Info Lenovo m720q (Tiny) 10T8 Project

[Charagma]

Figured that since I have bits and pieces of the little future project (My LOTTO project) here in various places, I will start a thread where everything can be in one place. I will add where my research is at the moment as well as pitfalls I get along the way. You are welcome to comment if you see information I have that might be different to what you know.

Much of the information I have comes from various sights, will just make it much easier for it to be all in one place. This will give the advantage of tracking progress on the project as well. A huge pitfall I have found is most bloggers do not say what they have tried that did not work or something they looked into that did not work. They just go with what they did. Makes it a bit difficult to know whether your plan or idea will work if no one mentions that it has been tried and failed because of A,B or C.

 

[Charagma]

The Lenovo m720q tiny is a magic little 179 x 34 x 182 mm in size currently fitted into a VESA bracket hanging of the back of my Screen. They say it can hold 1L of liquid but must admit it is untested by myself so taking their word for it.

The specific one I have it the 10T8 which has a B360 chipset and can use 8th and 9th gen CPUs. My specific model uses a 35W CPU (Celeron G4900T) 8th Gen, but is upgradable to a i9-9900T via a LGA1151 Socket.

The Lenovo ThinkCentre M720q has several internal and external ports.

The rear of the unit comes with a DisplayPort (1.2), HDMI port (Unsure about version) , as well as an optional VGA port with a RJ45 Ethernet. It has four USB ports, two of which are USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A (5Gbps) ports and two are USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A (10Gbps) ports.

The front of the M720q has a power button, status LED, 3.5mm headset and mic outputs, as well as USB-C 3.1 and USB-A 3.1 ports.

It Has Dual SO-Dimm RAM slots (Upgradable to 32GB but some internet pages say it can go up to 64GB), a 2,5 HDD bay and a M.2 PCIe SSD slot.

It has a built-in speaker (Not very loud) and a Lenovo (Special) PCIe slot. This requires a special riser board to be used.

There is a set of pins top left-hand side (Unit facing to the front) that might indicate an additional port but have found no reference to it. It has similar outlay of an USB pin layout so might be an additional USB port.

Mine I added Bluetooth and Wi-Fi but in some configurations it comes standard.

The cooling system is silent. I once heard it while fidgeting in the BIOS and set the fan to maximum. Sounded like a hair dryer. This is the only time I ever heard any sound (apart from the speaker) from the unit.

All this runs off a 65W external 20V PSU with a rectangular yellow plug (Internet refers to it as the Lenovo large square plug) that works no matter which way you plug it in.

My Current System Specs:

OS: Windows 11 64bit 24h2
RAM: 4GB
CPU: Intel Celeron G4900T
SSD: Samsung evo 850 (500GB)
GPU: Integrated Intel UHD610

Aim:
RAM: 32GB
CPU: i5-9600k
Storage: Multiple Drives
GPU: Gaming friendly (No lag and no hick-ups)

The Idea of the project? Expanding the little machine to the max of its ability. See how far it can be pushed and still be stable.

Biggest problems: Lenovo Proprietary Products

Work arounds: Trial and error.

 

[Lutfij]

Might want to stick to processors listed on their spec sheet;

https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkCentre/ThinkCentre_M720_Tiny/ThinkCentre_M720_Tiny_Spec.pdf

See how far it can be pushed and still be stable.
Might want to do an assessment of things on a piece of paper and see how much you'll be spending. Upgrading yesteryears tech isn't exactly the best decision, not when that amount would add up to a concurrent system.

 

[Charagma]

Might want to stick to processors listed on their spec sheet;

https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkCentre/ThinkCentre_M720_Tiny/ThinkCentre_M720_Tiny_Spec.pdf

See how far it can be pushed and still be stable.
Might want to do an assessment of things on a piece of paper and see how much you'll be spending. Upgrading yesteryears tech isn't exactly the best decision, not when that amount would add up to a concurrent system.

The limit they give on the processors is due to the 35W lock. All suggested processors in the list are 35w processors. I have read that this lock can be removed by flashing the BIOS to unlock it. The m920 can take a 65W processor using the same BIOS (From what I have read) So I just need to find the right BIOS files to unlock this. I have not had much success with this since each Bios I have found was specifically made for a specific M720q.

My current BIOS is the latest version and have found a possible earlier version of an unlocked BIOS on a thread that might work. I have however decided that I will be unlocking the BIOS myself instead of leaning on someone else to ensure I do the right thing and not hope someone did the right thing.

With the above done, the power Supply needs to be upgraded. I have found the Lenovo Legion had a 300W power supply with the same plug and also found a Video of someone using one on a m720q. I will also have to upgrade the CPU cooling. The m920 has the exact same "frame" with a 65Watt cooling system as opposed to the m720q 35W cooling system. The Processor I am looking at is a 95W CPU. This will leave me to create my own 3d printed cooling system. I already started with a possible design for this based on Nautilus air movement.

The GPU is the major problem. eGPU's here in my country is ridiculously priced. My original thought of using a Bitcoin mining GPU will work as long as I run it from my PCI. My original plan was to just run it from a type C USB or USB port but can find no reference anywhere if this will work. The Thunderbolt chip on the m720q was not activated (As per many of the threads I have read) leaving me back with the PCI port. This I can do by adding a riser card (Seems to be the only option here). The USB port for the mining GPU onto that and then outside the unit to the GPU Port. reason for going this route is I can add an external PSU to the bitcoin GPU. The video I followed on a similar build, the OP said that the temperatures was very high, and he heard some "ticks" coming from the outside port, but he was able to run games and programs properly without problems. He did not say for how long, however.

For the outside GPU to work I will need to resolve the cooling (again 3D printing and Fans, leaning towards nautilus again) as well as finding a way for the ePSU to switch on and off with the m720q. The switching of the PSU, I am looking into the possibility of adding a 5v Static relay to the USB cable entering the "eGPU". This will trigger the PSU to switch on but have not looked into how to switch it off again. All PSU (of today) has "soft switches" and I will have to look at the plug pinout diagrams to find the on and off switch wires. I have not looked at this yet.

Cost, yes agree. this was one of my biggest concerns. Over investing into something that is not worth it. The m720q is magic. I would say it's major flaw would be the GPU side of things. LP GPU's are available but from what I saw on reviews, LPs pretty much give half the results of a full GPU card. This is why I thought of just going directly for the Full GPU. I will however start off with RAM, Riser, a LP GPU and a 300w PSU to see how far the system can be pushed before pushing into the eGPU side. Unfortunately using a LP GPU takes the place of my SSD space so will have to make a work around for it. The Processor will be just a nice to have. I am currently running in 2C2T and having more just cannot hurt (LMAO).

So far adding the totals to what I have seen available, it seems to be worth it. Here in my country, I can find something similar (once upgraded) for around 3 times more as to what I can build it for. If I go for "just" newer, it is double for what I can build it and then it does not have a "proper" GPU included taking the cost to more than the upgrade (or rebuild)

Thank you for that spec page. I was working from fish diagram that I found on a site a while back.

 

[Charagma]

Need to make a few corrections here. I gave feedback on the thunderbolt 3 part of what I read but have now discovered that it is an advanced network card and nothing to do with what I am aiming for.

The CPU upgrade can be done but personally do not have the mental capacity to do something like that. Seems like I would be staying with the "T" range of the CPUs. I looked at everything from Open core to standard .BIN files but have no idea what they are talking about. If anyone can maybe point me in the right direction to unlock these features I would appreciate but it is obvious that this part of the upgrade is out of my league.

I have found the FULL parts listing of anything Tiny related. It is now much easier to search for parts by part numbers. I do have it in spreadsheet form if anyone might need it.

 

[Charagma]

Installed the m920 fan system and heatsink today (Aliexpress).

Temperature Values and tests are from AiDA64 extreme

M720 Fan system
CPU Temp (Idle) 34 degrees
CPU Temp (Load test all cores) 82 Degrees
SSD Temp Average 37 Degrees

M920 Fan System
CPU Temp (Idle) 27 degrees
CPU Temp (Load test all cores) 65 Degrees
SSD Temp Average 26 Degrees

I tested the system on all 3 BIOS settings

1. Acoustically pleasing (Where I found it when started)
2. Thermal pleasing
3. Full blast

When under load I had similar values on all three. Maybe a 1 or two degree difference. I am currently testing the system on fullblast. Sounds as if I have a hairdryer attached to my monitor but I do not have sudden lag spikes anymore. Starting to think much of my problems was temperature related. Pathfinder (Game I am currently playing) still has endless loading screens (they do finish eventually), but there is a bit more smoothness in game play. Many of the stutters I have experienced seems to have gone away. Teh standard 65W PSU is working hard with the new fan and can feel it is warm but still within comfortable limits.

The pci riser card (Went for the one with the added SSD adapter) and 300W PSU should be arriving early next week but have not decided what I will be using so will have an empty PCIe inside my machine. Bitcoin mining has an external adapter that can switch on multiple PSU's simultaneously. Unfortunately it runs from a Master PSU, so not sure if it will do what I need from it. I would need to know what relay switching current they are using and then maybe emulate it from a different power source. If it is 5v I can run it from a USB port as originally planned but if it is 12V I would need to go back to the drawing board. In addition once this is all done I would still need to run power to the EGPU (Bitcoin EGPU board) and have Molex plugs available as per what I need on the GPU. Still makes me think that it would be better to have the GPU with it's power supply in one box. Almost like a docking station.

The 3D printer I have is too small for what I need to print. Tried printing a new design (with cooling) lid but because of my bed size ended up with 11 pieces without the "fan cyclone). Joining them is fairly easy but prefer the nice clean look. Will possibly be looking at a new 3d printer or take it to someone who has a bigger print bed to print for me. I use it on daily basis for broken casings etc so will not be a wasted investment if I do buy a new printer.