Lenovo USFF Project News for May

Greetings TCP farers. Did you know? Neither did I! That is a multitude of things LoL

I have not been on my keyboard for programming so much lately but instead playing games. I ordered a Lenovo ThinkCentre from Ebay that was stuck in that damn ebay global shipping program, which I honestly can't stand. After waiting a full month I got my refund back yet still the (expensive) thing came! I truly did feel blessed in a time amidst multiple hardships. This enabled me to move right ahead and get the project done as it were simple from there. What I needed was a PCIE 8x (proprietary) Lenovo riser that provides a PCIE 16x port on a 90 degree angle. In case you aren't aware this computer is very small. It's like 7x7x1.5 inches and can be mounted behind a monitor. Maybe you've seen such a device, about the size of a thin client. Anyways, then to get a GPU for that slot. The computer's CPU is actually not bad at all and has quite appreciable graphics without a dedicated GPU but my friend on XMPP found one that meets my hardware constraints and actually boasts real performance. Hardware constraints such as not using too many watts for the PSU cable, which I've upgraded to 230w from 135w demand stock, size for the sake of fitting in the case (this is a large portion of the appeal for this project) as well as not needing external SATA or PCIE power.

So I bought this literally TINY half height AMD Radeon RX 6400 that doesn't require external power and is about 157mm in length and fits into the already tiny computer I have on that riser I mentioned. I have been able to play Need For Speed Unbound and even made a few screen recordings and posted on my YouTube Channel. It's not quite as good as my previous gaming MSI laptop but it definitely is appreciable for what it's worth. Being tiny and, although loud, not producing really serious amounts of heat.

I have had about ③ weeks of fun with this, and a lot of fun as I was missing NFS Unbound's Volume 6, however unfortunately I had to learn something and had made a costly mistake. The mistake was not knowing, or thinking when I installed it and seen the GPU's pcb board resting on the metal housing of the USB jack on the rear, that some metal contacts on the GPU's board might short by bridging across the metal housing of the USB port. I honestly didn't think much about it at the time and when I was playing on it for the first while the performance was literally really good but (and only after noticed) eventually slowly degraded to a point where it seemed I couldn't tweak settings to achieve what I had before. After a while it had did something weird my computer reset on me, but wouldn't actually boot then. It did a few more times in shorter intervals and at last after doing it twice in shorter time caused my computer not to boot.

That caused me much sadness, so much sadness that I wouldn't even mess with it for ③ days. I had to get in a good mood to bother cracking it open and popping the GPU + riser card out and alas! It booted! I had noticed that while not booting no fans would operate and the lit up ends of my HDMI cable wouldn't light up BUT the power light on the machine did. This is how I thought it may be a power fault.

What I eventually seen while inspecting the GPU's board was an odd light discoloration looking vaguelly like a burn that was sort of through the board and seemed to travel from the HDMI slot on the GPU towards a capacitor on the other side of it. It was at that time that I declared officially my (not so cheap but fortunately not that overly expensive either) GPU dead. Sad, I see it on one of my shelves, so new and only 3 weeks of life, it's dead 😔

Now my only remaining concern was if somehow I burned out a component on the riser. If I did, and I'm honestly not sure exactly if I'd be able to determine, then I would need to pay another approximately 350CAD to redo this all. I am not rich, not even close, I am dirt poor just about I won't lie so this deepens my sadness but I am still extremely grateful this little beast fired up again, the computer I mean. At first I really worried that it had died but fortunately it wouldn't have been that humongous of a loss, if so, because I did acquire it free. Thanks capitalism! You finally did me a solid but I still hate you! 🖕 LoL ... I actually like ebay, for the most part, and definitely with the exception of the ebay global shipping program.

If my home life wasn't so damn terrible, er, lack of a decent home, whatever, I'd consider redoing this right soon and getting another GPU but it will be postponed for the sake of leaving this entire civil district and getting away from a doomed mission to live in a place that I cannot be free or comfortable. Always losses in life and that will cost too (A LOT). So perhaps I will also postpone pictures and a more detailed post until I am able to make it work under the best conditions. Here's hoping that happens, and soon!

Here is a sweeeet forum post with a MASSIVE amount of details related to computers like this, you might probably find this interesting .. and some more related .. 🎲

Tags: tinyminimicro, lenovo, thinkcentre, project, computing, the8woodcutter, amdradeon, nfsunbound, thestonewall, hardware, gaming, life