Choose between the I5 4590 and the i7 4750HQ based on your needs.
Choose between the I5 4590 and the i7 4750HQ based on your needs.
I'm using a 4950HQ with a mild overclock on my HTPC built for a Z87 ITX board. It's been amazing—very efficient at idle, almost silent, and handles heavy loads smoothly. The i7 model with SMT gives you a better performance curve (4c8t vs 4c4t on the i5) and uses less power while staying cool. You can fine-tune it properly on the board. I'm not sure if the Lenovo tiny version supports this setup, but it should definitely beat the i5 in most scenarios.
So, the Lenovo M93P Tiny absolutely works with these CPUs, but there is a catch. The Lenovo seems to cap the CPU, any CPU in it, to 45 watts. This CPU can of course each 47w. You can even drop in an i7 4790 into the Lenovo and it will 'work' but the CPU will be capped to 45w in the system, so it will grossly under perform. However since it's capped to 45w, it will also not over heat. I got the 4750HQ to upgrade the Lenovo since it was one of the 'fastest' options, as it's laptop performance envelope would fit far better in 45w than any of the S series CPUs the laptop is officially designed to. So the CPU runs near full speed (High combined CPU and GPU loads can max out the 45w limit still), and out performs any S series CPU it supports. Also, the Iris Pro graphics it features is also the only way to boost GPU performance in such a PC. So it makes it a mean little all in one box, assuming you got the parts cheap. Those socketized Haswell laptop CPUs have gotten more rare and more expensive. It was 'kinda pricy' in 2019 and 'stupid, just get something with an AMD APU now' here in 2022. A fun project from 2019 but yeeeeeeah, other than as 'A pure light destop work PC', it's not super useful now. And as a 'mobile computer for traveling' my Steam Deck is about to make it obsolete. Meanwhile this InWin cased machine, well, that has a PCIE slot, you can get way more life if you can just upgrade the graphics.
I’d choose the i7 because of the additional cores, even if it’s a mobile processor.
I understand the 45W power supply you used before. With a 4950HQ and plans to create a compact HTPC later, it makes sense to explore ways to repurpose it in smaller builds. Since only a few manufacturers offer socketable CPUs, you might find alternatives from other brands like Lenovo, Dell, or HP.