Log Sleeper Build: Lenovo ThinkCentre M73 SFF

[hrh_ginsterbusch]

Recently aquired: A fully stuffed Lenovo ThinkCentre M73 SFF. Specs are unimportant, except for the most basic ones:

- Volume: 13 - 14ish L
- Empty weight: 2.5 - 2.9 kg
- allows for mATX boards
- 4 LP PCI slots
- TFX PSU
- Production year: 2014
- Case itself is probably identical to the Inter-Tech IT-502 Desktop (expect for the branding)

Plans are: Media / storage server, going bonkers with the i7-13700k + MSI Z690 Mortar (mATX board), but maybe also "just" the Asrock Z690 PG-ITX/TB4.

PSU is gonna be either "original" TFX, Flex or HDPlex GaN (strongly leaning towards the latter). Depending on the components chosen, even a regular SFX PSU might fit.

Cooling: Liquid, either 240, 140 or the same insane ways as the Hell in a Dell, eg. with the Alphacool Eisbaer Pro ES 2U 80mm Triple (3x 80 fans, 60 mm thicc radiator). For the first two I would have to cut the side panel and modify the front cage (it basically folds forward and up), to get some proper air flow.

GPU: Either a short ITX one + riser cable (got both a GTX 1660 or an RTX 3050 ITX to pick from), or just having some fun with the Gigabyte 4060 LP.

Storage: 2x NVMe + some spinny disks for archivation / slow storage.

As somebody on reddit already tested out, the case is fitting perfectly inside a kallax shelf; I tested it for myself, and: It does that indeed - BOTH vertically AND horizontally. So this is where its gonna reside soon.

cu, w0lf.

 

[hrh_ginsterbusch]

While waiting for new components to arrive, I almost finished gutting the case.

Some comments along the way:

a) On-off switch: People on Thinkpad-Forum and other forums, who did the same, complained about non-standard connectors, esp. for the on/off-switch, and taking ages to find a solution. Cannot confirm that. Maybe these people used much older versions of the ThinkCentre SFF cases, or they were just too inexperienced, but the on/off-switch is just a simple combined connector, which is much more efficent and waaay less annoying to handle than the fumbly "each connection its own plug" default "ingenuity" setup.

The on/off switch combines both the power LED as well as the HDD LED on one board, and thats it

b) Card reader: Removed it, going to replace it with an USB-C socket, as the opening is nearly the right size. Just have to finely file down a bit of the front bracket / panel opening, to make it fit, and repurpose the mounting bracket of the card reader to attach the USB-C cable somewhere.

c) Cable ties / holders: What a nice and simple way to route cables, just two plastic "threads" with a knob on each end, easy to open and close, and keeps all the cable clutter tied away securely. Guess its attached to the case with double-sided tape or so.

d) CPU cooling bracket / shroud: There is a CPU cooler shroud installed right on top of the heatsink, with a simple 60ish mm fan inside. Very simple but effective. Surrounded by some foam, both for dampening and better air flow, I guess. Hot air should be exiting towards the front, where a pwm-controlled 80 mm fan sits.

e) Build quality in general: Gutting this out was a very veeery quick thing to do. Overall build quality feels really nice, a lot of things are thought out very very well.

cu, w0lf.

 

[vinnyoflegend]

Recently aquired: A fully stuffed Lenovo ThinkCentre M73 SFF. Specs are unimportant, except for the most basic ones:

- Volume: 13 - 14ish L
- Empty weight: 2.5 - 2.9 kg
- allows for mATX boards
- 4 LP PCI slots
- TFX PSU
- Production year: 2014
- Case itself is probably identical to the Inter-Tech IT-502 Desktop (expect for the branding)

Plans are: Media / storage server, going bonkers with the i7-13700k + MSI Z690 Mortar (mATX board), but maybe also "just" the Asrock Z690 PG-ITX/TB4.

PSU is gonna be either "original" TFX, Flex or HDPlex GaN (strongly leaning towards the latter). Depending on the components chosen, even a regular SFX PSU might fit.

Cooling: Liquid, either 240, 140 or the same insane ways as the Hell in a Dell, eg. with the Alphacool Eisbaer Pro ES 2U 80mm Triple (3x 80 fans, 60 mm thicc radiator). For the first two I would have to cut the side panel and modify the front cage (it basically folds forward and up), to get some proper air flow.

GPU: Either a short ITX one + riser cable (got both a GTX 1660 or an RTX 3050 ITX to pick from), or just having some fun with the Gigabyte 4060 LP.

Storage: 2x NVMe + some spinny disks for archivation / slow storage.

As somebody on reddit already tested out, the case is fitting perfectly inside a kallax shelf; I tested it for myself, and: It does that indeed - BOTH vertically AND horizontally. So this is where its gonna reside soon.

cu, w0lf.

Very cool. Seems similar in size to the HP Z2 SFF but if it can take standard size and layout Matx then that is awesome.

 

[hrh_ginsterbusch]

Yikes, nearly 2 years later. So its gonna be something else, either a case with almost identical dimensions, but better weight and air flow, or a slightly different one with SFX support.

No matter which one is gonna make it, both are gonna feature a modified front panel that either is going to reuse the original M73 SFF front panel or a partial remake, eg. reusing the ThinkPad logo, air duct / grill patterns and the power button.

cu, w0lf.

 

[hrh_ginsterbusch]

Ordered and arrived on Saturday: Tacens Anima ACSLIM500, 33 x 30 x 10 cm, mATX fits if you remove all the front IO clutter. So, about 10L.

Its very similar in size and layout, compared to the original Thinkcentre M73 SFF case, except about 5 - 6 cm shorter.

Case shown on product pictures in dark gray, IRL its black. Has a few ventilation options, including side intake, allows for a 80 mm front fan, maybe also two 80 top fans, but probably more like 60 mm. Very solid case in general, too.

Comes with a VERY light-weight TFX PSU with no 80+ label, but thats the second thing that I've removed after opening the side panel

To keep it a sleeper, I wanted to reuse the original ThinkCentre front panel.
From the specified case dimenions I've guessed that it might fit, and after a quick test: Yes, it indeed does!

Probably need to get rid of the side clips (bottom and top), and deffo have to replace the power button, as the original one seems to be come with proprietary headers, but aside of that, should make for a very nice Thinkcentre sleeper

Planned components:
- CPU: Ryzen 9 7950X in Eco+ mode (cTDP 120W)
- MB: MSI MAG B850M Mortar Wifi
- RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB 5600 CL36 or 64 GB 5200, CL40
- Storage: 2 TB + 1 TB (SK Hynix P41, Firecuda 510)
- CPU Cooling: Cooler Master Atmos II /w 2x Lian Li Uni Fan P28 - thats nonsense, its OC gonna be a 67 / 70 mm LP cooler (eg. ID-Cooling IS-67-XT w/ Silverstone Air Slimmer 120)
- PSU: FSP FlexGuru 500W, but might replace with another HDPlex GaN 500W
- GPU: Gigabyte RTX 4060 Low Profile
- OS: MX Linux + Endeavour OS
- Case fans: tba

cu, w0lf.

 

[hrh_ginsterbusch]

So apparently the front fan mount only allows for a 80 mm fan, not a 92.

Also, despite its size, the top mesh behind whats being depicted as "SSD spaces" is approx 60 mm per slot, so I'm going to try and see if exhaust can be fixed with 60 mm fans.

cu, w0lf.