Lenovo ThinkCentre M920 Tiny Guide and Review 

On serial: while today most common lab measurement tools (oscilloscopes, calipers,...) tend to be made with USB, serial is still very common on the more obscure stuff, like some special signal generators, heating chambers and special built stuff. Oftentimes serial is simply preferred, because it's a robust, locking connector with great signal integrity, since it's using higher voltages (+/-15v vs. 0/5V for USB). This is especially useful in - as you mentioned - manufacturing equipment, but also research. I've personally never seen a computer controlled lathe or a mill that used anything else. You simply cannot afford some worker pulling out a USB cable by accident, because even 5 minutes of downtime can cost millions of dollars in a large factory. Same would apply for the various CERN experiments. Computer geeks of today somewhat understandably chuckle when they see one, but it's actually a remarkably well-engineered, robust protocol, in opposition to USB, which has become a hodgepodge of complex standards under one label, especially in recent years (there's like 3 or 4 ways to do audio over USB). VGA is the same, which is, again, why it's still used. TL;DR: "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

Thank you for putting this project together.

Have you considered adding a page comparing all the Project TinyMiniMicro nodes? I'd love to have a quick overview.

The best of 920 and 720 is the pcie expansion, a 10ge nic or 4poorts gige nic would make it really promising as a small home lab.

Talk about timing! I also can't think of anything bad to say about the M920Q series. Terrific platform.

Great Review on tiny but powerful CPU. Thank you.

Thank you for the great video. You have an awesome day as well. :)

Hi man. Can you please let me know what are the temps that you get in this cpu on a normal usage, not playing games. Thanks

Hope that toolless NVME slot will become the norm , that design is cool - and if it breaks you can just use an nvme screw to secure it!

So, i know like this not might be a problem everyone gonna have but there are old devices that aren't compatible with newer USB 3.0 or above ports. Personally i have an old android tablet that wouldn't connect to my tiny machine because the configuration that i have doesn't include any USB 2.0 port. So on these review it would help some folks out to mention about USB incompatibility if they run an electronic repair shop or home lab that use older equipments

This was great. Wondering if this would work for a basic media server actually with the chip that it has and the expandability especially if I'm good with using a few external USB drives.

Which one should I choose? Dell Optiflex 3060 or Thinkcentre 920q?

i have a m600 with an external gpu attached and i got a 170w barrel style power supply with a flat tip converter i game on this thing everyday and im within 40-80 fps on medium to high on Afew AAA titles im please with these small PCs and they seem to be the future if u ask me ..

You should check out the Lenovo M90n which is about half the size of these units yet still packs a solid punch. I have one specced with an i7 8665U vPro CPU and 16gb RAM that I use for my VM's/Docker. Also has two m.2 pci-e slots which is useful for either ssd's or a NIC/HBA if using a riser cable.

I’m wondering do you have to have a wifi cord in order to use it ? Or I could just use wireless wifi

Will you test the tr pro in which is lenovo exclusive?

Love your vids. Support

Can you use this to stream games on switch or ps4/5?

Nice. Better capabilities than the Dell micro I had. But if I am stuck with Intel graphics, I will be waiting til the Xe 11 gen chips come out.

Hey, thanks for the video. I'm just read all these comments, and i find the Gpu thing questionable. Do you have any range of gpu-s that can fit in there . Im highly interested to buy onr of these tinys just to use Photoshop web browsing and video editing, so im highly interested in the best choice of graphic card. Please let me know. Greetings from hungary

What systems have 2 nvme slots so far I know the g5 800 does any others?

My any chance do you a video explaining every connection inside the MB I see a bunch of spare port empty and I was looking at a the manual and connector 4 say dc connector? O wonder what's this for and where can I find a cable for for it i believe is an an 8pin connector wondering if it can supply power to a GC or any other upgrade I wanna build a miniature gaming pc to run it on My car for long trips

Ooh! That lacking wifi card is the perfect space for a coral AI addin card!

Anything in the arm space with that sort of connectivity and say 8+gb ram? On the search for a AArch64 build server.

Is it possible to connect the device with the Lenovo docking station?

Great video!! the only thing I am missing in series is ranking of all of these by performance or by how could are they for small lab cluster purpose (which I understand whole series is about) in one ultimate list.. with every video list should be updated and newly tested device, should be placed where it belongs in the list

I really love your content. Please slow down, its not a race.

BOOM black sweatshirt is too good

Is it a face time or product review video?

Mine is blinking on a little green light at front below a cilinder figure?? Is not working the internet port.

What's the power consumption ?

I have second sata drive installed that gets unusually hot after 30 minutes use - reaches 45-50C. Makes me worried. My laptop sata never gets that hot.

It can also come with an AMD Ryzen 5 with vega8 graphics which I have and it plays eso perfectly, though with lower graphics.

Is it worth it and does it over heat ?

I'm very interested in a box like this that would be good for zoneminder. Also something with at least two gb ethernet ports if not 3-4 for firewall duties.

Not impressed that they intentionally removed the ability to add a second nvme drive - like, they actively made a decision to remove it in order to sell it back to the user in a higher-end model. Business is business, sure - but at some point greed has to be pointed to and called out as well.

my thinkcenter m710 doesn't display. how can i fix it

excellent video

It’s neat, it’s got everything my Kaby lake system has but smaller, faster and more compact it’s neat

how to add the vga port? com1 ? com2?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't that "special" slot be used for any very small PCIe card on a riser? I've been thinking about building a dedicated Tiny/Mini/Micro node for CAD, but want something I can throw my tiny Quadro K1200 in. Am I crazy or would I be able to rock an i7-9700T with a Quadro K1200 in this chassis? Max power consumption would be 35W CPU + 45W GPU.

Have one with i5 8500t, 16gb ram. Ideal pc for my rekordbox software.

Has anybody actually seen these with the thunderbolt add in? It looks like lenovo scrapped this from what I have seen online, and have never seen this in the wild.

How do you use it??!!

are these ok forganibg?

Hi, I have a problem with the wifi of my m720q tiny. I wanted to know if you also have a problem with the wifi.

damn shame that second nvme spot doesnt have a slot! do any of the M920 series have it?

I got one but it won’t let me connect to the internet

i have the m720q with core i5 9500t 2.2ghz turbo 3.7, 12gb ddr4 dual channel 256gb ssd micron.

I live the Lenovo M720 / M920 PCs :)

Would the HP Z2 Mini also count? Lenovo P330 Tiny would be the one with the Quadro in it.

I just one someone to show me how to connect the dang rear wifi antenna xD

I can buy a refurbished one with an Intel Core i5-8400T, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD for 430 EUR. Is it still a good buy?

what is the difference between this unit and m720q tiny ? they look the same!

The first thing I did was to see if there is a nic card for this. But unfortunately on Lenovos page it only has VGA. I would love to see something like this with even one (1) extra nic... With the performance that this thing has I can retire some 1U servers... But unfortunately it looks like Lenovo is determined to make it a terminal 😔

Can you upgrade the CPU?

does it have a magnification program ? im legally blind

350 cheepest one in my country. used

Nowadays where you get Nvidia Quadro P620 GPUs for $60 on ebay i upgraded my tiny M920q to a small gaming PC. Just had to order a $6 riser card from Aliexpress and drill holes in the case like the Thinkstation P330 has it for the GPU vent. PSU i already had a 135W one. After 200 weeks of research: yes the ONLY GPUs that fit are Nvidia Quadro ones (P600, P620, P1000, T400, T600, T1000). You don’t get 400fps, but for X-plane it is more than OK. Just don’t spend more than $100 on the GPU, on bigger PCs you get a used GTX 1660 for $120 with double the performance. Or for $250 a brand new RX6650XT for quadruple perf.

What’s the difference between ddr and dimm

How do I reinstall windows on this computer

so why can't hp and dell make one this small

it's compatible with normal ssd m.2 ,,, a simple cheap one ? (no nvme or pci gen3)

I want something like this with at least 2 LAN ports, preferably 4 LAN ports... and cheaper! :P

Bro iff you put a a i9 in this thing you will have to red neck a delta fan on top off it

I’m putting a GTX 1650 in one of this. Yes, there is but one half height single slot GTX 1650 in existence, made by ASL.

At the moment Microsoft is not enforcing restrictions on license key resellers. That completely changes the cost equation towards building new yourself. Also building yourself gives you a machine that instantly gives you hundreds of dollars of reselling value --- the ability to put in any decent video card such as an Nvidia 1660 to create a gaming machine.

This is what you put in a smartboard

Your eyebrows are wanted by homeland security

im trying to love this tiny desktop but i just cant - 3 reasons : no built in wifi, no bluetooth , no dedicated graphic card that can support gaming.

Personally I don’t see those tiny desktop pcs as a real desktop more like a laptop in a small box rather than in a laptop body

I work in IT and we are getting rid of all desktops and moving to laptops with USB C docks. We had excess stock of these so managed to get one brand new for £50. i5 8500T, 8gb DDR4. 256gb NVMe. Absolute steal. I am using mine for tiny server based roles. I added a 500gb internal drive and a 1tb external which I put some shared folders on.

My t8plus will smoke that shit

its kinda if you wanna play roblox cause it lags

"what the heck" how very american.

What is the difference between Lenovo ThinkCentre M series and Neo series?

First ever

What is it?!!! Nobody says. I’m looking all over