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

[craighazan]

So you have ONLY the NVMe drive in your machine?

If you have CLOVER installed on another drive (of any kind) - then the sytem is not 'truly' booting from the NVMe.

I know in the OP7010 - nothing I did would allow me to BOOT the system with ONLY the NVMe drive installed.

GRIZZ

Here's a video of my Dell 7010 booting up from NVMe, (the blue and green flashing light at the front). The HDD has Clover installed and boots first.
I don't disagree with you that the NVMe will not boot on its own, I just disagree with the point that it's not a bootable option.

 

[trs96]

So it's clearly evident Clover sees it as a boot drive and allows booting from the NVMe. This is no different from using Clover to boot a Sata SSD. Only difference is that Clover is installed to the 3.5" HDD instead of the NVMe drive. I don't have any problems with that, it's just like any other multi-boot setup. @craighazan do you have Clover auto select the NVMe drive each time you boot ? Is use of arrow keys required ?

 

[craighazan]

@craighazan do you have Clover auto select the NVMe drive each time you boot ? Is use of arrow keys required ?

I do have it configured to auto boot on my HP6300!. But I don't have to tell you that you can change that in clover configurator. And select it with the arrow keys, like you would any other disk. I did that when I had it installed on the Dell7010 because it was multi boot. But on the HP I just have the NVMe with Mojave and the HDD with clover.

 

[caniggia]

@craighazan which NVMe drive do you have? ahd which adapter do you use?

 

[trs96]

There are many adapter options that will work. The name brand Silverstone versions on Amazon cost more but look to be very high quality in construction. There are many unbranded versions on Ebay that sell for less than half the cost. It looks like Foxconn makes nearly all of them. You'll see the FC logo on most of them.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01798WOJ0/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Here's one that I've got ordered that doesn't have the PCIe brackets. Since the x4 slot in my 9010 SFF is x16 in length it should support the NVMe drive well enough. It's coming from a US location and not China so I'm hoping for delivery by Friday.

 

[craighazan]

@craighazan which NVMe drive do you have? ahd which adapter do you use?

The adapter and NVMe drive that I purchased are mentioned in this thread Super-cheap NVMe fusion drive using Dell 7010 Q77 motherboard by Petri Krohn. I got it from AliExpress and it took 3-4 weeks to arrive. I don't recommend the Kingspec NVMe though!. Yes it has double the read speed of a standard SSD but write speed is about the same.
I read here that people have been getting Silverstone adapters. I bought this last year by mistake, but it also works, same speeds as the Chinese adapter. The brand is called Rivo, I think it's slightly cheaper than the Silverstone cards.
I am planning on getting a HP EX920 NVMe in the near future as well. I'll report back when I get the speeds on that card.

 

[caniggia]

ok, cheers.I am sticking with my plan and getting the 970 EVO. i am going for 500GB. much better write speeds. If it doesn't work i ll put it onmy MBA. i ll be back reporting as well.

 

[Grizz]

I do have it configured to auto boot on my HP6300!. But I don't have to tell you that you can change that in clover configurator. And select it with the arrow keys, like you would any other disk. I did that when I had it installed on the Dell7010 because it was multi boot. But on the HP I just have the NVMe with Mojave and the HDD with clover.

View attachment 404150

Since I only have MOJAVE installed - I think my system is auto-booting right into MOJAVE. I rarely reboot the system, so I cannot remember if it stops or not. I wanna play around with some of the CLOVER Themes. But before I do that, I want to make sure I have a fully restorable backup.

If I decide to make a multi-boot environment with HIGH SIERRA and MOJAVE, I would use CLOVER to choose.

Grizz

 

[djjeesh66]

Change the thermal paste!. Don’t think, oh it’ll be ok, just change it to give yourself peace of mind. My 7010 with a i7-3770, idles at about 2% utilization with temps hovering in the mid thirties.

So as long as I had the heatsinks off, I decided to swap the processors I had in my HP 8300 and my Dell 7010. My 7010 now has the i7 3770 and the HP has the i5 3570. While doing it, I noticed the heatsink on the 7010 isn't exactly a flat surface - which is maybe why they went to a completely flat, copper contact on other models. Hopefully I filled all the cracks and valleys with Arctic Mx-4. Anyways, idling in the low 30s now.

 

[Blackspell]

I'm actually using an i7-3770 SSDT created on Sierra. I've never had a boot problem using it with my Mojave install. It's possible that actually making the SSDT in Mojave is what leads to this.

I have only had problems on Mojave but tried it a lot less on High Sierra.

Did you actually find out what the problem with Mojave was? Im still not able to boot with the SSDT.aml therefore my CPU never idles.