I Guess I'm a SysAdmin Now: Lenovo M900 Tiny

My server currently consists of a NAS. A few years ago, I upgraded from a QNAP TS-231, which was a solid little 2-bay starter NAS, to a much more capable Synology DS920+. On top of allowing for greater storage capacity and being a more powerful machine, one of the big upgrades was the ability to run programs as Docker containers. With the QNAP, I was stuck to a handful of available programs, and eventually most of them were updated past a point where the QNAP was able to even run them. So for example, I was stuck with Sonarr V2 when V3 was the latest version. The DS920+ was beefy enough to allow for containerization (and virtualization), and could be upgraded with more RAM and storage as needed.

I'm now at the point where I want to run more of my services on a faster dedicated computer and play with virtualization, and use the NAS as primarily as a storage and media machine. I'd been keeping my eye on FB Marketplace out for a used mini workstation, and eventually came across a Lenovo M900 Tiny for $100. I'm hardly a hardware expert, but the Lenovo met the requirements of what I was looking for:

• Tiny form factor at about 179 x 183 x 34.5 mm = ~1.13L in volume
• It uses very little power, idle is estimated to be ~12W and max is about 54W
• Easy to work on and decent upgrade options
  • There's 1 screw holding the case together. It's a 1L PC, so there's obviously not a ton going on inside, but after removing the top of the case, the components I want to swap out are pretty immediately accessible.
• Decent I/O
  • Gigabit Ethernet and Wi-Fi (to be discussed later), a bunch of USB 3.0 ports, some audio jacks, and a pair of DisplayPort outputs
  • I got actually got lucky here and bought a unit that had an OEM HDMI output. Most that I've seen just have a blank punch-out panel, this one came with HDMI. Not that I intend to use it often, but it's nice for initial setup.

• Windows 10 Pro as an OEM install. I know Windows 10 will be on the way out in a few months, which will likely be my push to jump over to Linux full-time, but the key is tied to the unit (and now my Microsoft account) and I may be able to run Windows 11 on it if I ever decide to.
  • Additionally, it comes with Intel vPro. I doubt I'll ever use it, but remote management is a nice feature.

There's a sticker on the underside of the unit that indicates it was originally used to run digital signage. It's always cool to speculate what a used item was previous doing.

Upgrades

While there's no reason why I couldn't hook up the M900 and use it as-is, I wanted to upgrade a few items. I obviously forgot to take a "before" photo of the inside.

It was also spotless on the inside. I did hit it with some compressed air when disassembled, and should probably replace the thermal paste, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

RAM: 8GB upgraded to 32 GB

I plan on running a bunch of Docker containers and VMs on this thing. 8GB is probably okay to start (the DS920+ started with 4GB) but it's not expensive and I'll eventually end up with some resource-heavy services.

I added a pair of 2400Mhz 16GB RAM sticks. They're not crazy fast, but then again, the max RAM speed is only 2133Mhz to begin with.

Storage: NVMe + An Old HDD

The initial storage drive was a 128GB 2.5" SATA SSD. Decent enough, but that's still fairly small and since I have an M.2 slot, I wanted to make use of it. I picked up a cheap 1TB NVMe to use as the primary drive.

Years ago I swapped out the 500GB HDD in my PlayStation 4 with a larger hybrid drive, so I figured I may as well add that in as some slow storage for backups.

The original 2.5" SSD now resides in my 2008 MacBook. Waste not, want not.

Networking

This is the only upgrade that was a little janky and perhaps could have been planned out better. My ISP speeds are 1.5Gbps up/down, which I want to make use of wherever I can because why not. The fact that I currently only have one device, my main PC, that even allows for speeds over 1Gbps is completely irrelevant, as is the fact that I don't yet have a 2.5Gbps network switch. I also don't care at all about Wi-Fi because the M900 is ultimately going to live in my network/server area tucked away behind my furnace.

The existing Ethernet port on the M900 is 1Gbps and attached to the motherboard. However, since I'm not planning on using Wi-Fi or the existing HDMI port (for any length of time), I can swap both of those out for an upgraded NIC.

I had seen similar upgrades and was pretty confident that it would work for my machine, so I was off to AliExpress to grab a new RTL8125BG network chip to replace the existing wireless chip. Here's the issue: the M900 is a tiny, compact PC and space is therefore at an absolute premium. I was obviously aware of this, but was wilfully unaware that there were 2 versions of the chip I purchased: one version has the headers for the ribbon pointing up, and the other has them pointing back. Naturally, I bought the ones pointing up.

The headers are the gold part in the centre of the image above, where the ribbon cable terminates. Directly above that, with just a few millimetres to spare, is the 2.5" drive tray. See the issue? I didn't at first and couldn't figure out why the tray wasn't slotting in correctly. The headers were in the way.

Back to AliExpress, with a few dollars wasted on the incorrect card, and I purchased the correct version, this one here. It showed up a couple of weeks later and I was able to get started.

Removal was easy. Installation was a little more involved and slightly more destructive. Images below.

1. Old card removed, new card fully installed.
2. No need for the antenna or terminal.
3. Original card removed, along with the with antenna wires. The black wire goes to the now-removed terminal, the grey wire is attached to the drive tray.
4. Some minor surgery. The network card sits at the front of the unit, directly behind an LED. In the stock configuration, the card won't fit - the plug on the ribbon cable hits the plastic enclosure of an LED. I had seen this issue noted and addressed in a Reddit post, with a brave Redditor taking a Dremel to the LED enclosure to shave off a bit of the plastic and open up some space. I also have a Dremel, so after some careful work with a sanding bit, the new card slots right in.
5. New RJ45 Ethernet port in place of the original HDMI port. The white socket in the lower right of the photo is the connection for the HDMI output. It would have been nice to retain it, but there's nowhere to mount the port. I installed my OS with the top of the case removed so I could make use of the HDMI output, then removed it once finished.
6. The whole thing ready to close up. The network ribbon cable fit nicely along the side of the drive tray.

As a pleasant coincidence, I was able to make use of the old chip in another old laptop. I had purchased a new battery for my old Asus Zenbook so I'm not completely tied to my desk during the workday. When I opened it up, I spotted the Wi-Fi chip and noticed that it was the same form factor (M.2 2230, A+E key) as the one from the M900. It turned out to be a slightly older version, and since the M900 chip fit, was slightly better and was of no other use, I installed it when I installed the new battery. The differences are negligible, but I'll get some slight increases in overall wireless and Bluetooth performance.

Future Upgrades

Realistically, probably none. If I ever come across a cheap +1TB SSD to replace the 500GB mechanical drive, I'd maybe pick it up and swap it in for the speed benefits.

Similarly, if I ever find a cheap one, an accessory DVD Drive/VESA mount was available for these Lenovo mini PCs that might be nice to have. Currently, it lives on top of my NAS, but wall mounting may be something I want to do. The DVD drive could be beneficial as well, but considering I haven't inserted a CD or DVD into a computer in several years, I can probably live without it. I have a couple other machines with DVD drives so I do still have the capability to read a DVD.

I guess the only other upgrade of note would be additional PCs. The M900 is currently running Proxmox, so If I ever get to a point where I need additional nodes, I can always pick up another used workstation and add it to the server family. At the moment, this little guy is perfectly fine for my needs and I'd much rather spend the money on a faster network switch so I can actually make use of the speeds I'm paying for.

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