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Voltarum Mini PC Guide
ES

Lenovo · 1-litre business PCs · 2018

Lenovo ThinkCentre M920q Tiny

Good budget optionDiscontinued (still sold)

The off-lease favourite of homelabbers: six cores, up to 32 GB and a PCIe slot for a network card.

Processor
Intel Core i5-8500T
RAM
up to 32 GB
Network
1 × 1 GbE
Drive slots
2

Great fit for: Media server

—

Researched from manufacturer data and public reviews; not tested by us.· Last reviewed Oct 28, 2026

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What it is good for

Derived from the specs

Our rules applied to its specs. The reasons come from the data in the specification table. How the verdicts are decided

  • Home AssistantGood
    • Official or well-supported Home Assistant OS image
    • Takes an SSD or eMMC for the system
    • More processor than it needs: higher idle power
  • Media serverGreat fit
    • Intel Quick Sync: the best-supported transcoding in Plex and Jellyfin
    • Decodes HEVC 10-bit in hardware, not AV1
    • 2 internal drive slots for the library
  • Homelab / ProxmoxGood
    • Up to 32 GB of RAM in SO-DIMM slots
    • 6 threads
  • Router / firewallLimited
    • One network port: only as a 'router on a stick' with VLANs and a managed switch
  • NASGood
    • 2 internal drive slots (1× M.2 + 1× SATA)
    • 1 GbE network: about 110 MB/s at most
  • DesktopGood
    • Windows 11 supported
    • 6 threads, up to 32 GB of RAM
    • 3 displays at once
    • Fine for office and web; slow with many tabs or photo editing
  • Electronics / GPIONot suitable
    • No GPIO header: add a USB microcontroller board instead

Configurations and where to buy

Prices are editorial references (launch price and a typical street price on the date shown), not live prices. In 2026 the memory shortage has pushed many prices well above launch.

Prices are shown only if updated in the last 24 hours and may change; the retailer’s price at checkout applies. We may earn a commission from these links at no cost to you. Affiliate disclosure

Overview

Editorial opinion

Best for: A cheap Proxmox node or, with a dual-port network card in the riser, an OPNsense router.

Editorial opinionWould we buy it today?

Yes, renewed and cheap, if you want RAM and a PCIe slot more than a modern chip.

Pros and cons

Editorial opinion

Pros

  • Up to 32 GB of RAM in two slots (Lenovo’s official maximum)
  • PCIe slot with a riser (for a 10 GbE or 4-port card)
  • Built like a tank, easy to service

Cons

  • One 1 GbE port out of the box
  • Used condition varies by seller
  • No AV1 decoding

Specifications

Factual data
General
Manufacturer
Lenovo
Type
Mini PC
Form factor
1-litre PC
Released
2018
Availability
Discontinued (still sold)
Processor and graphics
Processor
Intel Core i5-8500Tx86-64 · Coffee Lake
Cores / threads
6 / 6
Max clock
3.5 GHz
Processor power (TDP)
35 W
Graphics
Intel UHD Graphics 630
Hardware video decode
H.264, HEVC 8-bit, HEVC 10-bit (HDR), VP9
Hardware video encode
H.264, HEVC 8-bit, HEVC 10-bit (HDR)
Memory and storage
RAM options
8 / 16 GB
RAM type
DDR4-2666 SO-DIMM
RAM upgrades
2 SO-DIMM slot(s), up to 32 GB
M.2 slots
1
SATA bays / ports
1
Storage details
1× M.2 2280 NVMe + 1× 2.5" SATA bay
Network
Ethernet
1 × 1 GbE1× GbE (Intel I219-LM)
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi 5 (most units)
Displays, USB and expansion
Displays at once
3
Video outputs
2× DisplayPort, optional third port
USB4 / Thunderbolt
No
PCIe expansion
PCIe x8 slot with an optional riser
GPIO header
No
Power, cooling and size
Power input
20 V adapter (65 W; 90 or 135 W with add-on cards)
Power supply
External adapter
Adapter / max power
135 W
Cooling
Fan
Size (W × D × H)
179 × 183 × 34.5 mm
Volume
1.13 L

Intel Core i5-8500T: The low-power desktop chip inside countless off-lease 1-litre PCs. Quick Sync handles HEVC but not AV1.

Source: Manufacturer specifications

Software support

Editorial opinion

How well each system installs and runs on it today (editorial assessment).

  • Windows 11Excellent
  • Linux (Debian, Ubuntu or vendor image)Excellent
  • Proxmox VEExcellent
  • Home Assistant OSExcellent
  • OPNsense / pfSense / OpenWrtGood

Measured

Factual data

Measured values with their source. We never invent figures.

No measured values yet.

Alternatives

Ryzen mini PCs

Minisforum MS-A2

Processor
AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX
RAM
96 GB
Network
4 × 10 GbE

Great fit for: Homelab / Proxmox · Desktop

Sixteen Zen 5 cores, two 10 GbE SFP+ ports, three SSD slots and a PCIe slot in two litres.

from $799 (typical price)Highly recommended

Intel N mini PCs

Beelink EQ14

Processor
Intel N150
RAM
16 GB
Network
2 × 2.5 GbE

Great fit for: Home Assistant · Media server · Router / firewall

Two Intel 2.5 GbE ports, two M.2 slots and a built-in power supply around an N150: the all-rounder home server.

from $385 (typical price)Highly recommended

Intel Core mini PCs

Minisforum MS-01

Processor
Intel Core i9-13900H
RAM
96 GB
Network
4 × 10 GbE

Great fit for: Media server · Homelab / Proxmox · Router / firewall · Desktop

The Intel twin of the MS-A2: 10 GbE SFP+, USB4, three SSD slots and Quick Sync.

from $679 (typical price)Recommended