Lenovo ThinkCentre M75q-1 Tiny AMD Ryzen-based TMM Review

9

Key Specs

Since many of our users are going to want to run different OSes on this, we wanted to give some of the key hardware specs. There is a lot on these machines that are customizable, but this at least gives you some sense of what hardware is available. If you want to know if your hardware is compatible with your OS, this list should help do that tie-out.

CPU Support

Here are the officially supported CPUs for the unit:

 

Processor

Cores / Threads Frequency Base/Max L2 / L3

Cache

Memory Support (Up to) Integrated Graphics
Athlon PRO 200GE 2 / 4 3.2 GHz 1 MB / 4MB DDR4-2666 Radeon Vega 3
Athlon PRO 300GE 2 / 4 3.4 GHz 1 MB / 4MB DDR4-2666 Radeon Vega 3
Ryzen 3 PRO 2200GE 4 / 4 3.2 / 3.6 GHz 2 MB / 4MB DDR4-2933 Radeon Vega 8
Ryzen 5 PRO 2400GE 4 / 8 3.2 / 3.8 GHz 2 MB / 4MB DDR4-2933 Radeon Vega 11
Ryzen 3 PRO 3200GE 4 / 4 3.3 / 3.8 GHz 2 MB / 4MB DDR4-2933 Radeon Vega 8
Ryzen 5 PRO 3350GE 4 / 8 3.3 / 3.9 GHz 2 MB / 4MB DDR4-2933 Radeon Vega 11
Ryzen 5 PRO 3400GE 4 / 8 3.3 / 4.0 GHz 2 MB / 4MB DDR4-2933 Radeon Vega 11
Athlon 300GE 2 / 4 3.4 GHz 1 MB / 4MB DDR4-2666 Radeon Vega 3
Ryzen 3 3200GE 4 / 4 3.3 / 3.8 GHz 2 MB / 4MB DDR4-2933 Radeon Vega 8
Ryzen 5 3350GE 4 / 8 3.3 / 3.9 GHz 2 MB / 4MB DDR4-2933 Radeon RX Vega 11
Ryzen 5 3400GE 4 / 8 3.3 / 4.0 GHz 2 MB / 4MB DDR4-2933 Radeon Vega 11

RAM Support

  • Up to 32GB in 2x DDR4-2666/ DDR4-2933 SODIMMs

Storage Support

  • 2.5″ SATA with Bracket (if not configured with NIC or GPU)
  • M.2 PCIe for NVMe SSDs

Networking (Wired)

  • Realtek RTL8111EPV-CG 1GbE (AMD DASH supported)

WiFi Support (Optional)

  • Intel Wireless-AC 9560 (dual band), Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.0 combo adapter, 2×2
  • Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174A (dual band), Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2 combo adapter, 2×2
  • Realtek RTL8822CE (dual band), Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.0 combo adapter, 2×2

Chipset

  • AMD B300

USB Ports

  • 2x USB 3.1 Gen1 Front (1x Type-A, 1x Type-C)
  • 1x USB 3.1 Rear Type-A
  • 3x USB 2.0 Rear Type-A

OSes From Factory

  • Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
  • Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
  • Windows 10 IoT Enterprise
  • Ubuntu Linux

The OS section can be a big deal. Sometimes the units are advertised as supporting Windows 10, but one gets a Windows 10 Home license. If you want to, or may want to, run Windows 10 Pro, knowing exactly which OS is on the device is ultra important. Having Ubuntu Linux installed from the factory is nice since we know many of our readers will use these with Linux. We also had our system running Proxmox VE as a Linux virtualization node but that is not an officially supported OS.

Note: These systems sometimes change specs mid-generation. If you find another spec sheet with items you think we should add, please let us know in the comments.

Next, we are going to look at the performance and power consumption before getting to our final words.

9 COMMENTS

  1. Hi, would it be possible to test AMD Dash? We all know vPro and the possibility of the KVM and remote Restart/PowerOn.

    But about AMD DASH there is not so much information and mostly just AMD advertising or outdated. Thank you very much!

  2. I paid $200 ish dollars for three m75q-1 units. They came with the Ryzen5 pro 3400GE, 512Gb SSD and 16Gb RAM.

    I’ve increased the memory to 32Gb bringing the total cost up to around $320 and couldn’t be happier. You’re right that at the price you paid for your unit, its probably not worth it, but if you can score a deal in the $200-350 region these units can’t really be beaten. The optional expansion slots are hard to find components for. Mine came with VGA which suits me. The onboard NIC is a Realtek RTL8111 so no vmware for me.. but Proxmox more than wonderful on this thing.

    Happy bunny here, but I was very lucky in getting mine at such a good price

  3. ECC is a good question. I was wondering, since the heat sink was not straight front to back whether the CPU and socket underneath were also diagonally mounted. Did I miss something or did you not say?

  4. Adam – That is a good idea.

    eric – I am extremely jealous. That is a great deal.

    ECC? – Unlikely. With these machines, if it is not listed in specs, it is usually not available.

    Eric Olson – you can see the socket is not diagonally mounted. You can see the edge in some of the pictures with the fan/ shroud removed. It is just the heatsink fins.

  5. Eric– I don’t see a price out there remotely like what you say you paid for your units. Where did you find them? EBay? Even there I can’t find anything like your price. Would appreciate being pointed at a seller

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