q?

Could you please share m920x schematics?

i also have m920q

 

[Fritz]

These little thin clients tend to run on the warm side. Came up with a quick ghetto colling solution for my M700 made from spare parts.
Dropped temps down 20c. It ain't pretty but it sure is effective.

 

[bigfellasdad]

These little thin clients tend to run on the warm side. Came up with a quick ghetto colling solution for my M700 made from spare parts.
Dropped temps down 20c. It ain't pretty but it sure is effective.

One of the benefits of living on the uk, m920q running proxmox, 3 VMs (openwrt, centos8-1 ldap client test box and Ping Directory LDAP VM) and 4 lxc's (mysql, ansible server, nginx server, mysql and zabbix servers ), 2tb SSD, 1tb NVME, 64gb RAM, 1x 2.5gbe usb nic and i5-8500T

root@central:~# sensors -f
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0: +84.2°F (high = +201.2°F, crit = +212.0°F)
Core 0: +84.2°F (high = +201.2°F, crit = +212.0°F)
Core 1: +82.4°F (high = +201.2°F, crit = +212.0°F)
Core 2: +84.2°F (high = +201.2°F, crit = +212.0°F)
Core 3: +78.8°F (high = +201.2°F, crit = +212.0°F)
Core 4: +82.4°F (high = +201.2°F, crit = +212.0°F)
Core 5: +82.4°F (high = +201.2°F, crit = +212.0°F)

acpitz-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
temp1: +82.0°F (crit = +246.2°F)

nvme-pci-0100
Adapter: PCI adapter
Composite: +82.1°F (low = -459.7°F, high = +170.3°F)
(crit = +173.9°F)
Sensor 1: +82.1°F (low = -459.7°F, high = +117503.3°F)
Sensor 2: +85.7°F (low = -459.7°F, high = +117503.3°F)

 

[Fritz]

I'm in South Georgia and it got up to 83F today. This little box is in a room with 3 servers running so it's a bit warm in there. If it wasn't for rain and fog, the weather in the UK would be perfect.

 

[drvcrash]

Finally managed to boot a nvme from the a+e key slot. This is m920q with a M.2 KEY A E to M.2 NVME KEY M SSD Adapter.

 

[damex]

Finally managed to boot a nvme from the a+e key slot. This is m920q with a M.2 KEY A E to M.2 NVME KEY M SSD Adapter. View attachment 27803

Nice, i have been looking for an adapter like that. Where did you get it?

 

[drvcrash]

Nice, i have been looking for an adapter like that. Where did you get it?

Ebay was the only place i could find it. M.2 KEY A E to M.2 NVME KEY M SSD Adapter WIFI Wireless Network Card Slot | eBay It will only boot from it in bios mode and you get pci3 1x speed. But for booting esxi or another hypervisor that is fine to replace usb booting

 

[Fritz]

Ebay was the only place i could find it. M.2 KEY A E to M.2 NVME KEY M SSD Adapter WIFI Wireless Network Card Slot | eBay It will only boot from it in bios mode and you get pci3 1x speed. But for booting esxi or another hypervisor that is fine to replace usb booting

Gotta love that last picture.

 

[damex]

Ebay was the only place i could find it. M.2 KEY A E to M.2 NVME KEY M SSD Adapter WIFI Wireless Network Card Slot | eBay It will only boot from it in bios mode and you get pci3 1x speed. But for booting esxi or another hypervisor that is fine to replace usb booting

thanks, i have found it on aliexpress (can't use ebay). it also costs less than on ebay. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004884227435.html got 10 of them. there is also other sellers on ali

 

[drvcrash]

thanks, i have found it on aliexpress (can't use ebay). it also costs less than on ebay. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004884227435.html got 10 of them. there is also other sellers on ali

Yeah i tried to buy on Ali Express first put in an order payed with paypal then they closed the order for security and keep my money and i cant get anyone to fix it there or at paypal. So im done with their scammy site