Take a look at our
ThinkPads.com HOME PAGE
For those who might want to contribute to the blog, start here: Editors Alley Topic
Then contact Bill with a Private Message

Lenovo ThinkCentre M90p - VGA (PCIe) upgrade

IBM or Lenovo Desktops, Workstations, ThinkStations, etc. Recent vintage, hardware/software..
Post Reply
Message
Author
veky
User with bad email address, PLEASE fix!
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Dec 31, 2006 7:16 am
Location: Croatia, VG

Lenovo ThinkCentre M90p - VGA (PCIe) upgrade

#1 Post by veky » Tue May 01, 2012 1:27 am

Hi all,

I have Lenovo M90p tower (3282-B2G, Core i5) with Intel on board VGA, so I'm wondering what is maximum PCIe card that my PSU can handle? PSU is 280W:
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/deta...cID=MIGR-74675

And how to know which card can I buy? All of manufactures says only "minimum 300W or etc"... Friend of mine says that tower can handle any VGA card up to 75W of power, but I can't find that info in any product specification sheet...

Thank you.
Do
Loop

JohnD.
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 270
Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 11:05 am
Location: Plymouth Meeting, PA

Re: Lenovo ThinkCentre M90p - VGA (PCIe) upgrade

#2 Post by JohnD. » Wed May 02, 2012 1:02 pm

Hi Veky,

So, when I click the link that you posted I get a 404 error message. Now I took MIGR-74675 and searched on Lenovo’s support site and got the following link. Now I don’t know if the link you had detailed specs on the power supply.

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail. ... -74675#pow

I don’t know what’s out there graphic wise but if you are saying that the minimum is 300 Watts and you have 280 Watts, you might not be able to run the card. Now, what I would do is see if there a power supply that has a larger capacity (Greater than 300 watts) that can fit your machine. Now I thought well, how much electrical power does the CPU need to run? I looked up the specs on your i5-650 processor and it lists the TDP (Thermal Design Power). According to Wikipedia it’s the amount of heat that is generated by the CPU that the cooling system must be able to dissipate. For your CPU it’s 75 watts of heat. I don’t know the equation (if one exists) to translate heat power into electrical power. There is an equation on the Wikipedia article for power. What I am getting at it would be great to know how much power is being used by every subsystem and add it up. Now a thought just came to me, you can get an inline AC Power meter from Amazon, link below:

http://www.amazon.com/P3-International- ... B00009MDBU

To monitor how much power your machine uses. I would get the specs of the graphic card that you are interested in and to see if the card can be added to your system based on how much power is left over.

I don’t know if this helps you. You can sell your system and build your own system with a power supply that can handle power wise, the graphic card that you want.

John
Too many machines!

veky
User with bad email address, PLEASE fix!
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Dec 31, 2006 7:16 am
Location: Croatia, VG

Re: Lenovo ThinkCentre M90p - VGA (PCIe) upgrade

#3 Post by veky » Wed May 02, 2012 4:58 pm

JohnD. wrote:Hi Veky,

So, when I click the link that you posted I get a 404 error message. Now I took MIGR-74675 and searched on Lenovo’s support site and got the following link. Now I don’t know if the link you had detailed specs on the power supply.

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail. ... -74675#pow

I don’t know what’s out there graphic wise but if you are saying that the minimum is 300 Watts and you have 280 Watts, you might not be able to run the card. Now, what I would do is see if there a power supply that has a larger capacity (Greater than 300 watts) that can fit your machine. Now I thought well, how much electrical power does the CPU need to run? I looked up the specs on your i5-650 processor and it lists the TDP (Thermal Design Power). According to Wikipedia it’s the amount of heat that is generated by the CPU that the cooling system must be able to dissipate. For your CPU it’s 75 watts of heat. I don’t know the equation (if one exists) to translate heat power into electrical power. There is an equation on the Wikipedia article for power. What I am getting at it would be great to know how much power is being used by every subsystem and add it up. Now a thought just came to me, you can get an inline AC Power meter from Amazon, link below:

http://www.amazon.com/P3-International- ... B00009MDBU

To monitor how much power your machine uses. I would get the specs of the graphic card that you are interested in and to see if the card can be added to your system based on how much power is left over.

I don’t know if this helps you. You can sell your system and build your own system with a power supply that can handle power wise, the graphic card that you want.

John
Thank you, John... I will try with some low-performance VGA card, maybe it will be OK...

Sell my M90p and build custom machine - good one :) Been there several times, never gonna back ;)
Do
Loop

excal32
BANNED
Posts: 240
Joined: Sat Apr 05, 2014 2:55 am
Location: Banned

Re: Lenovo ThinkCentre M90p - VGA (PCIe) upgrade

#4 Post by excal32 » Sun May 29, 2016 1:51 pm

I am aware this is a very old thread but it is on the first page of google if you try to search some specific terms regarding psu/graphics upgrade in one of these thinkcentres.

It is posted erroneously on many other sites, mainly lenovo official forums, that the PSU is proprietary and can not be replaced by an ATX supply. this is simply untrue. on my M90 i was able to replace the PSU with a normal ATX 80 plus gold 500w supply. The screw patterns and PSU sizes match exactly.

I use that and a NVIDIA 970 in my M90 Thinkcentre. I have also upgraded the front and back fans to ones with higher airflow as I was underwhelmed with the performance of stock fans. Replacing heatsink with a Zalman soon if it fits.
1x R500 (P8600), R61e [T9300], X61 (T7300) - RIP T420 (replaced by HP Z420 workstation)

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “IBM or Lenovo Desktops/Workstations/ThinkStations only”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 48 guests