Lenovo ThinkCentre M715q Tiny vs Qotom Q305p Fanless Mini PC: Which Industrial Edge PC Fits Your SCADA Build?

When you're choosing a PC for industrial SCADA and edge control, the first real fork in the road is whether you need a traditional compact workstation or a fanless embedded box that can sit near panels and serial equipment. The Lenovo ThinkCentre M715q Tiny takes the workstation path: a micro-form-factor desktop with a Ryzen 5 Pro processor. The Qotom Q305p takes the embedded path: a fanless mini PC with serial-heavy connectivity. They sit at opposite ends of the listed price range, so the practical question is how much local compute and storage your SCADA or edge-control task really needs.

Quick verdict

The quick verdict depends on where the workload lives. Pick the Lenovo ThinkCentre M715q Tiny if you want a ready-to-run Windows 11 Professional machine with enough memory and storage to handle SCADA clients and local data logging. Pick the Qotom Q305p if you want a lower-cost fanless edge box with broad serial connectivity and don't mind building your own OS setup.

Comparison at a glance

Where the Lenovo ThinkCentre M715q Tiny wins

• 16GB RAM versus 4GB gives you real headroom for running HMI software and keeping local process data in memory.
• 1TB SSD is a big step up from 32GB for archiving logs, recipes, or SCADA historians.
• It pairs the Ryzen 5 Pro with Radeon RX Vega 11 graphics and is offered as a dual 24-inch display configuration.

Where the Qotom Q305p wins

• The fanless design suits embedded or gateway duty where passive cooling is preferred.
• Six COM ports plus RS-232/485 support make it a natural fit for serial PLCs, legacy instruments, and SCADA field connections.
• It supports Windows, Pfsense, and Linux, so you can load the platform that matches your edge-control stack.
• It sits at the lower end of the listed price range, which can leave more room in the project budget for additional I/O hardware.

Lenovo ThinkCentre M715q Tiny AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 16GB RAM 1TB SSD Dual 24 \" Win 11

This refurbished Lenovo is the more complete workstation candidate in this pairing. The Ryzen 5 Pro processor is paired with Radeon RX Vega 11 graphics, and the unit is listed as a dual 24-inch display configuration, which is useful for HMI screens that need multiple windows. In a typical control room, that combination is enough for an HMI client that also collects local trend data. The listing places it in excellent-refurbished condition. The main limitation is the pre-owned status: you're getting a refurbished business desktop rather than a new unit, so the buying decision comes down to whether that trade-off is acceptable for your control room setup.

Portable Desktop Mini PC Core Onboard Fanless Mini PC Qotom POS 4GB RAM 32GB SSD

The Qotom is the focused edge-control option in this head-to-head. The description points to a watchdog and a SIM card slot, which can be useful for remote edge gateways that need to stay online. The listing includes no operating system, so you'll bring your own Windows, Pfsense, or Linux install. The trade-off is the used condition: a used unit should be checked before it goes into a production edge role, and the small SSD means the box is best assigned to one clear task.

Final choice by use case

Choose the Lenovo ThinkCentre M715q Tiny if your SCADA or HMI role needs a Windows-ready machine with a dual-display path and the confidence of a full workstation configuration. It's the pick when local headroom matters more than preserving the smallest possible hardware cost.

Choose the Qotom Q305p if your project is an edge-control appliance with an operating system you install yourself. It fits a focused, embedded role.