Lenovo M93 Tiny Desktop Get's a XEON E3-1275L V3 - 940 

readers should keep in mind, that the E3-12x5 xeons come with internal graphics (as i3, i5) but the E3-12x0 do not have graphics inside and need additional graphics card. So for the tiny PCs you will need the ones with 5 at the end

Thanks for this video - I've just upgraded my M73 Tiny with an E3-1265L v3 - noticeable difference is I can now watch 4k RU-vid!

We have many of those M93 tiny at work, I love them! Lenovo also sells an “All-in-One” monitor for this model, it has a slot in the rear where you can “dock” the M93 and hide it inside, all the ports are replicated on the back of the monitor itself and you also get a webcam and a pair of speakers 😄

Now we in the UK are locked in our homes I am rationing watching your excellent videos! This one made me smile

Was going through my drawer of CPU's and it turned out that I had an E3-1225 V3 laying around. I am pretty sure came it came out of a single rack height Dell server I upgraded for a customer years ago. So I put it in one of my M93's I had on the shelf, and low and behold, it booted up really fast. It replaced an i5-4570t. It can now playback 4K video, but the copper heat pipe gets quite warm, so had to set the fan to maximum in the bios. It's pretty noisy with the top on. I pulled the plastic speaker mount off and it's now cooler and a wee bit quieter. However, there is another version of this heatsink that has an aluminum plate bonded over the too of the copper heat pipe, and to the aluminum itself. I have a couple M93's with I-7's in them that also ran warm, but switching to that version of the M93 heatsink took care of the heat problem. So I have one coming for this one too. I may get an HP 800 G1 desktop, because my experience with the early HP's is that they have better cooling, and they can power these higher dissipation CPU's better since they are rated at 65 watts. BTW: The Intel spec sheets for the 1225 say 85 watts, there is no L version of this CPU. It is what it is but runs fine. Update: I have tried the later type of heatsink that has the aluminum piece over the top of the heat transfer pipe. If I could post a picture of it here I would, but easy to see the difference in the Epay images. Anyway, it sure did lower the temperature quite substantially. I have not made before and after temperature measurements because my infrared thermometer is not working (of course when I need it!). Anyway as a comparison, I couldn't keep my fingers on the heatsink or heat transfer pipe for more than about 10 seconds. With the later style heatsink installed, I can leave them there for ever. So, I recommend anyone doing this mod and get the later style heatsink. I bought one on Epay this morning for under $20 USD.

I picked up an M93 for my mother. She was using an old laptop and a docking station prior and this little Lenovo was not only a big performance boost over the old laptop it cleaned up the area a LOT and tucks in nicely next to the monitor against the wall.

This video reminded me that I have to clean my computer. It was 2018 since the last time I blowed the dust out. I feel like a criminal doing this to my only pc.

If you want to know which are the best processors for this PC in addition to help for the (m73p and m93p) they are: i7 4765T 35w (The lowest consumption and performance of all i7 4th) i7 4785T 35w i7 4790T 45w i7 4770T 45w i7 4770S (Best in performance) 65w i7 4790S (I don't recommend it but it can handle it) 65w+ There are xeon processors that are similar in performance but the integrated ones are not very good so to speak. The rest of the processors (without letters or K) require modifications for the original adapter, which is a PSU (65w). I recognize that any of them are good depending on their use and most are expensive in price (all those with T) and yes. When you buy the 65w ones you have to have a good air flow type because they will heat up with the mini heatsink and fan that these 2 machines come with (I hope it helped you!!)

A little tip: you mentioned in your video that you need a lot of thermal paste, and it's not exactly cheap! Use copper paste instead, 50 grams of which costs a maximum of 5 euros here in Germany (I've also gotten it for 3.99 euros). It works wonderfully, is electrically non-conductive and, above all, it takes almost forever for it to dry out. I've been using it for over two years and have only had good experiences with it.

Thanks my dude, nice video, was considering this cute thing as a tiny htpc.

Very good video! 👍 It's a bit old, but I also have a "Lenovo M93 Tiny Desktop". I bought it about 2 years ago, but haven't used it yet. Yesterday I took a closer look at it and noticed that it only has a very slow Pentium G3220T CPU (2 cores, 2 threads). Now I want to change the CPU too. First I thought about an Intel Core i7-4765T, but after watching your video I want to get the Xeon E3 1275L V3. It's cheaper than the i7-4765T and faster too. Maybe you can help me with two questions: - the Xeon has a TDP of 45W, which is 10W more than the currently installed Pentium and also 10W more than the i7-4765. Does the Lenovo's cooling manage to keep the temperatures in a safe range or have you noticed problems with your system? - Did you have any problems using the Xeon? It's actually designed for servers. I would be very grateful if you could tell me about your experiences with the Xeon.

I've still got an i5-4570T in mine, and it's fine for my use because it's only really going to run a server every now and then for me and a friend, but it also serves as a backup machine (it takes files off my pc, zips them without impacting my performance, and uploads them at about 400KB/s, thus it being always on is useful and not impactful on my day). Now temps wise, disappointing. I've done quite a bit of things to find the best course of cooling. I have conductonaut or whatever the hell it is, and I haven't changed the paste since starting my testing. Also the fan I had was somewhat annoying to listen to at night, whirring that got progressively faster, then stopped and goes back to being quiet, and slowly started doing it again, every 5 seconds. Rather than replacing the proprietary fan, I went on a journey :) Base Temperature --- 40c idle, 81c full load, with stock fan Didn't check idle, probably 50c, 85c full load, with no fan at all Here's the modifying part of temperatures: 50c idle, 81c with a 3d printed custom replacement mount to hold a 40x40x10mm noctua fan (disappointing really, but non proprietary and quieter) Now the juiciest one of them all :) 30c idle, 61c under full load with an 80x80x10.8mm Akasa fan. Amazing difference. (You may get away with a 15mm thick fan, possibly 20mm at a push, but I haven't got one to try) Note: I've also delidded my CPU, but this didn't effect temps at all with stock, thus my interest in modifying on the fan level. So don't delid, unless you're gonna do liquid metal which I do not recommend. But it comes at a cost, I cut a hole with an 80mm cutting circle thing (I recommend less, 76-78mm, 80mm shows gaps on the edge of the fan filter, 79mm might not be less enough), drilled holes at I think was 71.5mm apart and a 5mm bit. Cut the proprietary fan wire off, cause I'ma need that connector, soldered up a PWM female to the proprietary connector, and bobs your uncle. (I think the connector is micropico, but they're not cheap, so don't mess up the essentially free one you have) Got a fan filter to tidy it off and voila, non proprietary fan with way better cooling. Cost wise you might ask? Well, the proprietary fan will run you from around £18 to 24, and that's used! For the modification I did? £21.44, for the fan, fan filter, 80mm hole cutter, and PWM connector. Benefits; non proprietary fan, a 80mm hole cutter I could use for other projects, quieter, and cooler. If you do carry out this mod yourself, please be sure to put painters tape EVERYWHERE on the panel to avoid scratches where the fan filter doesn't cover (also recommend clamping it down if you can, and wear gloves!) Also I'd recommend using calipers perhaps. When you're lining up where the fan goes, it's simple, just position the panel properly where you want the fan to go. If anyone is interested I'd be willing to upload an image or two to imgur on my positioning. And don't be daft and make a hole on the side with the circuit board where the fan will not be INSIDE the case like an image I saw on the forums.

I´m thinking on a computer for running Blender and design engineering stuff, and now you come out with this. I haven´t bought anything and now I WANT a Xeon on a tiny thing of these. Dang. Thanks Morten.

I love the M93p Tiny's. I have 3 at home, plus a M92p Tiny and I've upgraded them like you have. One of them to a 4770T and the other to a E3-1265L v3 which is very similar performance to the 1275L V3. Perfect for homelab use and/or HTPC.

Nice upgrade! That's a significant bump! So I guess the turbo boost and extra cores is what gets you that gain?

Mojn Morten, Jeg er stor fan af dine videoer - specielt denne, da jeg har undersøgt muligheden for netop denne opgradering. Tak for det.

Interesting video. I have the same computer. Mine was bought used with the i5 processor option. When I first got it, I would hear the fan come on to full speed from time to time. I just put in a new SSD and at that time vacuumed out the head exchanger and fan (I was lucky and did not break it.) and now the fan never runs at high speed. Mine came to me a lot less dusty than yours, but even the little dust that was in it made the heat exchanger less efficient and the CPU ran hotter. Now, running at a lower speed you can''t hear it at all, but you can feel the warm exhaust. The CPU is running cooler. One feature that you may not be aware of it being able to turn it on using your keyboard with Alt, P. To have this, you will have to plug your keyboard into a particular USB port on the back of the computer. A little experimenting should get the job done.

If you are a fan of MacOs I highly recommended checking TechNolli video of OpenCore for Lenovo M93P. I turned mine into a full functioning Mac Mini. I had to buy a different WiFi card but it was well worth it. Everything works including Apple Store, iMessage and everything else. Good video by the way.

i settled with i5-4570T. my room temperature is anywhere from 30C - 35C. for added cooling, im ramming air to the front intake using a cheap usb fan

I was considering this after I managed to run my m73 tiny with a standard 4570 non S/T decently stable , but what I came over is that there is a E3-1265L V4 Broadwell based on LGA1150 that costs the same as this but uses less power(35W vs 45W) and has an Iris Pro 6300 integrated GPU which is a lot more powerful then the HD4600 in the V3, so I will try that in the future, the only question is if the M73Tiny will run on a Broadwell, as that would be an incredible machine imho.

How about the cooling Morton? The E3 is a 65 watt CPU, and the computer is designed for 25 watts. How does it get rid of all the extra heat?

These little M93's are so handy as little PC's. I have one mounted behind my TV. They do run quite hot with the faster processors with higher TDP's

Always interesting Morten, thank you.

I've got 2 of the M93p tiny pcs, they are awesome units. I found that my both REQUIRED PC3L (low power) SODIMMS when I upgraded, as both units refused to boot with normal 1.5v non L RAM

I've been watching the video and I realized that the motherboard above the socket seems to be burned? That scares me since an i7 4770s is about to arrive that consumes 65w (TDP) (on average it eats 45w from the charger) I'm scared to open my m73p tiny and find the motherboard black

Sweet! Those of us who like virtual machines will have fun with this.

I think I've mentioned this here before...but maybe not... Use an old electric toothbrush to clean stuff. Alternatively, if you don't have an old one, get a cheap one from a discount store. It's well worth the effort to get one. It's common knowledge that the professional way to clean flux and junk from a PCB during/after assembly is an ultrasonic cleaner. When you have a surface that you can not submerge into an ultrasonic cleaning bath, the next best thing is to use an electric toothbrush. It works okay even if you use it dry with dust. I would be worried about static on the PCB though. I use isopropyl alcohol with it. It works well with heatsink fins and fan blades. Most centrifugal fans have screws or bendable tabs to remove the top cover and gain access to the surfaces that need to be cleaned. Lastly, in my teens I worked for a company that makes asphalt plants (the industrial facilities to produce the stuff used to pave roads). I worked in the computer controls department of the company. When an asphalt plant got it's controls systems upgraded there were lots of times we had to clean the computers in the control room just to add a new card into a slot. The environmental conditions for those computers are usually terrible. This was back in the early Pentium processor days. The computers we used were just standard consumer PC towers. The way we cleaned them was to take the covers off, take them outside and use a garden hose. We never had an issue. The trick is to make sure there is no water remaining when powered on. Controls upgrades take a couple of weeks to complete. So we had days available to dry them out. We also had several potential warm places to leave them to ensure they would dry out completely, plus it's a very dry dusty environment to start with. That's just a bit of an extreme example of what can be done to clean a PC in challenging conditions. I've seen PCs so dirty the dust looked like carpet that completely buried the internals. The worst were the ones where the plant operator(s) were chain smokers. The dust turns into a plastic sticky taffy like mess.

14:03 italian: grazie al cazzo English translation: thanks to the f*ck

The m93 and p version does not allow you to put in bigger than 65w cpus because there will be too much heat for the poor laptop fan. Whatever it is not recommended use of 65w in that as the heat rises up, recommended a maximum of 45w. Best cpu for that wattage

Thanks for this hack! I have two of these little beauties, for which I purchased i5-4590T chips, the fastest I could get @ 35W, and of course I doubled the RAM up to the maximum. But now I have seen the guts and the cooling scheme, I would not be afraid to run the 45w XEON chip, with frequent cleaning of course (because after all a PC is basically an room air filter with computing capabilities 🤣) i5-4590T has about 2/3 the performance of the XEON at a very good price on ebay. Will this chip gain very much for video capability? BTW these will replace my laptops. My fingers can't get along with a laptop keyboard, so when travelling I just carry the M93P, a wireless keyboard+mouse, and use whatever monitor is available. In a hotel room I just patch it to the TV with an HDMI cable. All good!

Thanks for this video! A RU-vidr I watch using his M93p for retro-gaming and recommended an upgrade to an i7 CPU. Your upgrade may be a much better idea, so I'll let you know how this upgrade works for my retro-gaming setup.

That is an awesome upgrade. I have the 3.5ghz E3 1270 V3 in my desktop/ light gaming pc, have used it for 4 years now in a gaming motherboard and it gets nearly the same performance as the i7 4470. I am definitely picking up a barebones lenovo and givint this a try, having that tiny thing instead of my huge tower would ve fantastic. I will put VMWare on my current system and stick it in a closet as a server :)

Morten, that i3 you replaced was a "T" i3-4170T series which is 35W TDP. So you increased it slightly with that newer one. Chances are you decreased the fan speed by blowing out the dust and replacing aged thermal compound. Some of the newer Tiny models will take up to 65W ones. M920x for example. (Full disclosure: I'm a Lenovo Technical Client Advisor, formerly known as an FTSS)

Amazing video! Will it be possible to do it with the M710Q? I saw that the Xeon E3-1270 v6 is socket FCLGA1151 (the same as my M710Q has)

Sweet little project. I think I’ll give this a try.

Hi, I want to buy an m93 for use as a small proxmox node. The manual says that max RAM is 16gb. This xeon model does support max 32gb RAM. Can 32 gb RAM be used in this m93 with xeon processor?

Your even pattern slow cooler screwing is exactly right. Like putting on a head gasket.

Hey there 3 years later here I am trying to do the same as you did. I'm trying to buy a compatible Xeon online...will this one work? E3-1275 V3 (SR14S) 3.50GHz Thanks in advance.

13:50 "I use a lot of this" Yes, we can tell.

I have three M93p tiny like yours and all of them with i5-4570T. All of them gets pretty "loud" hot under no heavy load circustances, like seeing 1080p videos on youtube. I think this machines are pretty good, but the i5-4570T is a little more hot than others models. Did you had this issue too? Cheers

Did you change The bios? Because everything seems works perfect. I have a M900 with 6500T (lga 1151), but i didnt find any xeon compative.

The best thing to do for any older computer is to replace the spinning disk hard drive with an SSD. Not only for the actual read/write speed but more importantly the access time. I'd also suggest an absolute minimum of 8gb ram, 16gb preferred.... especially when working with chrome based browsers... they love ram :P.

I feel like one negative of the Xeon chip is that while it may be faster you are going to loose graphics perfromance. The 4600 integrated graphics is much better than the gt1 on the xeon chip.

Hello, could you run a full Passmark benchmark including the 2D and 3D video tests? I have the M73 with an i5-4570T / HD4600 just wondering about graphics performance of the XEON. I use this little PC for retro game emulation and it does very well for such a tiny form factor.

I've got the i5 2.9ghz model of the Lenovo ThinkCentre M93p Tiny. I just upped the RAM from 8gb to 16gb. I've been trying to find out if an i7 can fit it. I'd have to cut the case and install an external fan to help with the heat. It currently has the stock 128gb SSD, but I plan on changing to a 1tb Samsung Evo. I'm also using a 4tb external drive atm. And even though heat isn't really a problem now, I got a "vertical laptop stand" to hold it on its side.

This video was super helpful, my m93p tiny now has Xeon 1275L power!! 😂

Does this can work with a Lenovo M720q? I got this tiny bad boy for free and my original plan is to upgrade to an i9 9900t and add 8gigs of ram and a m2.

Did you run into cpu clock speed problems? How many watts is your power supply?

Hi. what temps did you got with the I3-4170 and with the Xeon, doing some basic stuff? Thank you

Quite impressive to source a server CPU with more cores and lower TDP. Kudos!

I wonder if the board with the Pentium G3220T would take the Xeon. Cpu upgrade website shows the i3-4170 as direct replacement but not any Xeon although there are many Xeon 1150 socket chips.

where can I find the CPU supported list of this machine ?

Did you update bios before installation? My m93p does not want to recognize that cpu.

Thanks Morten. Very useful information!

Would this upgrade enable the machine to play pinball fx3 at 60fps? I have the i5 version of the m93p and can only get between 28-30 fps running fx3.

I Have fitted a Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1265L v3 @ 2.50GHz Cores 4 Threads 8 runs well.

Is this CPU works with M73 Tiny?

I’m thinking of putting a i3-4130 in my m73 tiny will I have to adjust power options to make it run 35w?

thanks for tips work perfecly on M73 .

Your videos have been helpful. I've got the Lenovo M92 and it's getting a bit sluggish. I'm considering installing a SSD drive, but am currently running only 12GB RAM. Would the SSD solve my performance problem or should I upgrade to 16GB RAM first? My processor is Intel i5-3470T CPU @ 2.90GHz, 2901 Mhz, 2 Core

Would be good if you cut a hole in the case and put a massive Noctua cooler on it - the 'hot rod' look would be awesome :D

Can y'all explain the differences between a M93 and a M93p? Thanks!

Hi Morten, Excellent video. Love these machines as well. Any idea whether the same upgrades can be done with an M92 as opposed to an M93 please? Not entirely sure what the difference is between these two models however guess there's little difference. Keep up the great content.

Hey, I want to upgrade ram. Which/What type of ram I have to purchase? It supports DDR3 ram. And max 16gb. Currently I have one 8gb ram.

Es compatible con Lenovo M73 Tiny?

How about trying to put 32 gb of memory in it (16+16)? The Q87 chipset is compatible, and the XEON cpu is compatible. The M93p Tiny stock configuration maxed out at 8+8 gb. Perhaps it may wotk with 32 gb? I have one of these rinning the same XEON processor but I haven't upgraded the memory yet.

do I need to reinstall my OS after upgrading my CPU ?

So my 1275LV3 CPU finally arrived! I decided to try it first in my HP 800 G1. I installed it and the computer was running sluggish and with core speed averaging around 1.8 ghz. to 2.3 GHZ. Anyway, did a little searching and found that there is an E-3 12XX driver that can be downloaded. After installing the driver, the thing really took off. Peaking out at frequencies briefly of 3.7 GHZ. So that fixed the low speed aspect. The computer now plays back 8k video with ease and throttles as it should. The Score is now 5450 for the Xeon and 3240 for the i5-4590. I will check it next week in my M93P, and will see if Lenovo has a driver for it. Edit: Forgot to mention I turned up the fan idle two clicks in the HP bios. It barely gets warm.

Hello. Do you need a change power supply or not ? Your power supply is 65 watts or 90 watts ?

Can you game with build in XEON E3-1275L GPU? Can you run GTA 5 at minimum graphic setting?

Will this work with a Intel Xeon E3-1225 v3 3.20GHz Socket LGA1150 Processor CPU (SR1KX)

hi, does this machine have a slot for a dedicated videocard or we have to rely only in the onboard one?

How is the power draw i have one installed 12GB of RAM has a core i5 4570T want more cores for VMware do i stick to a 35 W TDP or is the 45 fine?

Is this a faster CPU then a i7-6700T?

I have the same Lenovo but a M73... It has a i5-4570T 35w. Do you think this upgrade should work as well??

Hi Morten. What is the power adapter wattage that you use?

I didn't know this guy would support these processors... looks interesting at same time daunting because of the cooling limited capabilities

Can you pls. Make a video of how to install drivers on lenovo m93p tiny.

I have this exact PC. But with a i5. But I have a similar PC. Same socket same gen. But dell. With i3. This is tempting.

Hi , how much max is this motherboard support Xeon cpu?

Do you think Intel® Xeon® E3-1286L v3 will work ?

Support Xeon E3-1280 V3 ??? Thanx

DDR3L usually runs ok on standard voltages, but I guess such machine could detect and set correct voltages.. You could check that.. Damn those flimsy fans...

Hi Morten, I have purchased a 4 core 8 core xeon E3-1260L but it only recognizes 2 core and 2 core! Do you have any idea why?

Have your M93p Tiny been running 24/7 since you bought it, or just ocasionally?

the 1275L V3 is the only other "supported" CPU upgrade for "servers" like the PowerEdge T20, hence the higher price, plus that haswell is still in demand in some manner for upgrades. I have a T20 and it is absolute garbage. the heatsink is terrible compared to other offerings for instance, and while it CAN take higher power CPU options, the laughable heatsink will fail to keep them cool.

I got 1 question for you: I have a laptop that runs windows 10 but the wifi icon shows a circle with an X in the middle of the circle. Have you ever seen that symbol or know what that means?

Just so you know, TDP (thermal design power) refers to average heat generation of the processor and not how much electricity it will use, even though it uses watts as its energy unit. So to say a CPU has a 45W TDP just means you need a cooling device capable of dissipating 45W of heat during normal load. Now while it's generally safe to say that the higher the TDP the more electricity the CPU will use, it's inaccurate to say a 54W TDP CPU uses 9W more electricity than a 45W TDP CPU.

Have same set up is that only cpu for it. ??

Can you pls tell me what cpu upgrades i can do on the lenovo thinkcentre m72e tiny

Any news on if you can do this to a m73 Tiny PC?

Will this work in a m93p sff?

Warranty valid until used :-) - Dust removal may have helped lower fan blast. I've got the same form factor Lenovo M715q (with AMD 2400GE) as an extra desktop. Nice small machine with good performance, and reasons for buying Intel are, well, diminishing.

what is the highest cpu the motherboard can support?

I noticed on Epay the CPU he uses in this video can now be bought for 40 to 50 USD from China.

I noticed you had discord, do you have a myplayhouse server? is it available to all or just patreon? (I couldn't find any links to it). Cheers mate, love your stuff.

Hi, I have a i7 version of this Tiny. My Memory Ram is pc3L . Do you Know if it is compatible with the Xeon?

hi - where did you buy the CPU ?

I can't believe you were running a 54Watt cpu in it. Could have also gone with a i7-4785T, its 35Watts and only around 12% slower in benchmarks compared to what you ended up with.

@10:02 how much did that shipment cost him? not the cost of the CPU itself, the parcel and what country did he ship it to?