Lenovo Thinkcentre M73p

[Paul Smedley]

Hey All,

It would be nice to have native hardware running OS/2. Any thoughts on this? https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/704712

Anyone run a variant of OS/2on a Thinkcentre M73p  before?

Cheers,

Paul

[OS4User]

Hey All,

It would be nice to have native hardware running OS/2. Any thoughts on this? https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/704712

Seems not bad choice.

Main points  are:
 - how much RAM is mapped below 4Gb boarder
 - is ethernet driver available 
 - does Uniaud support the chip
The rest looks good    -  especially comport
And pay attention to video output  connectors

[Paul Smedley]

According to https://support.lenovo.com/au/en/solutions/pd029621-detailed-specifications-for-thinkcentre-m73-tiny-form-factor the NIC is Intel I217-V which I think should be OK...

I don't really care about sound, most likely use would be to test apache/php

[Neil Waldhauer]

This is nearly identical to the M93p. I ran an M92p for many years and it's similar. I'm running an M920q (tiny) now. The tiny form factor M73p is quite different from the SFF and the Tower, which use the same motherboard.

If you use a DVD-RW, the tiny computers connect it via USB, so DVD Tools will not work. DVD Toys, with it's proprietary version of CDRTOOLS2, may work.

Otherwise, everything works with ArcaOS, or even with the last beta of eCS. Using the latest ACPI will make it run more efficiently with less heat.

Sound works better than most computers, but not as well as the SFF and Tower versions. There is still some hiss if you hook up good speakers.

In general the M73p lacks parts that come with the M93p. You can buy the parts cheaply from e-Bay shipped directly from China.

I only ran VGA, but the computer does work with DisplayPort. The video quality of DisplayPort is much better than VGA at high resolutions using Panorama. Some models may have HDMI, but I never tried it. (I need a newer monitor)

[Paul Smedley]

This is nearly identical to the M93p. I ran an M92p for many years and it's similar. I'm running an M920q (tiny) now. The tiny form factor M73p is quite different from the SFF and the Tower, which use the same motherboard.

If you use a DVD-RW, the tiny computers connect it via USB, so DVD Tools will not work. DVD Toys, with it's proprietary version of CDRTOOLS2, may work.

Otherwise, everything works with ArcaOS, or even with the last beta of eCS. Using the latest ACPI will make it run more efficiently with less heat.

Sound works better than most computers, but not as well as the SFF and Tower versions. There is still some hiss if you hook up good speakers.

In general the M73p lacks parts that come with the M93p. You can buy the parts cheaply from e-Bay shipped directly from China.

I only ran VGA, but the computer does work with DisplayPort. The video quality of DisplayPort is much better than VGA at high resolutions using Panorama. Some models may have HDMI, but I never tried it. (I need a newer monitor)

Thanks Neil - I ordered one yesterday and will post once it arrives and I get a chance to test.

Most likely I'll connect this to a LCD TV upstairs - so hopefully there's some way to connect to HDMI but the intent will be to run it headless and remote in.

I want to be able to better stress test Apache2 on real hardware, and perhaps also use it to compile code (might be faster than running ArcaOS virtualised on my laptop running Ubuntu).

Cheers,

Paul.

[Paul Smedley]

This arrived yesterday, and I installed ArcaOS 5.0.7 successfully on it today NIC and Sound were detected by the installer.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi Paul, if you got the time, please post the PCI.exe report and the full model number here in the forum, I like to include the PC running ArcaOS on the Wiki.

Regards

[Paul Smedley]

Model is 10AYA03LAU. See attachments for more details.

[Olafur Gunnlaugsson]

I have the SFF version of this model with a transplanted Xeon in it, running eCS. Do not recall having any problems setting it up.

[Martin Iturbide]

Thanks Paul. I created this page: https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkCentre_M73p

Regards

[OS4User]

This arrived yesterday, and I installed ArcaOS 5.0.7 successfully on it today NIC and Sound were detected by the installer.

How much memory does OS/2 see?

[Paul Smedley]

I think the below answers this:

[Loader's physical memory layout:
  Memory below 1MB: 630.00 KiB
  Memory between 1MB and 4GB: 3.40 GiB
  Memory below 4GB: 3.40 GiB
  Memory above 4GB: 4.49 GiB]

Full testlog attached

[OS4User]

I'm running an M920q (tiny) now.

M920q looks very interesting. How much memory does OS/2 see?

[Neil Waldhauer]

I'm running an M920q (tiny) now.

M920q looks very interesting. How much memory does OS/2 see?

Loader's physical memory layout:
  Memory below 1MB: 635.00 KiB
  Memory between 1MB and 4GB: 2.39 GiB
  Memory below 4GB: 2.39 GiB
  Memory above 4GB: 5.44 GiB

I'm now running with a 4K monitor at 3840 x 2160.

[OS4User]

I'm running an M920q (tiny) now.

M920q looks very interesting. How much memory does OS/2 see?

  Memory below 4GB: 2.39 GiB

not bad,  will it increase if you reduce Video Mem  ?