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

[trs96]

I took a look at the case, and thought, hey, this is sturdily built, not pretty, but maybe it would make a good sleeper PC. I purchased a 7010 motherboard, and with mostly left over parts including the Seasonic, have put together a nice little machine.

Glad to hear you found a use for it. Did you install macOS on the rebuilt system or just Windows ?

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

Glad to hear you found a use for it. Did you install macOS on the rebuilt system or just Windows ?

I literally cloned one of my existing Samsung 960 EVO 250GB SSDs that I had already installed both macOS 10.14.3 and Windows 10, dual boot with Clover. I use a bootable USB with Acronis 2014, which makes a perfect clone.
After taking the motherboard BIOS to 7010 A29, and setting all per your guide, it booted right up. Then I just set the serial#, computer name, etc for uniqueness and its all set.
I spent most of my time connecting an old Antec fan to the Dell specific fan pinout, plus making a convenient way to access the power button, which again, is custom pinout on the Dell motherboard.
Thanks again @trs96 . I would never have ventured into the hackintosh fun-space without your excellent guide to get me started and hooked, and certainly wouldn't even have known I could transplant motherboards and do wiring, etc. I haven't had so much hobby fun in years. Like little puzzles working out the final items in a hack so that it is near to fully functional as possible.

 

[trs96]

I spent most of my time connecting an old Antec fan to the Dell specific fan pinout, plus making a convenient way to access the power button, which again, is custom pinout on the Dell motherboard.

I really enjoy the hardware building and upgrading part as well. If you think about it, there is really nothing left but desktops that you can still build yourself. You can't really build your own phone, tablet or laptop, at least without great difficulty to get the parts. No one builds their own monitor and when it fails, you junk it and get a new one. It's really too bad that Apple doesn't produce an affordable and upgradable desktop, mATX or larger that we can easily work on and upgrade ourselves. With the advent of T2 chips it looks like Mac owners won't be able to use anything but certified Apple techs to repair their Mac. Very sad situation.

 

[djashjones]

Well I've ordered a i3-3225 as I want to this to be as low powered as possible (energy savings). The system definition will be imac13,1 as its the best suited.

UPDATE:

The deal on the i3 fell through so I ended up buying the only i5-3475s on ebay UK at twice the price £45 . So I'm guessing my def will be macmini6,1 now.

 

[trs96]

I haven't had so much hobby fun in years. Like little puzzles working out the final items in a hack so that it is near to fully functional as possible.

Have you seen this video ? This Youtuber takes a 7010 and transplants it to a gaming case. Too bad he used a PSU that might go up in flames at any minute. Otherwise he did a really good job on this. Figured out how to get rid of error messages and use the existing case cable to hook up the power switch. No need to watch it past the 20 minute timestamp.

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

Have you seen this video ? This Youtuber takes a 7010 and transplants it to a gaming case. Too bad he used a PSU that might go up in flames at any minute. Otherwise he did a really good job on this. Figured out how to get rid of error messages and use the existing case cable to hook up the power switch.

Yes, I've seen that. It's a good one. There is a really great in-depth post for the Optiplex 7010/9010 Front I/O panel pinout here. This really explains that 20-pin port, what is being jumped, how the 4th SATA port is enabled, etc.

I will put my sleeper 7010 build in a post here on tonymacx86 into the Retail Cases section, and of course put a link here. I am waiting on a couple more cables. Should be here middle of next week or so.

 

[slevin97]

Yes, I've seen that. It's a good one. There is a really great in-depth post for the Optiplex 7010/9010 Front I/O panel pinout here. This really explains that 20-pin port, what is being jumped, how the 4th SATA port is enabled, etc.

I will put my sleeper 7010 build in a post here on tonymacx86 into the Retail Cases section, and of course put a link here. I am waiting on a couple more cables. Should be here middle of next week or so.

Do you have a config/SSDT that works with your 9010 AIO? I can't get this to work. I managed to get it to install once, but after that it just boots to a grey screen with a mouse cursor.

 

[trs96]

Do you have a config/SSDT that works with your 9010 AIO? I can't get this to work. I managed to get it to install once, but after that it just boots to a grey screen with a mouse cursor.

This thread is only for support of the Dell 7010/9010 USDT, SFF, DT and MT models so we won't be going into 9010 AIO troubleshooting here. If you want to start a support thread in Mojave Desktop support people will be able to help you out there. Once you start that thread you can put a link to it here.

 

[trs96]

Using a Dell Optiplex 7010 for Music Production
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This is a Youtube video by Andyax who is using his i7-3770 Optiplex for his music production work. He does use Windows 10 but it's still a good video for you to see what to expect if you will use macOS and Logic Pro with this PC. He calls it the Dell Flaco or "Skinny Dell."

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

I literally cloned one of my existing Samsung 960 EVO 250GB SSDs that I had already installed both macOS 10.14.3 and Windows 10, dual boot with Clover. I use a bootable USB with Acronis 2014, which makes a perfect clone.
After taking the motherboard BIOS to 7010 A29, and setting all per your guide, it booted right up.

@trs96 now that I think about it... this clone of a previous 9010 build from you guide has a 3770 SSDT.aml installed.... and my cpu in this transplant build is a 3470S.... how critical is it that I build a new SSDT?... HWMonitor seems to be showing me everything okay. How could I tell if I was having issues and needed a specific-built SSDT for this 3470S?