Hi, I'm interested in very small, low power consumption units for use as a firewall. I wanted more CPU than was available from Qotom et al boxes.
Some digging led me to the somewhat surprising pre-packaged option which is the Lenovo M720 or M920 Tiny, some of which which have an unusual/proprietary PCIE-like slot which requires a special riser (part number FRU01AJ929, there are others) which then will present a standard PCIE 8x connector which allows the addition of a NIC card, looks like a 1 port (00FC879) or 4 port I350-T4. Note that once you knock out the cover at the back of the Tiny you'll find that standard PCI card brackets don't fit and even most of the Lenovo spare part NICs won't fit either, so you will need a Dremel (other brands are available) to carve it up a bit or take off the bracket. The Tiny is also, um, small so you will need a pretty short card and you will need to remove/forgo the 2.5" drive.
Some earlier models, like the M910, may also support this riser. Note that the M715 specifically does not, according to the person I spoke to at Lenovo. The riser is not cheap (£40-50 in the UK) and is hard to find, and the 4 port card is not cheap either ($399 RRP).
You can also buy the M720 and M920 pre-configured with the TX4 card, and this probably makes a lot of sense given how hard the parts are to find, and Lenovo's generous financing and fairly frequent sales. Because nothing is simple, however, bear in mind that this configuration appears to be only available in Australia, Canada, and the US. I am in the UK.
I'll leave this information here in case it's of use to someone - more is available on the Lenovo forums. I already have an M75q-1 Tiny for general Docker duties I bought off eBay, and it's excellent for that purpose.
Some digging led me to the somewhat surprising pre-packaged option which is the Lenovo M720 or M920 Tiny, some of which which have an unusual/proprietary PCIE-like slot which requires a special riser (part number FRU01AJ929, there are others) which then will present a standard PCIE 8x connector which allows the addition of a NIC card, looks like a 1 port (00FC879) or 4 port I350-T4. Note that once you knock out the cover at the back of the Tiny you'll find that standard PCI card brackets don't fit and even most of the Lenovo spare part NICs won't fit either, so you will need a Dremel (other brands are available) to carve it up a bit or take off the bracket. The Tiny is also, um, small so you will need a pretty short card and you will need to remove/forgo the 2.5" drive.
Some earlier models, like the M910, may also support this riser. Note that the M715 specifically does not, according to the person I spoke to at Lenovo. The riser is not cheap (£40-50 in the UK) and is hard to find, and the 4 port card is not cheap either ($399 RRP).
You can also buy the M720 and M920 pre-configured with the TX4 card, and this probably makes a lot of sense given how hard the parts are to find, and Lenovo's generous financing and fairly frequent sales. Because nothing is simple, however, bear in mind that this configuration appears to be only available in Australia, Canada, and the US. I am in the UK.
I'll leave this information here in case it's of use to someone - more is available on the Lenovo forums. I already have an M75q-1 Tiny for general Docker duties I bought off eBay, and it's excellent for that purpose.
