Lenovo ThinkCentre M920x Tiny Review and Guide

By
Patrick Kennedy
-
6

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(GHz) Cache Memory Support (Up to) Integrated Graphics
Celeron G4900 2/2 3.1G 2 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 610
Celeron G4920 2/2 3.2G 2 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 610
Celeron G4930 2/2 3.2G 2 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 610
Celeron G4950 2/2 3.3G 2 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 610
Pentium Gold G5400 2/4 3.7G 4 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 610
Pentium Gold G5500 2/4 3.8G 4 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 630
Pentium Gold G5600 2/4 3.9G 4 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 630
Pentium Gold G5420 2/4 3.8G 4 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 610
Pentium Gold G5620 2/4 4.0G 4 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 630
Core i3-8100 4/4 3.6G 6 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 630
Core i3-8300 4/4 3.7G 8 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 630
Core i5-8400 6/6 2.8G / 4.0G 9 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630
Core i5-8500 6/6 3.0G / 4.1G 9 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630
Core i5-8600 6/6 3.1G / 4.3G 9 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630
Core i7-8700 6/12 3.2G / 4.6G 12 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630
Core i3-9100 4/4 3.6G / 4.2G 6 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 630
Core i3-9300 4/4 3.7G / 4.3G 8 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 630
Core i3-9320 4/4 3.7G / 4.4G 8 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 630
Core i5-9400 6/6 2.9G / 4.1G 9 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630
Core i5-9500 6/6 3.0G / 4.4G 9 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630
Core i5-9600 6/6 3.1G / 4.6G 9 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630
Celeron G4900T 2/2 2.9G 2 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 610
Celeron G4930T 2/2 3.0G 2 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 610
Pentium Gold G5400T 2/4 3.1G 4 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 610
Pentium Gold G5500T 2/4 3.2G 4 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 630
Pentium Gold G5600T 2/4 3.3G 4 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 630
Pentium Gold G5420T 2/4 3.2G 4 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 610
Core i3-8100T 4/4 3.1G 6 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 630
Core i3-8300T 4/4 3.2G 8 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 630
Core i5-8400T 6/6 1.7G / 3.3G 9 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630
Core i5-8500T 6/6 2.1G / 3.5G 9 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630
Core i5-8600T 6/6 2.3G / 3.7G 9 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630
Core i7-8700T 6/12 2.4G / 4.0G 12 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630
Core i3-9100T 4/4 3.1G / 3.7G 6 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 630
Core i3-9300T 4/4 3.2G / 3.8G 8 MB DDR4-2400 UHD 630
Core i5-9400T 6/6 1.8G / 3.4G 9 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630
Core i5-9500T 6/6 2.2G / 3.7G 9 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630
Core i5-9600T 6/6 2.3G / 3.9G 9 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630
Core i7-9700T 8/8 2.0G / 4.3G 12 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630
Core i9-9900T 8/16 2.1G / 4.4G 16 MB DDR4-2666 UHD 630

RAM Support

  • Up to 32GB in 2x DDR4-2400/ DDR4-2666 SODIMMs

Note: STH tested 2x 32GB Samsung SODIMMs and found the system can operate with 64GB of memory.

Storage Support

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

Networking (Wired)

  • Intel i219LM 1GbE
  • Optional Intel i350-T4 quad port 1GbE

WiFi Support (Optional)

  • Realtek RTL8821CE (dual band), Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2 combo adapter, 1×1
  • Realtek RTL8822BE (dual band), Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2 combo adapter, 2×2
  • Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3165, Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2 combo adapter, 1×1
  • Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265, Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2 combo adapter, 2×2
  • Intel Wireless-AC 9560 (dual band), Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.0 combo adapter, Intel vPro technology support, 2×2

Chipset

  • Intel Q370 PCH

USB Ports

  • 2x USB 3.1 Gen1 Front (1x Type-A, 1x Type-C)
  • 4x USB 3.1 Rear (2x Gen1, 2x Gen2)

OSes From Factory

  • Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
  • Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)

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. Although it did not come with Linux, we had our system running Proxmox VE as a Linux virtualization node.

Also, since the chipset supports vPro, one also needs to have a compatible CPU and WiFi adapter if one wants vPro over WiFi. A key tip is to look for a “vPro” sticker as an indication the unit is set up to support vPro.

Lenovo M920x Tiny vPro
Lenovo M920x Tiny vPro

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.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. @Patrick – SHOWOFF!!!!!!!!

    How the h… did you get hold of a geforce 3090gtx? :-) – hope we’ll see a review soon? Can see it’s a founders edition in the video, so i presume it was sent directly to you from Nvidia. :-)

  2. @Patrick Can this bad boy run run 10Gbe NIC instead of the RX 560? It’s the only thing that has kept me from pulling the trigger on this box, as it would be perfect for a small at-home 4 node vSAN deployment lab, especially with 8 Cores per unit.

  4. I am running a Mellanox ConnectX-3 (type CX311A) 10Gbps NIC in in m920q with a 01AJ940 riser card. Note: the top cover will not close completly if the braket is left on the NIC. Though it will be covered completly, but you notice that the cover doesn’t snap completely into place.

  6. Hey

    Love the content, i am having trouble finding information as to whether or not this thing supports pcie bifurcation over pcie, thinking of getting a low profile pcie quad m.2 adaptor. But i believe it must support bifurcation for that to work :-)

    Cheers

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