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

Just stumbled on this thread. I have a 9020 MT with i7-4770, 16GB RAM, 2 SSD’s and a HDD and a GT 710. Bought in 2018 for cheap, and now my dedicated DAW machine on Mojave.

It will be replaced soon by a Designare Z390 build (parts in the basement since three weeks, lots of summer projects are prioritized now...). It’s a solid Hackintosh, running fine since two years.

It will become the office machine once the new DAW will be finished.

It’s quiet, powerful and reliable.
 
are you running a monitor off graphics card + monitor off of iGPU? (or multi just off card)
I primarily use just one 27" monitor. For testing I plugged in two monitors to the RX 570. I think Nick has a good point that adapting DP to HDMI is not ideal and can lead to issues when using more than one monitor. It will also not work when trying to use a 4K monitor via onboard DP. One of the reasons I included the 27" 4K monitor in the build description is that it has full size DP input. No need to use DP to HDMI adaption at all. There are a few standard 1080p monitors that have DP in but they are not common. Here's one model from LG that has full size DP in.

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16824025966

Most in this category are high refresh rate gaming monitors and are usually TN instead of IPS panels. Here's one IPS 1080p monitor that does have DP input. 24" and very affordable. You won't normally see DP input at this price. $120.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072XCZSSW/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Screen Shot 11.jpg


If I were using dual monitors via onboard DP getting one or two 1440p monitors with DP input would be my first choice. For a QHD monitor this one from Dell is a good option.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JP9QJ15/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Price is higher but it's going to last a very long time. Dell puts out some very well built, long lasting monitors. I still see some 15 year old "square" 1280 x 1024 LCD monitors from Dell that look great today after all those years.

Due to the limited vram of igfx it's always going to be better running dual monitors on a graphics card with more than 1.5GB of Vram. DP to DP is always best because that's what Apple primarily uses on desktop Macs other than the Mac minis with HDMI 2.0 output which you connect to an HDMI monitor. Even the newest 2018 Mac mini models can power a few displays via the TH3 outputs. Two 4K displays or one 5K.
 
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I primarily use just one 27" monitor. For testing I plugged in two monitors to the RX 570. I think Nick has a good point that adapting DP to HDMI is not ideal [lots of good input]

I've concluded that I have enough monitors, and that I should punt and get a drop in AMD based external graphics card that will drive two monitors. I have the stock 9020 PSU, so my question becomes "what card to consider, so that I dont have swap PSUs?". I think that points me at something like a Sapphire RX 550?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0877C8NVQ/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

[edit: I just noticed the lead time of 1 month on that card... so am looking for something that's ~1 week max]
 
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New High End Graphics Card Option for the 7020/9020 MT
If you want the best graphics performance and already have the i7-4770 or 4790 CPU in your OptiMac MT, the MSI RX 5600 XT MECH is about the best you can do. Avoid the Gaming version of this card, it's too long for the Dell MT case.

It sells for more than the RX 580 (about 80 dollars more) but will give you 30-50% more performance, especially when gaming in Windows 10. Note that these will only work with Catalina and not Mojave. Requires at least the 500W PSU upgrade as mentioned in post #1 of this guide. You can see below it also needs 8 pin and 6 pin supplemental power.

Screen Shot 11.jpg

https://www.newegg.com/msi-radeon-rx-5600-xt-rx-5600-xt-mech-ocbv/p/N82E16814137554

The MSI 5700 XT MECH could fit in the Dell MT as it is short enough. The problem is that it requires a 750W PSU, costs close to $400 USD and the Dell case doesn't have adequate airflow to cool it. I don't know if the Haswell Core i7s would bottleneck this GPU but I'm sure that they wouldn't bottleneck the RX 5600 XT. If you are interested in 1440p gaming or professional video editing with FCP X, then this MSI RX 5600 XT might be a worthwhile upgrade.

Screen Shot 10.jpg

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083VPXN78/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Important notes : For the upcoming Big Sur Public release in the Fall, you must be using iMac 15,1 SMBIOS. For some reason, Apple dropped support for the iMac 14,2 (2013 iMac) with Big Sur. So plan accordingly if you want to upgrade to Big Sur. The AMD Navi drivers in Big Sur will likely be more optimized for the 5600 XT. So expect better performance than in Catalina. The drivers for the new RDNA cards are not perfect yet in Catalina. You may experience black screens and graphic glitches frequently. Big Sur is supposed to bring better driver support.

What's the best PSU to pair with this 5600 XT in the Dell Mini-Tower ?

https://www.newegg.com/antec-neoeco-550-gold-ne550g-550w/p/N82E16817371121

This is branded Antec but is made by Seasonic. For 80 USD at Newegg you can't currently top this deal. Most of the junky, low end PSUs that used to cost 30-45 dollars are now selling for 60-75 dollars. Makes the choice easy to pay slightly more for this. Includes a 7 year warranty so you have no worries at all. You'll never even come close to pulling 500W from your wall outlet. Even with a 5600 XT installed your OptiMac might use 300-350W of power maximum so this gives you plenty of headroom.
 
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Hi, question about transferring an optiplex mt to a new case. How many case fans can you run from the dell case fan header? I realize that I will need a 5pin to 4 pin fan cable adapter. Can I then plug a 3way fan splitter into the adapter and run 3 case fans (2 at the front and another at the rear replacing the dell 90mm exhaust fan)? I seem to remember reading somewhere that the header output is 1A so as long as the combined draw from the 3 fans is less than 1A it will work.
Anyone with experience recasing their optiplex care to share how they approached case fans? Is anyone using a fan hub? If so which one? Is it a powered hub?
cheers
 
Anyone with experience recasing their optiplex care to share how they approached case fans? Is anyone using a fan hub? If so which one? Is it a powered hub?
cheers
You can normally get away with 2 fans on a splitter connected to the MB with no or very little loss of speed and 3 fans will be ok too as long as they each never take more than 350ma. (most used to be 500ma)
The issue will be controlling fan speeds not the power draw, the only thing extra thing needing managing is the GPU heat and if you are doing that with a splitter - the question is whether you want to control that by referencing the CPU or case temps, neither is ideal but the CPU header is where you are most likely to see the changes faster but at the cost of spinning up all the fans when only the CPU needs cooling. - There are fan controllers with thermal inputs that will control the speeds of fans but the issue there is where to put and calibrate the thermal sensors to get the effect wanted. Easier to setup are manually controlled fan controllers.
The machines themselves run cool and if your case has space for a fan directly above the GPU then a single fan blowing on the gpu will likely cool it down enough to not need more, otherwise normal fan placement dependent on case fittings and contents. (embedded links are to examples not recommendations).
And a heatsink for anything thats getting hot near the GPU (Northbridge is thereabouts? and will get extra work when the GPU is busy)
 
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T
You can normally get away with 2 fans on a splitter connected to the MB with no or very little loss of speed and 3 fans will be ok too as long as they each never take more than 350ma. (most used to be 500ma)
The issue will be controlling fan speeds not the power draw, the only thing extra thing needing managing is the GPU heat and if you are doing that with a splitter - the question is whether you want to control that by referencing the CPU or case temps, neither is ideal but the CPU header is where you are most likely to see the changes faster but at the cost of spinning up all the fans when only the CPU needs cooling. - There are fan controllers with thermal inputs that will control the speeds of fans but the issue there is where to put and calibrate the thermal sensors to get the effect wanted. Easier to setup are manually controlled fan controllers.
The machines themselves run cool and if your case has space for a fan directly above the GPU then a single fan blowing on the gpu will likely cool it down enough to not need more, otherwise normal fan placement dependent on case fittings and contents. (embedded links are to examples not recommendations).
And a heatsink for anything thats getting hot near the GPU (Northbridge is thereabouts? and will get extra work when the GPU is busy)
thanks Nick, so the manual option is basically like connecting the fans to the psu directly and the dials allow you to slow them down from running full speed? I was looking at a cooler master silencio s400 case. I currently leave my optiplex on all the time with sleep disabled in settings so looking for something that will keep fan noise down. Manual controller might be easier option
 
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