P340 Tiny guide

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tinfoil3d

QSFP28
May 11, 2020
873
400
63
Japan
Hey guys.

Just got my P340 tiny the other day. I was waiting for it for quite some time now, and very excited about it.

First, it finally became tool-less. The back screw is still there but it now has a handle that you can lift up and undo it with it! You'll love it. It unscrewed easily when I got my computer. So yeah, lenovo did figure this out finally. Basically everything but PCIE riser and card and CPU is tool-free accessible.

Things you may want to know if you're looking whether to buy it or not. For the reference, my model type is 30DE. You may look up FRUs, software and anything else you want here: workstations :: thinkstation p series workstations :: thinkstation p340 tiny :: 30de - Lenovo Support JP

If you're unsure if you will be using a SATA drive, order it with a cheapest HDD. Other thing to have in mind, BOTH POWER and DATA are delivered via same tiny cable. It may not be enough to power enterprise high-capacity SATA SSDs. I cannot test it since I ordered with GPU(if you select PCIE GPU or NIC they would use up all the space that SATA caddy uses, so you can't have both).

If you need a PCIE x16 riser(also it's only x8 max, although electrically seems to be x16), BEWARE that if you order a 350-T4 NIC, it is HIGHLY LIKELY you will NOT get full-size x16 riser, as a matter of fact, x4 PCIE riser FRU exists. Also, x1 too. If you have easy access to parts(you're not in third-world country like japan), you can look for 5C50W00877. In my case I wanted to have a spare low-profile but high-res GPU just in case so it's not a waste. Otherwise I'll replace the GPU with SFP+ NIC.

If you're like me, and planning to run an SFP NIC, as you know, the bracket is pretty unique, you will end up with NIC ripping out of PCIE when replacing SFP modules, because the card isn't supported by anything. To solve this, 5M10U50350 is probably the best way to go, you can use at least one or if you're lucky, both screws to attach the card to this bracket.

There are two 2280 M.2 slots, both always soldered(unlike some other models). By default I got Kioxia XG6(256G) 2280, pretty rare stuff.

SMA antenna jack and wifi card may be missing in a cheapest config(type 30DE). Look for 04X2735 if you need it.

RAM: In my particular case I received a single 3200MT samsung RAM stick. Even though this PC only supports up to 2933MT/s with higher-end CPUs, and in basic config only 2666. It was a nice surprise, I expected 2666.

Dust shield, as Patrick mentioned in his reviews of similar lenovo PCs is of questionable use. I did get one but I think most of air is actually coming in through the top of the PC.

Linux notes: built-in 1gig NIC is intel i219, it's handled by e1000e BUT ONLY SINCE LINUX 5.5! Older kernels won't see it. If you want to run older kernels, you can use usb NICs at same speed.
Linux doesn't see many other sensors that windows' CPUID HWMonitor sees. The only thing I saw from linux was coretemp.

I tried installing Xeon W-1290 into it and it refused to start up. I tried everything, take battery out, reset CMOS as per P330 manual(I somewhat guessed it right, pins 2-4: reset cmos as the label on the mb says), but nothing changed. Took memory out(yep, I have samsung M474A4G43MB1-CTD, unbuffered ECC), tried one by one, still no avail. The symptom when you try to install incompatible CPU is: it briefly powers on for less than a second and immediately shuts off. Fan doesn't even have enough time to start rotating. No other info, no sounds, no leds(there's only one led, power led), nothing. Just won't power up. So, I guess I'm back to client CPUs. I'm not sure if I'll sell the CPU off. Basically spent just as much money on CPU and RAM as on the p340 tiny itself lol. Maybe I'll build/upgrade a P340 desktop model with it. And ECC RAM may go to ryzen laptops. It was a pretty unique RAM... Maybe I'll never find a use for that... I have two sticks of M474A4G43MB1-CTD ("Made in Korea"), if you need it, contact me. I originally got those from memory.net, for US $328. Will sell cheaper.


Finding how to use ME/AMT was a nightmare guys, I'll tell you. For those of you who don't know, there's one-stop solution for how to use AMT: meshcommander. It is not obviously linked to anywhere on intel website, but it is developed by intel employee.

This thing can either run locally(it spins up a webserver on 127.0.0.1:3000) or upload an "application" into the ME web console that extends it's features to those of local webserver would provide you with.

For "standard" manageability, only power controls and virtual serial port is available. I couldn't figure out how to configure this thing to be always on. When the host shuts off, this AMT thingy dies too which is totally pointless.

I do use a physical serial port for emergency access when I reconfigure firewall for instance, I could see a potential use case for this in a similar situation, but otherwise it feels like totally useless and also very insecure thing. Heck, it doesn't even know what VLAN is, there's no such option anywhere, you believe that? Like, IP phones had this for a decade or more... What the actual...


Anyway, I've maxed it out at 2x32G ( M471A4G43AB1-CWE ), my current CPU is a very basic i3-10100T. Sufficient to start, I'm probably gonna try and put 10700 there. It's a tough choice here. I don't need many cores, but rather a few with a high clock and large cache, client CPUs don't have those features balanced.


MOTHERBOARD PORT HINTS(FRUs)


PCIE is x8(physically x16 but would only work in x8)


From what I saw, the so called BTB_HDR can actually host many things(sold as FRU/configured during purchase):

Various USB configurations(USB-C 5C50W31953, 2x 3.0? 5C50W00891)

VGA port 5C50W00881

HDMI 5C50W31952

DP 5C50W31951


There's also a COM header but that port itself as a device doesn't exist in the system, and requires some PCB with chip there to enable it.


There's unsoldered WWAN port and unsoldered SIM slot on the front of chassis. I couldn't find any fru for that. Anyway I don't think it will work even if you solder it, because apparently there are other components right there that are missing too, and have no names printed on PCB whatsoever, so you'll have to guess that somehow or if you have other systems with WWAN slots, attempt to copy that knowledge... too difficult IMO.


All-in-all, this is an amazing system that could have been even more amazing if they'd let us run Xeons with ECC. After all, 64 gigs isn't your typical 16, better have ECC than not...
 
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UhClem

just another Bozo on the bus
Jun 26, 2012
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There are two 2280 M.2 slots
...
PCIE is x8(physically x16 but would only work in x8)
The PCIe config of the CPU is likely set up as x8+x4+x4, so that PCIe slot really is only x8, BUT each (of the two) M.2 slot has dedicated (non-chipset) x4 (CPU) lanes.
 

tinfoil3d

QSFP28
May 11, 2020
873
400
63
Japan
The PCIe config of the CPU is likely set up as x8+x4+x4, so that PCIe slot really is only x8, BUT each (of the two) M.2 slot has dedicated (non-chipset) x4 (CPU) lanes.
Yes, that's unsurprising, and I knew that from the psref before I bought this box.
What's surprising is, ten plus years on we still see Intel CPUs announced and introduced with 16 PCIE lanes.
I'm really puzzled with what I should do with my unused Xeon W-1290 now. I'm considering buying X12SAE for it to upgrade my 11 year old workstation that's completely maxed out with all the upgrades I did to it over the years. But overall, it's very very unpleasant to be still limited to 16 lanes. In 2020s. Wanna bet intel is gonna be making 16-lane CPUs for another two decades for general desktops?