[Guide] Install High Sierra or Mojave on the Dell Optiplex 7010 / 9010 Desktop PC - Revision II

[trs96]

I really like the form factor and everything working.
Here's some photos of the wifi+bt and wiring/antennas.

If you want to post a User Build about your 9010 USFF experience it would help others that want to duplicate your USFF build. It would mostly be a description of your hardware as you could just put in a link to this guide for the install part. Main thing to detail is getting the Wifi/BT card to work with Mojave.

When you look at the performance you'll get, it's nearly as good as an 800 dollar + Mac Mini with i3-8100 CPU and 8 GB of ram. I know it's not as small or quiet as the new Mac mini but it doesn't thermal throttle either. The only downside I can see is we don't know how long Apple will support HD4000 graphics in macOS. It should continue in 10.15 unless they make some radical changes. WWDC 2019 is going to be really important to watch. My gut feeling is that it will get a minimum of one more year of support with 10.15. 2020 is the year many are predicting an ARM CPU transition, even if that happens, Dell Optiplex owners can just run 10.15 for a few more years, so what ? It will still work and be secure.

 

[Grizz]

I added the following components to the 7010 SFF:

1. SilverStone Dual M2 to PCI-E X4 and SATA 6G Adapter Card - This has two M.2 slots - one for NVMe drive and other for SATA drive. I've NVMe with the Sabrent drive below and SATA with a WD drive. The adapter comes with both low profile and normal bracket. I used the first PCIe slot in my 7010 SFF
2. Sabrent 256GB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD - this is where I installed Mojave
3. WD Blue 500GB SATA M.2 2280 SSD - this is where I installed Clover. I am using this drive for data/storage

Below is my AmorphousDiskMark for the NVMe drive. The drive appears to be hitting close to it's advertised speeds.

The EFI I had to use to enable NVMe at the boot time for Clover is attached.

Can you send a picture of the card slots in your machine to see how you installed this? As I have the Broadcom WIFI/BT card in the slot shown here (red box):

 

[trs96]

Can you send a picture of the card slots in your machine to see how you installed this?

It's really quite simple. The Silverstone adapter goes into "1" the PCIe x16 slot that is wired x4 if you have a dedicated graphics card in the other x16 slot. If not, then put it in the first x16 slot "5" as it is PCIe 3.0 revision and gives you the faster speeds as shown in earlier posts here. The SFF models don't have slots 2 and 3 as shown on the image of the DT motherboard. The adapter will easily fit in "5" the x16 slot cause it is not double wide like some graphics cards.

 

[Grizz]

OK.... Looking for input/advice. I am thinking of buying another 7010 Desktop (one of the ones from TigerDirect)...but it has the i5-3470 CPU (which I know I do not want). So I will be getting another one. Here is the list of what is supported in the machine (the RED box is what I have in my current 7010 Desktop).

Opinions welcome. I was thinking about an i7, but know I want INTEL HD4000 graphics. I do not want to add another video card...I am not a gamer, so what I do is doable with the onboard HD4000.

Much Thanks,
Grizz

 

[craighazan]

Opinions welcome. I was thinking about an i7, but know I want INTEL HD4000 graphics. I do not want to add another video card...I am not a gamer, so what I do is doable with the onboard HD4000.

Much Thanks,
Grizz

Personally Grizz I would go for the i7-3770, It's a really big step up from an 15-3470. I had one of those in my other machine and the speed difference is amazing. Boots Windows10pro and Mojave in under 10 seconds, HD4000 graphics are silky smooth in Mojave too.

 

[trs96]

I was thinking about an i7, but know I want INTEL HD4000 graphics. I do not want to add another video card...I am not a gamer, so what I do is doable with the onboard HD4000.

You can use any of the 6 CPUs that I listed in post #2 of this thread. Most can be found on Ebay at good prices. You can even buy a 7010 that has a Pentium in it and swap it out for one of the 6 listed that have HD4000.

[Guide] Install High Sierra or Mojave on the Dell Optiplex 7010 / 9010 Desktop PC - Revision II

The Dell Optiplex CustoMac Mini Desktop Comments This guide for the Dell Optiplex 7010/9010 is a complete description of 7 steps necessary to get your system working with macOS High Sierra or Mojave. These business desktops are Ivy Bridge based and have the Intel Q77 Express chipset. Dell...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[marcomania75]

HD4000 is still supported. You may need to update your kexts first and also make a bootable clone of your system drive just to be safe.

Can you please tell me wich kext should be updated? Every kext you have in your guide?

 

[trs96]

Can you please tell me wich kext should be updated? Every kext you have in your guide?

Lilu, WEG and AppleALC. Any of the Rehabman Kexts such as USBinjectAll have not been updated.

 

[marcomania75]

Lilu, WEG and AppleALC. Any of the Rehabman Kexts such as USBinjectAll have not been updated.

Thank you very much!

 

[caniggia]

Hi!
just finished setup a 7010 with 3770. All went smooth thanks to this excellent guide.
CPU power management, audio, ethernet all work fine.
At the very last restart though - and all reboots after that - a strange thing is happening. PC seems to hang after post. There is a black screen and only if i disconnect, wait 5 secs and reconnect DP cable. screen shows clover and immediatelly it boots as it should.
Could it be i forgot some little detail?
I don't have a second DP cable to test or any adapter for that matter. Truth is up until booting without unibeast USB it was booting perfectly fine.
Any ideas?