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Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread

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axotopia

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May 14, 2023
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hey this is pretty cool axotopia I wonder how this would fare in my m90q gen1! I feel like I want to jump on this but understandably doesnt seem like I could keep it cool without an aftermarket fan.. got a p400 for now but cant stop looking at the P4 now! only thing that holds me back is that its a tad long.. anyways thanks for sharing look forward to any updates!
As zer0sum pointed out, may need more holes to improve cooling.
Currently the Nvidia Tesla P4 is running at 75 Celsius on low fan setting running at 95-100% for close to 2min (w/come RAM swaps to SSD), so quite happy with the results. NVIDIA-smi is set to 91 Celsius limit on my system.
The P4 has open copper radiator once the cover is removed, so it has a lot more surface area for colling, this significantly helps with heat dissipation if you can put an external fan on it. Height of radiator fins is about 7.5mm, so not quite possible to put a small internal fan even if you butcher the heatsink.
Could add a low profile 60mm external USB fan, which is pretty non-descript. That was my initial idea before I placed a 120mm to cool the CPU as well.
There are 10 fins on the radiator. Heatsink is about 150mmx50mm w/(10)x7.5mm fins for those who wants to do the surface area calcs.
Ran another subjective image processing test on Topaz Photo AI against a i9-13990K/RTX2080Super/32GBRAM vs i5-8500T/P4/8GbRam vs i5-8500T/P4/UHD 630IGPU, results are about 1:12min, 2:20min, 12:30min. I do see some RAM swaps to RAM on the 8Gb M920q. No complaints on the P4 performance so far for the cost of the PCIe connector and P4.
 

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namike

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so here is a weird one I have one m90q running with 64gb ram. I was waiting to get 64gb for my second and finally got around to installing it. it refuses to boot. 3 beeps.

I take one stick out , boots, i put the second stick in by itself, boots, I put both sticks in dimm slot 2 one at a time and it still boots. if I put an 8gb stick in each slot it boots. but refuses when i put 2 32gb sticks in it.

The only difference i see between my two m90q's is one has a bios from jan 2022 and this one has bios from march 2022.

Could Lenovo have locked that down? Can I roll back bios versions?
Did you figure out what was keeping your 2x32GB sticks to work?

I just bought a M90q and ordered 2x32GB 3200mhz DDR4 SO-DIMMs (TEAMGROUP T-CREATE) from Amazon. Mine refuses to boot with both 32GB sticks in.

Either 32GB stick in DIMM1 by itself boots fine.
Either 32GB in DIMM1 + stock 8GB in DIMM2 = works (40GB)
Stock 8GB in DIMM1 + 32GB in DIMM2 = no boot

Running the latest BIOS.

Another strange thing, is there is no POST beep sound (regardless of error status).
 

zer0sum

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Mar 8, 2013
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Did you figure out what was keeping your 2x32GB sticks to work?

I just bought a M90q and ordered 2x32GB 3200mhz DDR4 SO-DIMMs (TEAMGROUP T-CREATE) from Amazon. Mine refuses to boot with both 32GB sticks in.

Either 32GB stick in DIMM1 by itself boots fine.
Either 32GB in DIMM1 + stock 8GB in DIMM2 = works (40GB)
Stock 8GB in DIMM1 + 32GB in DIMM2 = no boot

Running the latest BIOS.

Another strange thing, is there is no POST beep sound (regardless of error status).
My M90q gen 2 is working perfectly with these 32GB G.skill ripjaws @ 3200MT/s, if you want to swap


1685110618342.png
 

sprucestream

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May 24, 2023
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@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.
Aw shoot, just grabbed a M90q G1 from the bay.. havent even decided what CPU to put in it yet but this is tough news.
Wonder how bad this would be for my P400 or my R5 240 (not like that had much to work with in the first place lol)

Does the M90q g2 share the same issue? kinda like the m90q for the increased GPU clearance
 

zer0sum

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Mar 8, 2013
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Aw shoot, just grabbed a M90q G1 from the bay.. havent even decided what CPU to put in it yet but this is tough news.
Wonder how bad this would be for my P400 or my R5 240 (not like that had much to work with in the first place lol)

Does the M90q g2 share the same issue? kinda like the m90q for the increased GPU clearance
Hmm, this is from my M90q gen 2, showing a Super Micro Computer Inc AOC-STGN-I2S running at x8 speed

Code:
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599ES 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection (rev 01)
                LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 5GT/s, Width x8, ASPM L0s, Exit Latency L0s unlimited
                LnkSta: Speed 5GT/s (ok), Width x8 (ok)
01:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599ES 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection (rev 01)
                LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 5GT/s, Width x8, ASPM L0s, Exit Latency L0s unlimited
                LnkSta: Speed 5GT/s (ok), Width x8 (ok)
 
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986box

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Picked up another m920q with bios password locked. Setting the jumper to pin 2-4 cleared the lock.

also replace the i5-8500t with i5-9600k. Bios set to ideal thermal. Fan will spin up under load.

i5-9600 and i7-9700/k were going $150 on eBay. More than what I think it’s worth.
 

axotopia

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May 14, 2023
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Picked up another m920q with bios password locked. Setting the jumper to pin 2-4 cleared the lock.

also replace the i5-8500t with i5-9600k. Bios set to ideal thermal. Fan will spin up under load.

i5-9600 and i7-9700/k were going $150 on eBay. More than what I think it’s worth.
Just curious what temperatures you are getting with the i5-9600k under load. Looks like it is a 95W processor, was there a need to upgrade the fan or heatsink to get it working? Thanks.
 

986box

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Temps are between 52-57 degrees. The case barely feels warm.

this is using stock fan and heatsink with new paste. BIOS reported 9600K.
 
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axotopia

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May 14, 2023
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Don't want to disappoint you, but the „ES“ CPUs will not work
Guess the i9-9900 ES works in the M920q.

Just replaced the i5-8500T with the i9-9900 ES and it seems to work pretty good without any issues so far. Other than it being identified as 'Genuine Intel CPU 0000', physical specs about the same as my i9-9900K. There are (3) main deviations... TDP @65W, base @2.6GHz, boost @4.2Ghz on the M920q when running Topaz Photo AI. Temps under load are roughly 75-84 Celsius, 30-31 when idle.

Had to reinstall the Nvidia Tesla P4 Grid driver to get the P4 recognized again, assuming its due to hardware change in Windows 11.

Bought the unit for about $160 at AliX.
 

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Zune

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Apr 27, 2023
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Guess the i9-9900 ES works in the M920q.

Just replaced the i5-8500T with the i9-9900 ES and it seems to work pretty good without any issues so far. Other than it being identified as 'Genuine Intel CPU 0000', physical specs about the same as my i9-9900K. There are (3) main deviations... TDP @65W, base @2.6GHz, boost @4.2Ghz on the M920q when running Topaz Photo AI. Temps under load are roughly 75-84 Celsius, 30-31 when idle.

Had to reinstall the Nvidia Tesla P4 Grid driver to get the P4 recognized again, assuming its due to hardware change in Windows 11.

Bought the unit for about $160 at AliX.
How man, that's so impressive! I just sell on of my two M710q because I decided to buy a M90q (unfortunately, my M710q NEC version doesn't have a PCie slot and I don't have tools to soldered a PCIe socket). About your i9, which maximum tempeture it was reach in Intel Burn?
@Parallax

There is definitely more space in the m90q compared to the m920q.

It is about 8-9mm difference, but the m920q also has a metal protrusion on one side that makes it even more pronounced, and probable more like 20-30mm
Hey man, sup! Could you please tell me if Does this Supermicro NIC has SFP auto-negotiation or can It be change manually (100Base-T, 1000Base-T, 10G BASE-T)? Because I'm looking for a NIC that has this option to replace my ONT by a PON stick.
 

gamernorbi

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May 27, 2023
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Hi guys I'm new to the forum.
O was redirected from Reedit to this topic.
I want to built a mini PC with Proxmox and OPNSense as my main OS for firewall.
The Ideea is that I want to subscribe to a 10Gbps internet provider but the only authentification option is PPPoE.
And PPPoE is a performance hog .
Could you recommand me the config for the kinda PC?
The only thing that I use is TrueNAS for some back-ups time to time I mean once a week from Phones and sometime my mac.
Pihole as my DNS for blocking adds for my phones connected via VPN and one TV.
 

axotopia

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May 14, 2023
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How man, that's so impressive! I just sell on of my two M710q because I decided to buy a M90q (unfortunately, my M710q NEC version doesn't have a PCie slot and I don't have tools to soldered a PCIe socket). About your i9, which maximum tempeture it was reach in Intel Burn?
Hey Zune, sorry no Intel Burn test, but when I run CPU-Z stress CPU, temps are 88-95 celsius. BIOS is set to Ideal Thermal and my externally attached USB fan is running on the high setting.

so far no issues with my workflow since GPU is doing the heavy lifting. Guess i may consider upgrading the stock alunimum heat sink to the copper (01mn631) if this summer's heat impacts performance.
 

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Parallax

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Nov 8, 2020
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Hi guys! Planning to add Tinys to my homelab and have a question. Is there any way to have both 2.5" SATA SSD and 10G NIC ?
Yes, you can take the case off the 2.5" SSD and most are very small. You plug that into the ZIF SATA header and wrap it in electrical insulation tape; then select a small 10GbE PCIe card, like the Supermicro AOC-STGN-I2S. I have four Tinys set up this way (plus two onboard m.2 NVMe drives).
 

Parallax

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Nov 8, 2020
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Don't want to disappoint you, but the „ES“ CPUs will not work
I was going to say, I see no reason it shouldn't; but I see it's been shown to work in the meantime. ;) This question was asked earlier in the thread, my only concerns about ES processors were that you don't get microcode updates, and they're not a good investment if you ever try to sell them. It's also technically illegal (they're stamped Intel Confidential) which doesn't stop the sellers on AliExpress but makes it trickier in the west.
 

Parallax

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Nov 8, 2020
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London, UK
All my Tinys are working hard in production so I've not had an opportunity to re-measure the max length of the PCIe slot yet, sorry all.

I did move my Tinys to stand vertically in the limited space I have available. I used one of these pot lid holders from Ikea, which will hold up to six Tinys very securely and looks great.
 

Raice

Member
Jul 12, 2017
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Don't want to disappoint you, but the „ES“ CPUs will not work
Care to explain why? ))

In China there are a lot of Tinys on sale. You can get almost anything you want. Many sellers offer ES and QS CPUs as an option.
image_editor_1685313785158.jpg
M910x NAS

Screenshot_20230529_064533.jpg

List of options. You can choose even mobile Xeon or 9980HK
 
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