The 4K Dell OptiMac - 9020 MT - Core i7-4790 - Radeon RX 570 - LG 4K IPS Monitor

[trs96]

interestingly, I have never got any fan issue error when I connect Rosewill 3 pin case fan via TeamProfitcom 5-Pin Female 4 Pin PWM Cooling Fan Power PC Fan Extension Adapter Cable.

Those Rosewill fans were surprisingly good for the price. I've used a couple of those in the past. Maybe we need a case fans addition to the buyer's guide. It's best to buy them direct from Rosewill to get the best price possible.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K9608A2/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

 

[trs96]

Using a 4K television as your OptiMac monitor
​

I've been testing a Hisense 43" 4K TV lately and had good results when using my RX 570 GPU and the HDMI 2.0 port. When buying any 4K TV with plans to use it as a CustoMac monitor you must research whether it supports 4:4:4 Chroma Subsampling. If it doesn't, it won't be worth your effort. Text will be blurry and it really won't be usable for anything other than streaming content.

Here's one of the better sites/articles on this topic that you should read if you want to go this route and not buy one of the recommended monitors in the Buyer's Guide portion of this thread. Always order from Amazon if possible, for the best and easiest return experience. If there is any damage in shipping they will make it right.

Chroma Subsampling: 4:4:4 vs 4:2:2 vs 4:2:0

What is Chroma Subsampling and where is this visible? Chroma subsampling is a type of compression that reduces the color information in a signal in favor of luminance data.

www.rtings.com

This 43" TV from Sony gets their highest rating (8.3) for use as a PC monitor.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QXV8TWZ/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

I prefer Roku over Google/Android based smart TVs so I went with a Hisense TV instead. Cost is nearly 300 dollars less too. Viewing Big Sur in 4K/60 is something you have to see to really appreciate. Just set/rename the HDMI input you are using to "PC" and it takes care of everything. You may have to turn down the backlight some.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087F8GCVC/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

 

[jammin]

Hi, thanks for this excellent guide. I have a SFF 9010 with 32 GB RAM (4 x 8) running 10.14.6. I'm interested in using the NVS 510 to power 3-4 monitors (not interested in running the RX550 as I don't want VGA) and am not tied to Mojave.

• Is it correct that the NVS 510 doesn't work with the 9010's motherboard (051FJ8) and chipset? and only works with the 9020's motherboard (0V62H) and chipset?
• Can I install the 0V62H with matching CPU into the 9010's chassis? Is this worth it or should I just get another 9020 machine and move my RAM over?
• What's the latest OS the 9020 can run choosing 15,1 sysdef (Catalina, Big Sur, Monterrey)?

Thanks!

 

[trs96]

Is it correct that the NVS 510 doesn't work with the 9010's motherboard (051FJ8) and chipset? and only works with the 9020's motherboard (0V62H) and chipset?

The 510 will work with both. No reason it shouldn't.

Can I install the 0V62H with matching CPU into the 9010's chassis? Is this worth it or should I just get another 9020 machine and move my RAM over?

I don't think the rear panel I/O ports match up between the two. Do some resarch into that on Dell's site or just look at pics of the two and compare. The 9020 has two DP ports. There is no I/O shield you can swap out.

What's the latest OS the 9020 can run choosing 15,1 sysdef (Catalina, Big Sur, Monterrey)?

I know that 15,1 lost support in Monterey but some people have used iMac 17,1 or Mac mini 7,1 instead with success.

 

[trs96]

@jammin here's why it's impossible to put the 9020 SFF board into the 9010 SFF case. Won't fit with rear I/O. Many ports would be non-usable, blocked from access, that is if you could even fit the board in the case.

 

[jammin]

The 510 will work with both. No reason it shouldn't.

Oh, that's great to hear. Is the 510 just plug-n-play in the 9010 or do I need to do some additional configuration for it to work?

@jammin here's why it's impossible to put the 9020 SFF board into the 9010 SFF case. Won't fit with rear I/O. Many ports would be non-usable, blocked from access, that is if you could even fit the board in the case.

Thanks for pointing that out, that's what I figured.

 

[trs96]

New 3020 SFF Guide is Completed
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Buying the 3020 SFF is one way to reduce your hardware costs even more. If you plan on using HD4600 igfx then have a look at this Big Sur guide. https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...h-dell-optiplex-3020-sff.314430/#post-2263650

You really don't lose any performance and the only features you lose are an extra DP output and two front USB 3 ports. Most people use just one monitor anyway with a general use, content consumption machine. Great choice for an ultra low budget build. Make a secondary hackintosh build for another family member.

 

[yskz]

Those Rosewill fans were surprisingly good for the price. I've used a couple of those in the past. Maybe we need a case fans addition to the buyer's guide. It's best to buy them direct from Rosewill to get the best price possible.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K9608A2/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

True. I'd tried some case fans from Arctic but ended up coming back to Rosewill. Again, I do never get any fan failure error message so I don't need to press F1. If you folks have been fed up with that error message, I think it's worth trying some Rosewill since they're available at very reasonable price.

 

[yskz]

Okay, I guess this is a quite tedious and repetitive question but does anybody still has wake issue with dGPU? (I'm running Radeon RX 470 8GB.) My OptiMac can go to sleep. But, every time I try to wake it up, it wouldn't respond in a black screen. So I have to do force shutdown by pressing the power button, or it immediately reboots itself when I hit my keyboard to wake it up. I've tried some tweaks from this/other thread(s) but no luck. Anybody has new findings, please let me know!

 

[trs96]

Anybody has new findings, please let me know!

Some people on the internet, not on this site, are looking into it. The problem is related to Legacy Option Roms. Those need to be enabled for sleep/wake to work properly when using igfx, HD4600. AMD cards like yours must have LORs disabled to be able to even boot macOS. Unless Dell were to offer some modified firmware, there is no fix possible to correct wake from sleep with AMD Polaris cards. The only option is to not sleep your OptiMac. You can turn off the monitor to save energy, just keep the Dell PC in a low power idle state. The amount of energy used is minimal. If you won't use it for a longer period, just shut down completely.

Option ROM vs. Drivers​

Legacy BIOS is run by option Read Only Memory (ROM’s), which collectively is limited to 64 KB of storage. The option ROMs that legacy systems run will only work if they are compatible with the hardware that is running with it. If you upgrade your hardware, you have to update the option ROMs to make sure every aspect of the booting process is compatible.

The article, A Tale of Two Programs, elaborates more on ROM issues,

“the interfaces associated with the BIOS evolved over time, each PC manufacturer or BIOS vendor providing their own specialized extensions. At some level this caused difficulties in interoperability. There was no clear-cut “standard” associated with BIOS.”

UEFI solved this problem by incorporating drivers into their system in place of option ROM. The drivers have virtually no space limitations and are compatible with upgraded forms of hardware. Drivers are written separately and can be uploaded using a flash drive. The information uploaded onto the system is then processed by UEFI’s programming interface, which configures the data to ensure compatibility.