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Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread

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jjnels8845

New Member
Sep 5, 2022
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Does anyone know if it’s possible to put a non-T CPU in an m70q Gen 3? I’m looking to upgrade and the T variants are a lot harder to find so I was going to get a non-T version and just set the power limit to 35w. I just wonder if the BIOS will reject it
 

Parallax

Active Member
Nov 8, 2020
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London, UK
The first post addresses this - TLDR is it works fine but you might want to look at an uprated HSF assembly (part numbers are in the post).
 

MrWahWah

New Member
Jul 29, 2022
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No. I did have problems with one specific card, which was branded Coraid, that wasn't detected during boot. I had to do unspeakable things to it to get it recognised.
But I think I have another kind of problem/incompatibility because if I disconnect the dac cable at the boot stage and I connect it, after the boot process, it works...

And from the beginning the card appears in the bios.

Thx for your help
 

Parallax

Active Member
Nov 8, 2020
417
208
43
London, UK
But I think I have another kind of problem/incompatibility because if I disconnect the dac cable at the boot stage and I connect it, after the boot process, it works...

And from the beginning the card appears in the bios.
Yeah, understood. I just wanted to reassure you my journey wasn't all plain sailing...

Did you check the connector in the card cage, by the way, and anything exposed on the card or motherboard for shorts?
 

MrWahWah

New Member
Jul 29, 2022
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Yeah, understood. I just wanted to reassure you my journey wasn't all plain sailing...

Did you check the connector in the card cage, by the way, and anything exposed on the card or motherboard for shorts?
I checked everything, tried to issolate the metal parts but nothing worked. I changed the card and voilá it ran at the first attempt
 

unmesh

Active Member
Apr 17, 2017
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I'm now running Proxmox VE on 3 TMMs that I'd like to backup to a Proxmox Backup Server (since it does dedup!) and it would be great if that could be another TMM instead of a SFF or larger form factor. Since I need the capacity of a 3.5" HDD, does anyone have an elegant way of connecting them to a TMM over a SATA cable? Or would I be restricted to connecting over USB, assuming PBS even supports that?

Thanks
 

bjo

New Member
Jan 20, 2023
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0
1
I got a M600 Tiny from Amso with a Celeron J3060. Unfortunately it seems to boot nothing. Tried several images (Arch, GRML), even the converted ISO with a new BIOS won't boot. The devices show up in the Boot list, but then nothing appears on the screen. USB drives with LED also show no further activity like when it would be reading some data.
Boot is set to UEFI first with fallback to BIOS, Secure Boot is disabled.

Any hints?
 

unmesh

Active Member
Apr 17, 2017
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I have a 920q and would like to configure it for a future PCIe card. Regarding the Tiny5 x16 risers, some sellers are bundling 4 screws for a somewhat higher price. Are these to attach the riser to the mainboard, the PCIe card to the riser or something else?
 

Phenic

Member
Mar 17, 2015
45
23
8
I have a 920q and would like to configure it for a future PCIe card. Regarding the Tiny5 x16 risers, some sellers are bundling 4 screws for a somewhat higher price. Are these to attach the riser to the mainboard, the PCIe card to the riser or something else?
The risers that I've used with the 920q/720q used only 1 screw which is used to secure the riser to the side of the case.
 
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unmesh

Active Member
Apr 17, 2017
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Thanks, @Phenic

I should probably buy the kit rather than risk not having the right mounting screw in my assortment of PC related screws
 

Parallax

Active Member
Nov 8, 2020
417
208
43
London, UK
Someone tried to install some 22110 nvme drives in a M920? Is it possible with some modding?
I don't have M920qs any more but squinting into my P350 the answer would be it's unlikely, there are chips and so on you would need to rest on; plus the metal chassis will make it very tricky to maneuver the drive into place anyway even if it did fit.

So I would classify it as very risky.
 

Parallax

Active Member
Nov 8, 2020
417
208
43
London, UK
I got a M600 Tiny from Amso with a Celeron J3060. Unfortunately it seems to boot nothing. Tried several images (Arch, GRML), even the converted ISO with a new BIOS won't boot. The devices show up in the Boot list, but then nothing appears on the screen. USB drives with LED also show no further activity like when it would be reading some data.
Boot is set to UEFI first with fallback to BIOS, Secure Boot is disabled.

Any hints?
Nothing comes immediately to mind. There is a method to reset the BIOS in the original post, perhaps that would be worth trying?
 

Parallax

Active Member
Nov 8, 2020
417
208
43
London, UK
I'm now running Proxmox VE on 3 TMMs that I'd like to backup to a Proxmox Backup Server (since it does dedup!) and it would be great if that could be another TMM instead of a SFF or larger form factor. Since I need the capacity of a 3.5" HDD, does anyone have an elegant way of connecting them to a TMM over a SATA cable? Or would I be restricted to connecting over USB, assuming PBS even supports that?
Well you could try extending the SATA ribbon cable off the ZIF connector and out the back somehow, I suppose. It presents a full standard SATA/power interface but conceivably you could cut that off and instead attach an eSATA plug or something? I mean YOLO and all that but it would be way simpler and cheaper to just use a USB drive enclosure, although I don't know if PBS supports that I don't see why it shouldn't. My TrueNAS setup accepts 2x SATA drives in two USB 3 enclosures as a ZFS mirror, so ...
 

Parallax

Active Member
Nov 8, 2020
417
208
43
London, UK
I wanted to provide an update on some experiments I've been making lately. My aim was to use P350s in a boot drive + ZFS mirror configuration with 2x 10GbE. I've managed to do all that and my 3D printed baffles from the nice chap on Reddit arrived today - he had no issues shipping overseas to me (I'm in the UK) and was very prompt. So I've done my first full assembly at last and I took some photos before putting it into production.

I bought and shucked a standard 2.5" SSD (Patriot P210 but any should do), two 1TB NVMe drives, a Supermicro AOC-STGN-I2S, a SATA ribbon cable/caddy FRU, and an x16 riser for each P350 I have. I was very impressed with the quality of the printed baffles, they have metal nuts and screws built in so they are sturdy and feel like quality item. My photos focus a bit on that, since I've not seen any other pictures of the baffle and I figure some of you will be interested.

First of all, the interior :
PXL_20230127_112051940 (760p).jpg

... you will note judicious use of duct tape to keep the SSD isolated.

Then a couple of shots of the baffle itself :
PXL_20230127_111448651 (760p).jpg
PXL_20230127_111518658 (760p).jpg

... note the knockout you can use if you need to run a cable out the back.

Then you attach it to the card itself (note all the screw holes have metal screwpoints) :
PXL_20230127_111805898 (760p).jpg

... and finally we have the finished article :

PXL_20230127_112846862 (760p).jpg

I feel more proud of this than I should, given that all I really did was screw some parts together... but it's exciting to have so much power in a small unit and it's taken a while to get all the parts plus the 10GbE switch, DACs etc. together at a reasonable price. The baffle is great because it really makes the whole thing look neat and "as intended."

The configuration for each P350 (I have four) is :
CPU : i5-11500 (6c/12t, 65W)
RAM : 64GB 3200MHz (2x 32GB)
Drives : 1x 128GB Patriot P210 boot drive, 2x 1TB WD SN570
LAN : 2x 10GbE + 1x 1GbE onboard

Technically I also have a WiFi card fitted but I don't use it. I could replace it with a 2.5GbE Realtek card - I have one coming for my M75q Gen 2 - but I don't need a 4th NIC.
 

Rttg

Member
May 21, 2020
71
47
18
Well you could try extending the SATA ribbon cable off the ZIF connector and out the back somehow, I suppose. It presents a full standard SATA/power interface but conceivably you could cut that off and instead attach an eSATA plug or something?
@unmesh: a potential issue with that approach is many ZIF/SATA connectors don’t provide a 12V power rail that a 3.5” HD would expect/need (because most - if not all - 2.5” HDs only use the 5V rail). If you could only use that connection for data and then figure out a separate solution for power, then you could side-step the issue, but that feels like an awful lot of work…
 

flobert

Member
Sep 3, 2019
39
13
8
I wanted to provide an update on some experiments I've been making lately. My aim was to use P350s in a boot drive + ZFS mirror configuration with 2x 10GbE. I've managed to do all that and my 3D printed baffles from the nice chap on Reddit arrived today - he had no issues shipping overseas to me (I'm in the UK) and was very prompt. So I've done my first full assembly at last and I took some photos before putting it into production.

I bought and shucked a standard 2.5" SSD (Patriot P210 but any should do), two 1TB NVMe drives, a Supermicro AOC-STGN-I2S, a SATA ribbon cable/caddy FRU, and an x16 riser for each P350 I have. I was very impressed with the quality of the printed baffles, they have metal nuts and screws built in so they are sturdy and feel like quality item. My photos focus a bit on that, since I've not seen any other pictures of the baffle and I figure some of you will be interested.

First of all, the interior :
View attachment 26821

... you will note judicious use of duct tape to keep the SSD isolated.

Then a couple of shots of the baffle itself :
View attachment 26822
View attachment 26823

... note the knockout you can use if you need to run a cable out the back.

Then you attach it to the card itself (note all the screw holes have metal screwpoints) :
View attachment 26824

... and finally we have the finished article :

View attachment 26825

I feel more proud of this than I should, given that all I really did was screw some parts together... but it's exciting to have so much power in a small unit and it's taken a while to get all the parts plus the 10GbE switch, DACs etc. together at a reasonable price. The baffle is great because it really makes the whole thing look neat and "as intended."

The configuration for each P350 (I have four) is :
CPU : i5-11500 (6c/12t, 65W)
RAM : 64GB 3200MHz (2x 32GB)
Drives : 1x 128GB Patriot P210 boot drive, 2x 1TB WD SN570
LAN : 2x 10GbE + 1x 1GbE onboard

Technically I also have a WiFi card fitted but I don't use it. I could replace it with a 2.5GbE Realtek card - I have one coming for my M75q Gen 2 - but I don't need a 4th NIC.
Nice! Can you share your STL from the baffle?
 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
7,625
2,043
113
I wanted to provide an update on some experiments I've been making lately. My aim was to use P350s in a boot drive + ZFS mirror configuration with 2x 10GbE. I've managed to do all that and my 3D printed baffles from the nice chap on Reddit arrived today - he had no issues shipping overseas to me (I'm in the UK) and was very prompt. So I've done my first full assembly at last and I took some photos before putting it into production.

I bought and shucked a standard 2.5" SSD (Patriot P210 but any should do), two 1TB NVMe drives, a Supermicro AOC-STGN-I2S, a SATA ribbon cable/caddy FRU, and an x16 riser for each P350 I have. I was very impressed with the quality of the printed baffles, they have metal nuts and screws built in so they are sturdy and feel like quality item. My photos focus a bit on that, since I've not seen any other pictures of the baffle and I figure some of you will be interested.

First of all, the interior :
View attachment 26821

... you will note judicious use of duct tape to keep the SSD isolated.

Then a couple of shots of the baffle itself :
View attachment 26822
View attachment 26823

... note the knockout you can use if you need to run a cable out the back.

Then you attach it to the card itself (note all the screw holes have metal screwpoints) :
View attachment 26824

... and finally we have the finished article :

View attachment 26825

I feel more proud of this than I should, given that all I really did was screw some parts together... but it's exciting to have so much power in a small unit and it's taken a while to get all the parts plus the 10GbE switch, DACs etc. together at a reasonable price. The baffle is great because it really makes the whole thing look neat and "as intended."

The configuration for each P350 (I have four) is :
CPU : i5-11500 (6c/12t, 65W)
RAM : 64GB 3200MHz (2x 32GB)
Drives : 1x 128GB Patriot P210 boot drive, 2x 1TB WD SN570
LAN : 2x 10GbE + 1x 1GbE onboard

Technically I also have a WiFi card fitted but I don't use it. I could replace it with a 2.5GbE Realtek card - I have one coming for my M75q Gen 2 - but I don't need a 4th NIC.
What's idle power on one of those like?