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

[kaaanonn]

These low cost Optiplex machines are like a bag of potato chips, how do you stop at just one chip ?
You reach back in the bag for more. Almost an automatic reflex.

Yeah exactly... I already built my first one and offered it to my father (i3 2120 changed for a i3 3225, 4Gb RAM changed for 8gb RAM, and swapped the HDD for a 128go SSD) and one for me (i7 3770S, 8go RAM, swapped the HDD for a 500go SSD). They work so well and for so cheap that I litterally want to buy one every single time I find a good deal. If I don't talk myself out of this I will have my entire familly running Optiplex hackintosh before the end of the year.

 

[kaaanonn]

Really the only thin downside I see to them is that they are a bit loud. At least the USFF models, as this is the only ones I've tried. I believe it's normal as they're compact (more trouble to properly cool down) and as it sits on the desk near to your ears.

 

[trs96]

Really the only thin downside I see to them is that they are a bit loud. At least the USFF models, as this is the only ones I've tried. I believe it's normal as they're compact (more trouble to properly cool down) and as it sits on the desk near to your ears.

What I do with my USFF is simply disconnect the front 60mm fan and that reduces the noise levels significantly.
Remember that these were originally made for the offices of large corporations where it's very noisy already so Dell had no reason to make these completely silent. Any small 60mm fans, other than Noctuas, are going to make some noise due to the small diameter of the fans in the USFF and SFF. They spin faster than larger 120 or 140mm fans in desktop cases.

 

[trs96]

If I don't talk myself out of this I will have my entire familly running Optiplex hackintosh before the end of the year.

Just look at the cost difference between buying 4 base model 2018 Mac minis (about 3,200 USD) vs. 4 Dell Customac minis for well under 1000 USD. Savings of over $2,200 dollars just by doing it your self with basic Hackintosh skills and a few hardware upgrades. Price depends of course, on how good the deals are that you find.

 

[kaaanonn]

Any small 60mm fans, other than Noctuas, are going to make some noise due to the small diameter of the fans in the USFF and SFF. They spin faster than larger 120 or 140mm fans in desktop cases.

Do you think there is a way to swap this 60mm fan to another (noctua one for exemple ?) I believe this is a dell standard and not a normal fit ? If not I will unplug it, yeah.

 

[trs96]

Do you think there is a way to swap this 60mm fan to another (noctua one for exemple ?) I believe this is a dell standard and not a normal fit ? If not I will unplug it, yeah.

The main problem is that dell uses 5 pin fan headers so even if you get a Noctua 4 pin you won't get PWM function. The CPU fan seems to do a good enough job so I don't really even care about that front fan working. You might have to press F1 at boot up to avoid the warning that the fan is disconnected. Haven't seen how to disable that in BIOS.

In the USFF the Copper heatsink (+3 copper pipes) on top of the CPU is nearly good enough (with good thermal paste) that you don't really even need the CPU fan plugged in. Then it's completely silent. You should only do this though for general use like reading email or internet surfing which is not CPU intensive.

 

[nicksoph]

I had one loud-ish fan which was on the cpu cooler and managed to buy one for £7 on ebay, most times the fan and metal mounting are sold together. The fan speed controller works on these based on temps and you can check out the speed using the additional smc kexts and HWMonitor.

 

[kaaanonn]

I had one loud-ish fan which was on the cpu cooler and managed to buy one for £7 on ebay, most times the fan and metal mounting are sold together. The fan speed controller works on these based on temps and you can check out the speed using the additional smc kexts and HWMonitor.

Thanks for this tip ! I will try to find one and see if it gets any better .

In the USFF the Copper heatsink (+3 copper pipes) on top of the CPU is nearly good enough (with good thermal paste) that you don't really even need the CPU fan plugged in. Then it's completely silent. You should only do this though for general use like reading email or internet surfing which is not CPU intensive.

I will try to unplug this tomorrow, I think you're right, it's not needed.



2 small questions out of curiosity :

• I have macOS telling me to upgrade to "a supplementary update 10.14.3" - I'm already 10.14.3, so I guess this is some kind of minor fix. Should I do it ? I tend to think that if everything works fine I should not tent the devil, but if it's been tested by somebody...
• Did someone already try to make a all-in-one Optiplex hackintosh ?

 

[trs96]

I have macOS telling me to upgrade to "a supplementary update 10.14.3"

From what I've read it's just a fix for a bug related to group Facetime calls. Not important in terms of security if you don't use Facetime. It got a lot of media coverage, including one lawsuit, so I guess Apple thought it was urgent to release this. Guess they don't want an influx of new lawsuits that would happen if they waited till 10.14.4 to implement it. You can wait till the .4 update if you don't use Facetime. If you do, it's not a bad idea to update now.

Here's Apple's official blurb on it.

FaceTime

Available for: macOS Mojave 10.14.3

Impact: The initiator of a Group FaceTime call may be able to cause the recipient to answer

Description: A logic issue existed in the handling of Group FaceTime calls. The issue was addressed with improved state management.

CVE-2019-6223: Grant Thompson of Catalina Foothills High School, Daven Morris of Arlington, TX

Live Photos in FaceTime

Available for: macOS Mojave 10.14.3

Impact: A thorough security audit of the FaceTime service uncovered an issue with Live Photos

Description: The issue was addressed with improved validation on the FaceTime server.

CVE-2019-7288: Apple

Did someone already try to make a all-in-one Optiplex hackintosh ?

I've not seen one. It would need to have HD4000 to work as I don't think those have dedicated graphics.

 

[occupyjapan]

@occupyjapan that you have both an ssdt and using xcpm is something I thought would not work but happy to see it does for you. Im interested in when you made the ssdt - did you do it with the xcpm settings already in place or without the xcpm settings set?

SSDT generated without those clover options set. SSDT has been hanging out in /ACPI/patched and I've just been dropping it during boot while getting this figured out. Booted fine when dropped. With config.plist options set as per trs96's suggestions, boots fine and with states with SSDT.aml no longer dropped.