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

[Grizz]

lol - its a fair bit of work but you can learn how to mod the bios here.
https://www.bios-mods.com/forum

Thanks.....but no thanks.

I just installed a 500GB Samsung EVO 960 SSD drive, and not gonna fight with it.

Grizz

 

[trs96]

not gonna fight with it.

@Grizz you are:

 

[Grizz]

THAT I AM..... thanks Boo Boo.

 

[trs96]

Screen Shots of the 7 steps of the Guide
​

For anyone interested I've made some screenshots of the seven steps and attached them. They are not high resolution but very readable. Keep them as a backup for future reference. Seems that everything is finalized and fully working so I'm not planning any changes to it. There is also a roughly 40 MB attachment I've added at the end of post #1 that includes everything. Download that too if interested. It makes it so you could complete the whole guide even while offline as long as you already have the macOS installer. I've changed the guide recently to use Clover r4920 instead of RM's. It doesn't look like that will get an update so we're now going with the official Clover version from Sourceforge.

 

[e-troc]

If you look at the USFF motherboard and it's stock Dell cooler on Ebay listings you'll see that it could probably work inside an eMac. Dell has used 5 pin fan headers on all of these motherboards and you need to use their coolers/fans to get any kind of PWM control of fan speeds. The 5 to 4 pin adapters don't really give you any PWM regulation of fan speeds.

It looks like the board was based on mini-stx form factor. The shape is modified some for the Dell case it came in.

View attachment 402816​

Here's the custom Dell copper heatsink an cooler fan. I've ran mine fanless and the temps stayed low enough. These can be found for about 10 dollars on Ebay. I would stay with this for a cooler.
View attachment 402818
The 80+ gold psu for these is also worth buying. Mine is quiet and its rated 200W so it can handle an i7-3770s easily.

View attachment 402819
Sounds like an interesting and fun case mod project. Let us know how this works out.

View attachment 402817

Cheers! Lost interest when you mentioned the fan restrictions, but then read fanless PSU heatsink and quiet PSU.. nice! Maybe I can passively cool the CPU and use a couple of PWM fans to keep case temps down (connected to a separate fan controller with probe).

Priorities are low cost and near silent operation. Definitely considering going this route. Will I have any problems playing multichannel 1080p movies on my projector from this? Idea would be to use internal graphics via HDMI and an USB audio interface for the encoded audio stream.

 

[trs96]

Will I have any problems playing multichannel 1080p movies on my projector from this? Idea would be to use internal graphics via HDMI

It will work with HD4000. These only have 2 DP outputs and no HDMI but you can easily adapt DP to HDMI if needed.
If all you need is a basic i3-3225 CPU you could do fanless pretty easily or like you said just a couple of case fans with a controller would work. I would avoid the i7-3770 though, that would be too warm for fanless.

 

[trs96]

Priorities are low cost and near silent operation.

If you want low cost and Mojave compatibility then buy a 7010 USFF and i3-3225 combination. The CPU + Cooler/fan and motherboard only costs just under 46 USD. Amazing value. These prices are from Ebay.com. There's really no way to even buy a working Ivy Bridge ITX motherboard for 46 dollars. They'd likely start at 70-100 dollars. The Q77 boards have many features of the Z77, just no overclocking options. You don't need that anyway for this eMac mod system. Look at these crazy high prices for Z77 ITX motherboards on Ebay. Most cost well over 200 dollars.

z77 Mini-ITX for sale | eBay

Get the best deals for z77 Mini-ITX at eBay.com. We have a great online selection at the lowest prices with Fast & Free shipping on many items!

www.ebay.com

Power supplies (200W gold rated) cost less than 8 dollars. They are quiet too.

DELL OPTIPLEX 780 790 990 7010 USFF 200W POWER SUPPLY PSU 6FG9T | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for DELL OPTIPLEX 780 790 990 7010 USFF 200W POWER SUPPLY PSU 6FG9T at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

CPU cooler (solid copper heatsink and pipes) + fan for $9.95




12.95 + 9.95 + 22.95 =
Total cost: Around 54 dollars (if you already have DDR3 1600 MHz ram and an SSD)
Note: you may also need to buy the Optiplex USFF power switch for a few dollars as I think that is custom to Dell too.

 

[Tathagat]

I'm using a Dell Optiplex 7010 USFF with an I5-3475s as a Mac Mini replacement. It really works quite well and only cost me about $100 to buy and configure it. No way to find a quad core i5 Mac Mini at anywhere near $100 these days. Best one could do is a Core2Duo 2010 model that is slow as molasses in January when outdoor temps are well below zero.

My Optiplex included the COA sticker for a Win7 Pro license which can be upgraded for free to a Win10 Pro license. That is worth at least a hundred dollars should I ever want to use Win10 for some reason. I'm not dual booting but it's very easy to do that.

Here is the total i5-3475S CPU power draw and temperature at idle. Less than 4W of power usage and a temp of 32C !
I'm using a custom SSDT for the CPU power management.

View attachment 347457

Hi,
I have same configuration as yours (i5 3475, mini tower).
1. First I had i5 3470 during the installation, following the steps on this guide.
- I was told my IT guy that my machine had hd400 graphics so I trusted and went head.
2. When I installed chrome after installation (3470), graphics did not work well and I checked, found out that it has 3470.
3. I replaced with i5 3475 as per recommendation. That is all I did, bought the cpu and replaced.
4. I also followed steps again, important kext, whatevergreen, etc. but still no fix. I get the same chrome flickering and graphics not working.
5. When I check my system, showsn hd 4000 fine.

Any help please!!

 

[trs96]

Any help please!!

This is from the new Readme that I've attached at the end of post #1. You should also fill out your profile as well.

If you have any questions or problems following this guide make a post in this thread. Once again, if you buy the correct hardware and follow the guide verbatim you will meet with success. If that doesn’t happen please run the following script and upload your problem reporting files.

[TOOL] [Generate Proper Problem Reporting Files]

Last update: 04 Mar 2018 Current Version: 4.2 Hello guys, I have seen many instances where people start a thread with the problem they are facing on their hack. They try to describe the issue in their own way that most of the times, is not able to properly describe what's going wrong with...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[castlev]

Thank you for this guide, based on this, I purchased a 7010 MT i7 3770 with 8gb ram and 128gb ssd on ebay for 150 shipped, and traded an extra GTX 1050 TI LP I had laying around on facebook marketplace for an RX 560 Aero. At first after plugging in the Aero i had a flickering screen, but then I installed the Whatever Green kext, and all was well. For what it's worth I just ordered the TP-Link AC1300 on amazon, so thank you. In the meantime I'm using one of those cheap small Vonets ethernet bridges which i had laying around for my old Bluray player. This all started because I inherited an old G4 Powermac Digital Audio, so I also have the laserhive g4 atx kit coming in the mail. The plan is to move the optiplex hackintosh into the G4 case. Per the previous post by trs96, I followed the guide verbatim and made this post from my hackintosh!! Also, quick note, i didn't need to upgrade the power supply for the RX 560 Aero for my Optiplex 7010 MT. This machine seems to be able to provide sufficient power just fine, though I don't know about the other form factors. Thank you again!!