Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread

[Akshay27]

Hey there! Someone linked this thread on reddit and I tried to read as much as I could, but I'll admit that I probably didn't catch everything.

I just bought an old M720Q-05 from work for €140. It has an i5 8400T @ 1.7 GHz and a 256 GB NVMe SSD. I bought an additional 8 TB SATA SSD and a 2x16 GB RAM Kit. The thing had a pre-installed VGA Port as well as (what I think is) a serial port, both of which I have removed.

I intend to use this system as a small home-server. I'm planning to install Proxmox on it. I don't know how many, if any VMs I will need (I only found out about Proxmox last week when I started researching the M720Q). I want to have these things:

• A media server (running Jellyfin so we can watch movies & series that will be on that new 8TB disk), ideally accessible over the internet too so my parents can also access my library (they are on a different continent)
• A web server with Docker where I can run apps like Teslamate, OurShoppingList, a small, hobby WordPress-website, Firefly III, etc. I intend to use Nginx Proxy Manager and NOT Traefik (mostly for the really nice GUI that NPM has - I am not opposed to using CLI, but I VERY strongly prefer a GUI whenever I can have one), and ideally secure everything with 2FA with something like Authelia or Authentik (no idea which one is easier to use)
• A Home Assistant setup, perhaps on that same Docker instance?
• Some kind of emulation system so we can play Switch and N64 games like Mario Party and Smash whenever friends are over
• Perhaps an additional Windows install so we can run party games like KTaNE and perhaps some other random party games that I might end up finding.
• Eventually, some kind of backup system that can
  • Save images or some such of our primary PCs (mine and my SO's) so that if some kind of catastrophic failure happens, we can recover things.
  • Sync pictures and videos from our (Android) phones and back them up (basically a self-hosted version of Google Photos)
  • Work as a NAS with a bunch of redundancy so that my SO, me, and my parents can back our memories up (my dad will set a NAS up at his place as well and my SO and I will back our stuff up there too so everyone always has at least one off-shore backup)

I want to make as good use of this little box as I can. What all can I expand on it? I have a whole bunch of questions

1. I see a LOT of people installing 10 gig NICs in this thing - would I really need one of those for my use case or can I get by with the RJ45 port that the PC came with?
2. Would I require a GPU? There is an Nvidia P620 for €99 and an Nvidia T1000 for €100 available on the local second hand website. Are either of those cards worth it for the price for my use case?
3. If the answer to both of the above questions is yes, is there any way for me to fit BOTH of those things (i.e. NIC & GPU) on to the board?
   • I don't need WiFi on the PC so I could remove that WiFi card and free a slot up - could I fit the NIC into the WiFi slot (it's a PCI Slot, right?) and use the 8x PCIe Slot for the GPU?
   • I am entirely open to modding the case and/or leaving it open and/or strapping a chonky fan on to it. I don't care if it's "pretty", it needs to work, that's all.
4. Can I use the sockets that the VGA & Serial ports were attached to for anything else?
5. The last point in the previous list will obviously need additional storage - perhaps a bunch of HDDs with some of the drives being parity drives. What would be the most cost-effective way to achieve this?
6. What else can I jam into this itty bitty box?

I will say that I have NO experience with most of the (software) stuff that I am about to do. I have no education or experience in IT/Networking/SysAdmin things (I'm a biologist with a major in animal behaviour lol), but I am extremely comfortable with all kinds of tinkering, I am quite handy, I can follow instructions, and Google/Stack overflow a problem till I've managed to solve it.

Here are some pics of the box, including after re-pasting with ThermalGrizzly Kryonaut

 

[Zune]

My NIC (Solarflare s7120) arrived to me today guys. Still waiting for PCIe adapter for my M90q and start my project on it.

 

[Parallax]

Hey there! Someone linked this thread on reddit and I tried to read as much as I could, but I'll admit that I probably didn't catch everything.

I just bought an old M720Q-05 from work for €140. It has an i5 8400T @ 1.7 GHz and a 256 GB NVMe SSD. I bought an additional 8 TB SATA SSD and a 2x16 GB RAM Kit. The thing had a pre-installed VGA Port as well as (what I think is) a serial port, both of which I have removed.

I intend to use this system as a small home-server. I'm planning to install Proxmox on it. I don't know how many, if any VMs I will need (I only found out about Proxmox last week when I started researching the M720Q). I want to have these things:

• A media server (running Jellyfin so we can watch movies & series that will be on that new 8TB disk), ideally accessible over the internet too so my parents can also access my library (they are on a different continent)
• A web server with Docker where I can run apps like Teslamate, OurShoppingList, a small, hobby WordPress-website, Firefly III, etc. I intend to use Nginx Proxy Manager and NOT Traefik (mostly for the really nice GUI that NPM has - I am not opposed to using CLI, but I VERY strongly prefer a GUI whenever I can have one), and ideally secure everything with 2FA with something like Authelia or Authentik (no idea which one is easier to use)
• A Home Assistant setup, perhaps on that same Docker instance?
• Some kind of emulation system so we can play Switch and N64 games like Mario Party and Smash whenever friends are over
• Perhaps an additional Windows install so we can run party games like KTaNE and perhaps some other random party games that I might end up finding.
• Eventually, some kind of backup system that can
  • Save images or some such of our primary PCs (mine and my SO's) so that if some kind of catastrophic failure happens, we can recover things.
  • Sync pictures and videos from our (Android) phones and back them up (basically a self-hosted version of Google Photos)
  • Work as a NAS with a bunch of redundancy so that my SO, me, and my parents can back our memories up (my dad will set a NAS up at his place as well and my SO and I will back our stuff up there too so everyone always has at least one off-shore backup)

I want to make as good use of this little box as I can. What all can I expand on it? I have a whole bunch of questions

1. I see a LOT of people installing 10 gig NICs in this thing - would I really need one of those for my use case or can I get by with the RJ45 port that the PC came with?
2. Would I require a GPU? There is an Nvidia P620 for €99 and an Nvidia T1000 for €100 available on the local second hand website. Are either of those cards worth it for the price for my use case?
3. If the answer to both of the above questions is yes, is there any way for me to fit BOTH of those things (i.e. NIC & GPU) on to the board?
   • I don't need WiFi on the PC so I could remove that WiFi card and free a slot up - could I fit the NIC into the WiFi slot (it's a PCI Slot, right?) and use the 8x PCIe Slot for the GPU?
   • I am entirely open to modding the case and/or leaving it open and/or strapping a chonky fan on to it. I don't care if it's "pretty", it needs to work, that's all.
4. Can I use the sockets that the VGA & Serial ports were attached to for anything else?
5. The last point in the previous list will obviously need additional storage - perhaps a bunch of HDDs with some of the drives being parity drives. What would be the most cost-effective way to achieve this?
6. What else can I jam into this itty bitty box?

I was going to link you here from Reddit.

1. The onboard 1Gbit NIC should be fine.
2. I'm not sure of the graphics load of the games you're proposing, or if you want to run them directly on the Tiny by plugging in a screen, or somehow play them remotely. If it's the latter you don't really need a GPU. None of the standard GPU options are very powerful, you should check it's worth the money.
3. No if you want 10Gbit. You could put a 2.5Gbit NIC in the WiFi slot and keep the PCIe slot available but I don't think you need the extra network speed or port.
4. Not really, as far as we know. Later models, yes, yours - no.
5. External USB multi drive enclosure I would say?
6. Using the internal bay for an SSD sounds like it would be more useful for you than a PCIe card?

 

[Parallax]

Nice find. Does this card work on the 720q/920q models as well ?
I found it for cheaper if anyone's interested: https://www.lenovopartsales.com/Len...S&operation=quickSearch&searchText=5C50W00908

I don't think it works but I would be thrilled if you find it does.

 

[Akshay27]

1. The onboard 1Gbit NIC should be fine.

Awesome!

2. I'm not sure of the graphics load of the games you're proposing, or if you want to run them directly on the Tiny by plugging in a screen, or somehow play them remotely. If it's the latter you don't really need a GPU. None of the standard GPU options are very powerful, you should check it's worth the money.

I'll be plugging a (4k) TV directly into the HDMI Port on the mini. Is an Nvidia Quadro P620 or aam Nvidia T1000 for €100 worth it?

3. No if you want 10Gbit. You could put a 2.5Gbit NIC in the WiFi slot and keep the PCIe slot available but I don't think you need the extra network speed or port.

If you think 1 Gbit would be fine for my use cases, I don't think I care about 10 Gbit. Maybe a 2.5 Gbit card if I can make better use of the WiFi port, but that's all.

4. Not really, as far as we know. Later models, yes, yours - no.
5. External USB multi drive enclosure I would say?
6. Using the internal bay for an SSD sounds like it would be more useful for you than a PCIe card?

4. Ah shame.
5. I'm going to have to start researching those. Haven't ever looked into this.
6. I currently have an 8TB SSD in there, yes. Was just wondering what all I could do in addition to that. That one reddit post where that guy put in a GPU as well as an SSD got me wondering haha

 

[Parallax]

5. I'm going to have to start researching those. Haven't ever looked into this.
6. I currently have an 8TB SSD in there, yes. Was just wondering what all I could do in addition to that. That one reddit post where that guy put in a GPU as well as an SSD got me wondering haha

On GPUs I've never looked at the ones that fit so I can't tell you more, you'll need to do your own research I'm afraid. From what I read earlier in the thread the impression I got was the GPUs are mostly helpful for Plex transcoding rather than transformative for gaming.

On 5 you may be able to find some sort of eSATA or HBA card in a small enough PCIe format, then buy a SATA enclosure if USB makes you nervous. Minus side is it could get pretty hot.

On 6 I've shucked SSDs to fit alongside my 2x 10GbE NIC. There are photos earlier in the thread.

 

[john40406]

You need to approach their support department directly, via email is best and I have found their European team the most helpful by far. Message them at Support_Europe@supermicro.com and request the firmware package for the AOC-STGN-I2S and they'll send you a private link. The package contains instructions.

I did exactly this with my AOC-STGN-I4S just last week and it work perfectly, I would share the package but it is specifically for the AOC-STGN-I4S and shouldn't be installed on yours! Took my firmware on the X710 up to version 9.00 which is very recent.

Could you please share the fw package you received from supermicro, my AOC-STGN-I4S just arrived and I'll like to upgrade it before starting off.
Thanks!

 

[AWBbox]

Could you please share the fw package you received from supermicro, my AOC-STGN-I4S just arrived and I'll like to upgrade it before starting off.
Thanks!

Absolutely! Enjoy

AOC-STG-i4S FW 9.0.zip

 

[john40406]

Absolutely! Enjoy

AOC-STG-i4S FW 9.0.zip

Appreciated, Thanks a bunch!

 

[zadorski]

Hello fellow enthusiasts,

Making a small Proxmox/Ceph cluster here with three M720q units and AOC-STGN-I2S rev 2.00 cards for each, but I lack baffles for them. My current plan is to use baffles from i350-T4 units as a temporary solution. Has anyone here done something similar, and could share their experience?

I'm looking to design and 3D print my own baffles later on: I've tried following advice to obtain them on Reddit but to no avail. I'd like to confirm if standard M2x3 screws (2 for the card, 1 for the case) would suffice. I intend to order thread inserts but need to ensure the right fit. This specific info seems absent in both AliExpress ads and official docs.

Your insights would be greatly appreciated. (Edit: Trimmed post for brevity and clarity)

 

[legit]

My P350 hasn't been stable as of late (particularly running workloads but nothing near the capacity of cpu/ram). I run proxmox on it and have had total hardware lockups. When I open the case, the AOC-STGN-i2S heatsink inside is very hot.

Not sure if a firmware update would help, or if I need to consider getting more active cooling into the case.

Board version appears to be v2.10

--- just discovered this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/12yyjtr
Seems like this thing runs hot and sad there's no thermal sensors.

 

[Maverick]

Hello guys
I wonder if some people also have this error on their P360 (I don't know if older models also have the Intel I219-V network card):

e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 eno1: Detected Hardware Unit Hang

I can see this error on many Proxmox and Linux forums, as it seems to be in the Linux kernel.
When this error occurs, no more traffic seems to pass through the network card.

 

[john40406]

Hello guys
I wonder if some people also have this error on their P360 (I don't know if older models also have the Intel I219-V network card):

e1000e 0000:00:1f.6 eno1: Detected Hardware Unit Hang

I can see this error on many Proxmox and Linux forums, as it seems to be in the Linux kernel.
When this error occurs, no more traffic seems to pass through the network card.

Been running virtualized openwrt and a few other ESXi VMs on 3 x m720q for a while now and never seen those errors,

Only issue is: my long awaited 4 port AOC-STG-i4S port NIC refuses to work with my ISP SFP module. Hence I'm stuck with a noisy Netgear MS510TXM switch running 24x7 in a router-on-stick configuration.

Not sure if another SFP module would work hence I may have to return the NIC

 

[AWBbox]

Been running virtualized openwrt and a few other ESXi VMs on 3 x m720q for a while now and never seen those errors,

Only issue is: my long awaited 4 port AOC-STG-i4S port NIC refuses to work with my ISP SFP module. Hence I'm stuck with a noisy Netgear MS510TXM switch running 24x7. Not sure if another SFP module would work hence I may have to return the NIC

I've found my AOC-STG-i4S quite particular with the SFPs it accepts, even when you ensure the operating system is allowing unsupported SFPs. I'm using some generic coded ones, but others I have needed to be coded as Intel in order to work. What is the make and model of the SFP you are having problems with?

 

[john40406]

I've found my AOC-STG-i4S quite particular with the SFPs it accepts, even when you ensure the operating system is allowing unsupported SFPs. I'm using some generic coded ones, but others I have needed to be coded as Intel in order to work. What is the make and model of the SFP you are having problems with?

Skylane optics SBU35020DR3D000, I've searched the entire solar system but unable to find any meaningful info about this SFP module.
I suspect it's part of GPON network since I can see the following printed on the module

Bi.Tx 1310 Rx1550/ 20km/100/1000Mb/Com T*/DDM

Would you be able to point me to instructions on how to enable unsupported SFPs? I'll like to try it out.

 

[AWBbox]

Skylane optics SBU35020DR3D000, I've searched the entire solar system but unable to find any meaningful info about this SFP module.
I suspect it's part of GPON network since I can see the following printed on the module

Bi.Tx 1310 Rx1550/ 20km/100/1000Mb/Com T*/DDM

Would you be able to point me to instructions on how to enable unsupported SFPs? I'll like to try it out.

That doesn't appear to be a GPON SFP thankfully, as that would complicate things enormously. I don't know about supporting unsupported SFPs in Windows, but in BSD you set hw.ix.unsupported_sfp=1 in /boot/loader.conf.local, and in Linux I think you might have to add it to the GRUB config for it to be persistent, like GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=”ixgbe.allow_unsupported_sfp=1″.

The AOC-STG-i4S does not support 100Mbps speeds, what speed does your connection need to negotiate at?

 

[john40406]

That doesn't appear to be a GPON SFP thankfully, as that would complicate things enormously. I don't know about supporting unsupported SFPs in Windows, but in BSD you set hw.ix.unsupported_sfp=1 in /boot/loader.conf.local, and in Linux I think you might have to add it to the GRUB config for it to be persistent, like GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=”ixgbe.allow_unsupported_sfp=1″.

The AOC-STG-i4S does not support 100Mbps speeds, what speed does your connection need to negotiate at?

The SFP negotiates at 1000Mps, my generic DAC cable (SFP-H10GB-CU1M) works with the AOC-STG-i4S

I just tested and noticed that the SFP in question works with Mellanox MCX341A on the same hw, which is strange.

 

[AWBbox]

The SFP negotiates at 1000Mps, my generic DAC cable (SFP-H10GB-CU1M) works with the AOC-STG-i4S

I just tested and noticed that the SFP in question works with Mellanox MCX341A on the same hw, which is strange.

It's just the AOC-STG-i4S, it's picky. I would wager (but not promise) that this aftermarket SFP would work fine as a direct replacement to the Skylane SBU35020DR3D000, though you might want to double check with FS themselves: https://www.fs.com/uk/products/74514.html?attribute=10432&id=200849 as you can customise it with Intel compatibility and an SC connector.

My generic DAC cables work fine with the AOC-STG-i4S too! But as soon as I tried to use a BASE-T SFP I started facing similar problems to you. What operating system are you using? There are sometimes ways to understand whether the driver for the NIC is reporting that the NIC is incompatible.

 

[john40406]

It's just the AOC-STG-i4S, it's picky. I would wager (but not promise) that this aftermarket SFP would work fine as a direct replacement to the Skylane SBU35020DR3D000, though you might want to double check with FS themselves: https://www.fs.com/uk/products/74514.html?attribute=10432&id=200849 as you can customise it with Intel compatibility and an SC connector.

My generic DAC cables work fine with the AOC-STG-i4S too! But as soon as I tried to use a BASE-T SFP I started facing similar problems to you. What operating system are you using? There are sometimes ways to understand whether the driver for the NIC is reporting that the NIC is incompatible.

I'm using Openwrt at the moment, the driver is kmod-i40e but I'm willing to change to OPNSense if the issue will be resolved.

Thanks a bunch for taking the time out here.

 

[AWBbox]

I'm using Openwrt at the moment, the driver is kmod-i40e but I'm willing to change to OPNSense if the issue will be resolved.

Thanks a bunch for taking the time out here.

I don't have much experience with Openwrt, I might be more help with OPNsense, but I believe you can look through the logs/dmesg in Openwrt to see the same kind of output. Look for warnings around unsupported SFPs like in this thread: Unsupported SFP ixgbe