Drag to reposition cover

Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

rafale77

Member
Sep 28, 2020
89
36
18
Do you mean, not sure how to do this via the BIOS generally, or in the Lenovo one specifically?

It's a pretty common setting in performance BIOSes, but I agree I don't see a setting for it in the Lenovo Tiny ones (unsurprisingly).
I meant to say, on these specific Lenovos. I wish we could access these oower limits though…

Edit:
I guess I will find out soon as I will test a K CPU in an M90Q Gen2 in a couple of weeks….
 
Last edited:

cromo

Member
Jun 6, 2019
87
18
8
Then I'm not sure what to suggest. As you said, there doesn't seem to be any similar reports from others having this problem, and the Intel reference cards are widely used without issue.

Are you running a current BIOS? Have you reset it to defaults? (I know this is all basic stuff, but it seems something is fundamentally broken here.)
OK, so I received a reference Intel i350-T4 NIC from Lenovo for testing and it works flawlessly. Suffice to say the AOC-SGP-i4 has some conflict with the system and will *not* work with it, unless Lenovo/Supermicro are willing to work this out. I recommend adding relevant info to the wiki, though, to help others avoid the same mistake.
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
617
113
Are ThinkCentres usually this picky with CPUs? I have a E73 SFF here that my parents use and I bought a 4790S to put in it, but it won't boot.

Dead CPU?
Guess I was right, the goddamn CPU also won't work in a MSI B85 board.

Seller wants to give me €30 back. Take it, or open a PayPal claim and let them sort it out?
 

rafale77

Member
Sep 28, 2020
89
36
18
Open a PayPal claim just for the principle… I hate it when people sell dead CPUs.
 
Last edited:

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
617
113
It was depicted as working in the advert though.
Opened a claim. Let's see what PayPal makes of it. Best case scenario is that I can send it back on PP's costs and get my money back for it. Private sale my ass, there's a reason I used PayPal G&S for it instead of F&F.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rafale77

rafale77

Member
Sep 28, 2020
89
36
18
Opened a claim. Let's see what PayPal makes of it. Best case scenario is that I can send it back on PP's costs and get my money back for it. Private sale my ass, there's a reason I used PayPal G&S for it instead of F&F.
Completely agree with you. Well done!
 

rafale77

Member
Sep 28, 2020
89
36
18
He wants to give me a €37 refund. Take it, or escalate it to PP?
How much did you pay for it again? Shipping included?
I have been on the other side of this once when I sold a dubious CPU. As a matter of principle, I made the buyer whole by reimbursing him everything, even the shipping because he also wasted his time for my screw up.
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
617
113
How much did you pay for it again? Shipping included?
I have been on the other side of this once when I sold a dubious CPU. As a matter of principle, I made the buyer whole by reimbursing him everything, even the shipping because he also wasted his time for my screw up.
€75 including shipping.
 

adman_c

Active Member
Feb 14, 2016
257
135
43
Chicago
He wants to give me a €37 refund. Take it, or escalate it to PP?
Absolutely escalate. What are you going to do with a half-price dead cpu? Unless he advertised it as dead or "for parts", you deserve all of your money back. If I sold a cpu that I thought was fine and it ended up dead, I would for sure refund the buyer.
 

Wasmachineman_NL

Wittgenstein the Supercomputer FTW!
Aug 7, 2019
1,872
617
113
Absolutely escalate. What are you going to do with a half-price dead cpu? Unless he advertised it as dead or "for parts", you deserve all of your money back. If I sold a cpu that I thought was fine and it ended up dead, I would for sure refund the buyer.
Going to give him until tomorrow to respond. If he doesn't, i'm escalating.
 

adman_c

Active Member
Feb 14, 2016
257
135
43
Chicago
Has anyone figured out how to rig up additional ventilation in these tiny boxes? With the lid on the heatsink on my NIC gets up into the low-to-mid 70s after a few hours. Wondering if I should try to move some air over it. Although I did just check and Intel lists the Tcase Max for this chipset as 119º C. Holy smokes that's hot! So I guess I'm pretty well below that. Honestly if there was a way to non-destructively modify the shroud over the CPU to blow a teeny bit of air sideways over the NIC's heatsink we'd probably be pretty solidly in the 60s. As soon as I remove the lid it gets down into the 50s with no significant air flowing over it.
 

tinfoil3d

QSFP28
May 11, 2020
873
400
63
Japan
If I had a 3d printer and time and skills I would have definitely tried printing some custom mount for a tiny fan that will be pulling air from the front of chassis and blow it over the pcie slot. But I don't. But that should be easy enough. Meanwhile I rely on external fans in front of chassis.
 

adman_c

Active Member
Feb 14, 2016
257
135
43
Chicago
If I had a 3d printer and time and skills I would have definitely tried printing some custom mount for a tiny fan that will be pulling air from the front of chassis and blow it over the pcie slot. But I don't. But that should be easy enough. Meanwhile I rely on external fans in front of chassis.
My current idea is to get a 12v 40x10 blower fan and power it via the SATA header. The fan should fit no problem since the NIC is so tiny, but cramming it along with a SATA plug for power might be too much. I'd be more comfortable just YOLOing if I had a way to read the temperature from the machine, but I haven't figured out how to do that just yet. The best I'm able to do so far is to pull off the cover and point a IR thermometer at the HS.

Hmmm... I wonder if I could thermal-epoxy a shim of copper to the underside of the enclosure so that the NIC HS comes into physical contact with it. Then the enclosure could serve as an additional heatsink.
 

tinfoil3d

QSFP28
May 11, 2020
873
400
63
Japan
Um, and so, the ir thermometer shows you a temp of 70? Because heatsink is metal and highly reflective, which means the actual temperature is much higher than that. The surrounding PCB should show higher readings if your thermometer isn't somehow adjusted for glossy surfaces. What's your NIC? I use mellanox 312 and 354, the MCU is around 90 as reported by mget_temp. With no additional airflow. Add a bit of airflow to the front of chassis and it's back in 50s.
 

adman_c

Active Member
Feb 14, 2016
257
135
43
Chicago
Um, and so, the ir thermometer shows you a temp of 70? Because heatsink is metal and highly reflective, which means the actual temperature is much higher than that. The surrounding PCB should show higher readings if your thermometer isn't somehow adjusted for glossy surfaces. What's your NIC? I use mellanox 312 and 354, the MCU is around 90 as reported by mget_temp. With no additional airflow. Add a bit of airflow to the front of chassis and it's back in 50s.
Supermicro AOC-STGN-i2S. Uses the Intel 82599 chipset. With the NIC passed through to pfsense/opnsense, neither seem to be able to read the temperatures. The heatsink is anodized green and isn't super reflective. Given how hot it feels when I touch it (super-scientific, I know), my guess is it's not reading much more than 5 or so degrees low.