Lenovo ThinkCentre M92 Tiny System Review: Pint-Sized Power
by Dustin Sklavos on August 17, 2012 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Lenovo
- Mini ITX
- Ivy Bridge
- Enterprise
Build, Noise, Heat, and Power Consumption
I'll say this for Lenovo: whatever my complaints about the ThinkCentre M92 Tiny's default configuration (especially in regards to price), the chassis itself is well built. Lenovo has a pretty smart flow-through design that pulls in air through the front and exhausts it out of the back, and even under load the M92 Tiny is below 30dB. It also benefits from the USB 3.0 support integrated into Intel's 7 series chipsets.
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On the other hand, the port selection on the back of the M92 Tiny may be a matter of some contention depending on your needs. I don't think anyone will complain about the additional two USB 3.0 ports on the back, but the lack of audio ports is unusual, and I personally feel like it may still be too soon to rely on DisplayPort as our sole digital output. In a perfect world we'd have a DVI port there, or maybe HDMI, but DVI ports are pretty big and I'm not sure exactly how Lenovo would've fit it in (above the VGA port maybe?). Thankfully Lenovo ships a DisplayPort-to-DVI dongle with the M92 Tiny.
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However you feel about the choice of ports for the M92 Tiny, the cooling system is aces given how small the whole thing is.
The CPU runs a little toasty, but Ivy Bridge is prone to running hot to begin with. Given the way other vendors seem to be content to toe the line in regards to running Ivy's thermals right up to spec, I think you could reasonably argue Lenovo might have included an option for a 45-watt i5-3570T.
Power consumption is as you'd expect, pretty much as good as it gets short of going down to Atom. Under load the M92 Tiny isn't even stretching the limits of its 65W power supply, since these measurements were taken at the wall. At this point it's worth mentioning how remarkable it is that we're able to get this much performance out of this little power. It's true the i7-2600S in the Puget Systems Echo posts notable leads on Lenovo's system when threading comes into play, but it requires more than twice as much power to produce at most a 50% lead.
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piroroadkill - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link
We buy our PCs from a small company here in the UK, and they will assemble a Shuttle based machine (nice and small) with a Core i3 3.3GHz, 4GB RAM, 64GB Samsung 830, with keyboard and mouse for less than 300 quid (ex VAT).. $470 - it even comes with a 2 year warranty. A far better machine for a desktop where local storage is rarely used.Pino - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link
Dustin,The chassis is not rivet locked, you can open the chassis.
Just slide the top cover to front.
mfenn - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link
"Skint"? "aces"? Kids these daysDemon-Xanth - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link
One possible target here may be call center type locations where the person using it will always have a headset on that is connected to a phone. Thus the audio connection lacking becomes entirely a non issue. The small size makes replacing it with spares incredibly easy and can be done in seconds quickly. Much like replacing a home network switch. I wouldn't be surprised if they sold these things by the dozen.valjean - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link
There should be an evaluation on whether the unit is still stable or has a tendency to tilt to one side when all the ports (USB, Video and LAN) are used since this unit is small and could be light as well.kevith - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link
...it´s so close! Wireless, SSD (and if you actually can just slide the case open that presents no problem) and a better CPU, primarily graphics-wise, and it´s very close to a machine for me.Quincunx - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link
Which one did Ars review, because theirs seemed to pop right open after two thumbscrews and a phillips:http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/08/review-ivy-...
Of note: They also didn't compare it to the Mac Mini. The ThinkCentre brand specifically caters to enterprise. I'm pretty sure the folks asking about the absence of this comparison, don't have an enterprise IT perspective. I saw this review and thought, "Oh joy, perhaps next time I perform a desktop replacement, I can just pop the new machine into my laptop bag and be off."
BigLan - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link
Comparing the pictures, it looks like anand's unit doesn't even have the thumb screws that the one at Ars had. There should just be one philips head screw to remove (probably the one right next to the kensington slot on the back) and then slide the top half forward and off.poorted - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link
To me, this looks like the perfect type system for yes kiosks, but also point of sale type systems.-Thermal headroom so when its shoved in a small cupboard and left on 24/7 it still keeps going.
-No need to be serviced on site, just swap out if something fails, easy enough for a retail worker to do, just unplug 2-3 cables and plug in the new one.
-Lack of audio also isn't an issue in this environment.
The idea is that it will be small, cool running, and be able to stay on for months/years at a time without (ever) needing to be serviced.
Quincunx - Friday, August 17, 2012 - link
Also, as of this moment, you can upgrade this to a 500GB, 7200RPM drive for zero additional dollars.