Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread

[Parallax]

Thanks mate. I just need to be 100% sure before I order 5 pcs of the 4 port nic kit. Does it fit in the p350 tiny out of the box then.
talked to Lenovo rep yesterday. He said the card isn’t compatible with the tiny. Actually no extra nic is supported from their side.

I'm afraid I always turn to TaoBao in these circumstances. They seem to get options for various Lenovo parts that I can't find otherwise.

I would take note of the discussion on the previous page about the different baffles - for the P350 make sure you have the one with the curved side to the lug. There are some photos to compare, as well. I see no reason you shouldn't be able to fit the NIC into the P350, I think the reason why this isn't an approved configuration is that the workstation Tinys tend to all have the PCIe riser slot filled with a GPU.

 

[Parallax]

I haven't read it here, so I thought I'd share that you can power on the machine with ALT+P key combination if you are connected your keyboard to the USB port right next to the HDMI port (USB port 5). There is a litle keyboard 'icon' next to it.
Maybe it would helpful someone.

[...]

Another helpful info would be that there are newer nvidia cards that fits into this tiny machine, like: Nvidia T400, T600, T1000.

Nvidia T400 is like Quadro P620, just consumes less power
Nvidia T600 is like Quadro P1000, but newer
Nvidia T1000 is faster than the above cards

If you plan to add a gpu in this machine, consider upgrading the top cover that has a grid on top of the GPU fan.
The M920x, P330, M90q, P340, P350 has grid on it's top cover, but M720q, M920q needs another top cover.
135W power supply is needed when using GPU with this machine as well.

Thanks for all this great info, would you be OK if I put some key points into the original post?

 

[Parallax]

Following this as I'm thinking about getting some low energy consumption units to turn into esxi servers, if possible SFP+ would be a bonus, this is to replace Poweredge R710 boxes at less cost in terms of electricity, any recommendations? (Ideally I want to run 2+) what would be the best bang for buck?

Loving the idea of these mini micro's doing the job, I only turn on the bigger boxes when I need them as it seems a waste of energy otherwise when I'm using them purely to lab, so something I can leave on more consistently without worrying about a huge bill would be great

I do this, but like I said I have five Tinys. They're now 3 M920qs and 2 M70qs, with 9700T/9900Ts and 10300Ts respectively. I've not yet added 10G to them since I don't have a need (I do have a desire ...) so I don't have any practical experience to offer there. I have put what I know in the original post, there is an ESXi section - but basically the story is they all run fine, your main constraints are NIC ports, which you can augment through the PCIe riser but that does mean you don't have space for a 2.5" drive. But in any case you can put a 1 or 2TB NVMe in and offload your bulk drive requirements into a NAS of some variety.

The Passmark table in the first post should allow you to work out what sort of CPU you should shoot for - and remember even two (or five) Tinys are still waaaay less power consumption than one R710.

 

[Parallax]

Thanks to everyone's input here, I've added a lot of this info into the original post. Thanks so much, all.

 

[adman_c]

Thanks to everyone's input here, I've added a lot of this info into the original post. Thanks so much, all.

Thanks for putting this all together! I learned a ton just from that first post. Also, my 3d-printed baffle should arrive today or tomorrow, so I can do a dry fit (still waiting on the riser from China) and take a few pics for the thread.

 

[Parallax]

Thanks for putting this all together! I learned a ton just from that first post. Also, my 3d-printed baffle should arrive today or tomorrow, so I can do a dry fit (still waiting on the riser from China) and take a few pics for the thread.

You're welcome! And I'm very much looking forward to your pictures, a 10G upgrade will probably be my next Tiny project.

 

[atflp]

Thanks for all this great info, would you be OK if I put some key points into the original post?

Yes, of course. Thanks!

 

[Parallax]

The RAM info was a bit hidden under the table in small print, so I've added a section on RAM configurations based on info elsewhere. I've clarified that the largest DDR4 SODIMMs would appear to be 32GB; thus realistically limiting the RAM you can put into current model Tinys to 64GB even though technically 128GB would be supported. The Mx0q Gen 3s should support at least 128GB since DDR5 64GB SODIMMs seem to be a thing.

I also did some tidying and rearranging. I wish there was a way to have anchors so I could create a table of contents.

 

[adman_c]

You're welcome! And I'm very much looking forward to your pictures, a 10G upgrade will probably be my next Tiny project.

Still waiting on the riser (it's cleared customs in the US!), but here's the 3d printed baffle with the Supermicro AOC-STGN-I2S installed. Looks fantastic!

 

[atflp]

Still waiting on the riser (it's cleared customs in the US!), but here's the 3d printed baffle with the Supermicro AOC-STGN-I2S installed. Looks fantastic!

Fantastic work!

 

[adman_c]

Fantastic work!

Thanks, but I can take very little credit! Building on the great work of @Parallax and others in this thread, and the generosity of u/kz476 over on reddit. Can't wait for the riser to arrive to get going on the firewall.

 

[Parallax]

Very nice. And those 2.0 SuperMicro 10G cards are really small aren't they?

Do you know perchance if the Reddit person also does baffles compatible with the newer Mx0qs?

 

[adman_c]

Very nice. And those 2.0 SuperMicro 10G cards are really small aren't they?

Do you know perchance if the Reddit person also does baffles compatible with the newer Mx0qs?

Yes, almost shocking how small they are. I can ask about the newer models—do you know whether they are in fact different physically?

 

[Parallax]

Yes, almost shocking how small they are. I can ask about the newer models—do you know whether they are in fact different physically?

Yes they are, we know thanks to this versus this.

 

[Forumula]

Great info. I have a 27 inch ThinkCentre monitor that lenovo issued as a replacement but it has been sitting around for a couple of years unused.

The tiny slots in the back. For a fun project I just bought an M90q gen 2, an nvidia T1000, and the riser and blank bracket from ebay seller "lenovopartsuk" (I believe that's "lenovo parts uk", not "lenovo part suk" - at least I hope so )

Bracket will need some modding, but hopefully not too much. The T1000 has some pretty decent reviews on youtube - it's not terrible for gaming and is only a 50W part. I'll report back on how it works out.

 

[adman_c]

Great info. I have a 27 inch ThinkCentre monitor that lenovo issued as a replacement but it has been sitting around for a couple of years unused.

The tiny slots in the back. For a fun project I just bought an M90q gen 2, an nvidia T1000, and the riser and blank bracket from ebay seller "lenovopartsuk" (I believe that's "lenovo parts uk", not "lenovo part suk" - at least I hope so )

Bracket will need some modding, but hopefully not too much. The T1000 has some pretty decent reviews on youtube - it's not terrible for gaming and is only a 50W part. I'll report beck on how it works out.

I grabbed a used copy of the 24" version of that monitor for a separate project. Makes a great little touch-capable AIO machine. All of the tiny-mini PCs are pretty great, but I think the Lenovos really have the best ecosystem. Too bad all of these things have shot up in price due to the chip shortage (and the STH effect! ).

 

[Parallax]

The metal enclosure that goes on the back of the monitor that holds the Tiny is, amusingly, officially known as a "Tiny Sandwich" and you can buy it new from Lenovo UK directly for ~£20 - I know because I did so. There is an extra part you can get which attaches the power supply to the side of the sandwich (!) but I don't know what it's called and I've not seen it for sale.

 

[adman_c]

Very nice. And those 2.0 SuperMicro 10G cards are really small aren't they?

Do you know perchance if the Reddit person also does baffles compatible with the newer Mx0qs?

Unfortunately he does not have one of the newer models, so he can't print the baffles for them.

 

[Parallax]

I have updated the CPU table - Passmark's values changed a bit (due to more samples I suppose) - and for you mad people out there (I'm looking at you, @zer0sum ) I added in some 65W CPUs.

Now all the 10-series CPUs make sense performance-wise, but it does show you get basically zero gain going from an M720q running an 8400T to an M70q running a 10300T and you lose your PCIe slot, so bear that in mind. You do get a ~40% improvement going to a 10500T and a ~75% benefit going to a 11400T in a Gen 2 though.

I did get an amazing deal on a pair of M70qs with 10300Ts though, so I eBay'ed an M720q and an M920q to make enough money to cover the cost and pocket ~£150 profit plus two more years of onsite warranty - I can accept that but it doesn't make huge sense otherwise.

 

[zer0sum]

Just wanted to share that SR-IOV works perfectly on my m920q/i5-8500t with an Intel 85999 based NIC running Proxmox