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Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread

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Parallax

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Nov 8, 2020
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Anyone here running ESXi on theirs? I'm thinking of replacing a bunch of Raspberry pi's with one of these and leverage my already existing Vsphere platform. It will need to have vt-d though to passthrough USB (reading a smart power meter).
Also yes, I have five Tinys (a M720q, two M920qs, and two M70qs) in an ESXi cluster, although given the 1GbE NICs I don't do vSAN for the moment. I also suspect it might be overkill for my needs, it's easier just to have a NAS exporting an NFS share.

There's a small section on ESXi in the original post for reference.
 

Parallax

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Nov 8, 2020
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{snip}
Now which HSF would a 35W P340 with a P620 GPU (which has no heat pipe) come with?
I don't have experience with the different heatsinks I'm afraid. Thank you for your research, though, I'll have a go at incorporating it in the reference post if that's OK?

Generally though I'd say that Lenovo only ever supplies graphics cards in 35W systems, so I wouldn't expect to see a 65W heatsink which can take a heatpipe. I would imagine in the scenario you give here the P620 just gives off heat from its own heatsink and presumably the case vents have to accommodate that.
 

rafale77

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Sep 28, 2020
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I don't have experience with the different heatsinks I'm afraid. Thank you for your research, though, I'll have a go at incorporating it in the reference post if that's OK?

Generally though I'd say that Lenovo only ever supplies graphics cards in 35W systems, so I wouldn't expect to see a 65W heatsink which can take a heatpipe. I would imagine in the scenario you give here the P620 just gives off heat from its own heatsink and presumably the case vents have to accommodate that.
Thank you! Yes you can absolutely incorporate the info into the reference post. I ended up biting the bullet after a bit of research and here is what I found out (holistic summary):

M90Q:
35W CPU -> 35W Al HSF 5H40U92964
65W CPU -> 65W Cu HSF 5H40U92966

P340:
35W CPU (with no dGPU, P620 or P1000) -> 35W Cu/Al hybrid HSF accommodating heat-pipe Heatsink from the P1000. 5H40U92967
65W CPU -> 65W Cu HSF 5H40U92966

So these are the 3 HSF available for these tiny6 units. It also appears from a very detailed look that the tiny7 (P350/M90Q gen2) HSF and the tiny6(P340/M90Q gen1) HSF are interchangeable. Only the addition of 3 through holes for easy access to test pads on the tiny6 motherboard appear to be the difference. (I compared 5H40U93021Vs.5H40U92966)

I am getting a 35W P340 with a P620 on which I will be installing a 65W with a tiny7 65W HSF. Will report back...
 

chrishull

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Mar 1, 2022
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Just wanted to say a thank you to everyone that contributed to this thread. The information about the part numbers for the x16 riser cards and backplate were spot on. I managed to find a UK seller on EBay for the parts. Although they did take 2 weeks they did arrive with Lenovo seals on them. For less than £250 I managed to equip two P350’s with Intel i350-T4 cards :). Just a tip during installation, connect the riser to the pcie card before you plug in the riser to the motherboard.
 

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adman_c

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Feb 14, 2016
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I'm not pushing a ton of traffic through it, but it seemed warm-hot, but not hot enough that I'm concerned.

I use pfsense as a router-on-a-stick config and have lots of vlans that pass traffic throughout the day. So it made sense to "go big" and get a 10gb card instead of a 4x1gbe card for pfsense. Also I have fiber to the home and there have been discussions about bumping that up to 2.5gbe so I'm future proofed for straight fiber if they provide that.
I'm thinking of upgrading my pfsense box to a m720q with a supermicro 2x 10gbe NIC (using an intel chipset, I believe). What's the power usage on yours look like running pfsense?
 

UKIkarus

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Mar 24, 2022
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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 :)
 

memilanuk

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Jan 31, 2021
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Managed to snag an M920q off ebay... should have it, the power supply (had to find that separately) and the riser card here next week. Now for a NIC card...

Planning on putting Untangle on it (for now) ;)
 
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adman_c

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Got my 720q (8100t/8/128) for $250 on ebay. Picked up a supermicro x520 NIC for $40 and the riser for $30. There’s a guy on reddit who will 3d print the ”baffle” or whatever they call the bit that goes on the back for like $10 shipped. So for $330 I’m getting a pretty small, extremely capable 10g router/firewall. Without the NIC (waiting on the riser to arrive from China) it idles at around 10w, which is really impressive. Pretty psyched to see how it performs once I get pfsense on it.
 

zer0sum

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Mar 8, 2013
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Got my 720q (8100t/8/128) for $250 on ebay. Picked up a supermicro x520 NIC for $40 and the riser for $30. There’s a guy on reddit who will 3d print the ”baffle” or whatever they call the bit that goes on the back for like $10 shipped. So for $330 I’m getting a pretty small, extremely capable 10g router/firewall. Without the NIC (waiting on the riser to arrive from China) it idles at around 10w, which is really impressive. Pretty psyched to see how it performs once I get pfsense on it.
link to the mystery reddit baffle printer? :)
 

zer0sum

Well-Known Member
Mar 8, 2013
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Got my 720q (8100t/8/128) for $250 on ebay. Picked up a supermicro x520 NIC for $40 and the riser for $30. There’s a guy on reddit who will 3d print the ”baffle” or whatever they call the bit that goes on the back for like $10 shipped. So for $330 I’m getting a pretty small, extremely capable 10g router/firewall. Without the NIC (waiting on the riser to arrive from China) it idles at around 10w, which is really impressive. Pretty psyched to see how it performs once I get pfsense on it.
Using an M920q with an i5-8500T running Proxmox + various firewall vm's I can max out my 2G symmetric fiber link easily :D
1648680188376.png
 
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atflp

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Mar 31, 2022
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Hi All,

Thank you for this very informative thread. I just found it, but I have been playing with Lenovo Tiny machines for a long time.
Now I have an M920q with a i350-t4 ethernet card. Plannig to use it as my router with pfsense.

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.

Lenovo-ThinkCentre-M920q-Tiny-Rear-View.jpg

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.
 

Basco

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Mar 31, 2022
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@Basco Check the first post of this thread. In the " Baffle/rear bracket." section.
Thanks. Yessir I did read it but if the baffle isn’t available to order I think I should go with the Lenovo dual port nic but I need to know the FRU. Did anyone see this anywhere?
 

atflp

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Mar 31, 2022
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Hi @Basco,

I think there is no separate FRU for the bracket. As I know the bracket is part of an extension kit, like this. I haven't seen dual port bracket at all.
You should order a 4-port bracket. It's better than nothing.
 
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geoffct

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Feb 14, 2016
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I didn't realize someone had already posted this,

I replied in the news article for the M75q review, but simplifying a few things here:

There's a datasheet / brochure too:

EDIT: I found the P360 Tiny datasheet/brochure:

The notable changes:
12th Gen Intel, upto 12900T
DDR5 ram
GEN 4x8 PCIe slot, Not a change, my mistake
optional 2.5GBe RTL8125BGS in "Second FlexIO port"
(minor) 2nd front USB-A port
I'm not clear if the 2.5GBe is a simply a very short PCIe card that just fills the bottom punchout, or it uses the FlexIO riser / port inside. (Hopefully the latter and I'll try M75q-2 compatibility.)

Also adding a bit more from the parts side:

There's a new part for the Gen3 that is listed as:
BLD Tiny8 BTB Type-C card 100W 5C50W00907 - No clue which way the 100W works.

BLD Tiny8 BTB LAN card 5C50W00908 is likely the 2.5GBe card. It is listed as a BTB and 5C50W# which differs from the i350 intel which is listed as a PCIe card and a general part number (with the service manual diagram it looks like there are two FlexIO risers in the Gen 3 machines, so who knows.)

Bitland MR Tunderbolt miniLP 5C50V94334 - Interesting by all means, but does it use the PCIe slot? Didn't know this already was known.

Sunix 4COM card for Tiny8 5C50W00898, a 4 serial port card? It could be of interest for people on the industrial side.


For Gen 2 /3 related items, I found a few part numbers of interest (what I was originally searching for.)

There is a 4 port USB option for the Gen2 Lenovo Tiny machines:
5C50W00919 / 5C50W00895 / 5C50W00896 (I believe each number is a different supplier and Bitland -895 may be actively embargo'ed to the USA)

There is a 2 port USB option:
5C50W00918 / 5C50W00891

Geoff
 
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Basco

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Mar 31, 2022
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Hi @Basco,

I think there is no separate FRU for the bracket. As I know the bracket is part of an extension kit, like this. I haven't seen dual port bracket at all.
You should order a 4-port bracket. It's better than nothing.
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.