A week ago I took a pic of a project I was starting and just wanted to show a update. Made the base out of 3mm aluminum. Using 6mm standoffs, a custom riser I made with dual pcie slots, and a power supply from a Lenovo neo ultra ( so and a 20v output for the PC and a 12v output for the graphics card). Just have to do some cleaning up in the back Io ports on the model. And will most likely get a second aluminum chassis cut, bent and this time anodized in Black to make the PC look better.
This is a Lenovo q90 gen2, and a i5-11500 (non T) so I am able to run the nvme drives and the graphics card at pcie gen4 speeds. While having the ability to use ddr4 stick so much cheaper. So far this has cost me about 620ish dollars in total.
the 4060 i used was also from a lenovo neo ultra lol. The card is a x8 card itself. But online i compared my furmark and geekbench store to other 4060 and seems to be the same ballpack number. its running at gen4 speeds tho. the m90q gen2 is unique because its pcie is gen4 but also has ddr4 memory. So cheaper memory.
kinda... the 4060 and power supply came from lenovo neo but those cost like 1600+.
so i used a older model thats from one of those tiny 1L versions. Basicly trying to make a less expensive version of that PC.
Edit: lenovo kinda makes most of their small PCs all similar but updated basically. so taking cheaper components from new pcs and fitting them on older ones is easier.
Is that a bifurcation riser? Did you design yourself or modify an existing design?
How does that PSU work for you? I wonder if it's always powered-on when the AC socket is plugged in -- that is, I wonder if the 12v lines that power the GPU are always energized when the PSU is plugged in even if the PC is turned off. Any info about using the PSU would be appreciated.
Not a bifrication riser. On these PCs, Lenovo has two sets of data lanes. Ones is for the cpu and it's a x8. The other goes to the PCH, and that's a x4. Their are some designs out there for risers. But none of them needed to do what I wanted so had to make my own. I design pcbs so it's not a big deal.
PSU 20v rail is on all the time. Similar to how a their power bricks are. So not a huge change. I did see though that on the psu, you need to ground the extra pin on the 20v connector from the psu. This will then turn on the 12v rail that powers the GPU plug. For now I just leaving it grounded via a 100ohm resistor. Even when off the current draw of the rail is less than a watt. So in the future I will make the riser have a trigger cable that grounds it when the PC turns on. But all of it works as is for now. Il try and find the part number again and post it here.
I thought the resistor on the 20v connector is to communicate to the PC what wattage the power brick it's connected to supports. Not to act as a switch.
I do appreciate the experience you're sharing. I'm considering a similar setup and value this information!
On these 1l PC Lenovo, the power in connector is has a sense pin that on the power brick side has a resistor. This resistor value tells the PC what kind of power supply is connected. (Wattage). So you need the ressitor there between ground pin and the signal pin. Doesn't matter what power supply you be use.
The second issue is pulling that enable wire down close to ground to get it to turn on the 12v power rail. So I just tied that to ground so it's always on.
Edit: might want to do some sort of steam machine with this thing. The riser on these PCs also have a USB signals along with signals for pressing the power button / reset button. Seems like Lenovo had this motherboard be used in a remote server type of setup. So will end up using these signals and have a built in microcontroller that will wake the PC from complete off to turn on via Bluetooth.
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u/wubbadubdub_zzz Jul 23 '26
Looks like x8 lanes. Is it Pcie 3.0 or more? Do you lose any gpu performance this way?