Lenovo Thinkstation P3 Tiny using a dedicated graphics card

[El_Capitan]

I'll eventually be doing a slight mod to the case cover (hoping I don't have to 3D print an entirely new cover), installing a 270 degree riser card, and testing out different Flex PSU's that might be capable of powering up to an RTX 3070 level graphics card.

So, the Lenovo Thinkstation P3 Tiny can use a 13th Gen or 14th Gen Intel CPU, and has a PCIE 4.0x8 slot. While it's nice to have an i7-14700T in it, the Performance Fan mode doesn't do well until it kicks into full speed mode. It can be switched to Full Speed Fan mode, and does a great job at cooling, but it's really loud.

So, having something like an i5-13500T or i5-13600T is a better option. The fans never kick into full speed mode.

The model I have, has a 230W power supply. Which is way more than enough with any 35W TDP and 50W SFF graphics card, but it's pretty slim pickings. A PCIe lane only supplies about 50W to the graphics card.

UPDATE: The finicky issues I was facing was likely due to the Riser Extension Cables, and not the Flex PSU's. I know my 400W Flex PSU works, and I just tried with my 350W Flex PSU, and that worked.

RTX 3070TiM PCIe 4.0x8 with Intel i7-14700T: 131871
RTX 3070TiM OCuLink eGPU with AMD Ryzen 7 8700G: 128769
RTX 3070TiM USB4 eGPU with AMD Ryzen 7 8700G: 116946

The RTX 3070TiM performed about 12% better with PCIe 4.0x8 vs USB4, but only 2.38% better than via OCuLink.

Some more benchmarks:

I think something like a Ryzen 7 H 255 that has a 780m iGPU, and an OCuLink port is the way to go. The 780m is capable of light 1080P gaming, and an OCuLink connection isn't losing that much performance over the PCIE 4.0x8.

However, the Thinkstation P3 Tiny can be pretty versatile than for just gaming.

UPDATE: My 270 degree riser cable arrived. However, it's not enough clearance to get over the top of the OEM case. So, I also put in a 180 degree riser cable on top of it. Preliminary tests are good. All I have left to do is mod the top of the OEM case, and get a short GPU support bracket.



Stay tuned for the final update.

 

[El_Capitan]

My preliminary tests are done. Now I just need to mod the top of the OEM case so that the PCIe Riser fits through. Then I just need a short GPU support bracket. I would then be able to use any graphics card that doesn't need to use an external PSU without having to open up the case (and leave it open). If I use a graphics card that does need an external PSU, Flex power supplies should do the job.