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

[trs96]

Really easy to open up and get inside with neat sliding plastic locks and hinges on the case. Happy days!.

Looks like new. Is that from the Ebay seller that you mentioned ? IMO these Optiplex SFF models are the sweet spot. You can go up to 32GB of ram, install a GPU and the build quality is even better than what you get from HP for about the same cost. They are also small, quiet and really energy efficient. You even got the better gold rated PSU, so you hit the jackpot with this purchase.

 

[craighazan]

Looks like new. Is that from the Ebay seller that you mentioned ? IMO these Optiplex SFF models are the sweet spot. You can go up to 32GB of ram, install a GPU and the build quality is even better than what you get from HP for about the same cost. They are also small, quiet and really energy efficient. You even got the better gold rated PSU, so you hit the jackpot with this purchase.

Thanks trs96, yes the seller is techmartllc, he has a high rating. This price is still on and with free shipping it seems a really good deal.

 

[nicksoph]

Just received a 7020 MT A05 BIOS with i5 4590 8GB of ram and an AMD 6450 graphics card, 128gb ssd, 1tb spinner. Cleaned, pulled out the GPU, updated BIOS to 13 and took the PCI card with the sata and NVMe drives from the SFF and plugged it in to this one, came up first time. Bit disappointed with the power supply (never seen the drives power coming off a MB before) but may still try a HD7770 in it with a sata to 6 pin adaptor. EDIT: 7770 works with Enable Option ROMS unticked and RADPG=15 in startup options.

Feeling lucky - bought off ebay - £100 (including free delivery) - I noticed the seller was in London so before paying with Paypal, I asked whereabouts the machine was and got an exact address back - door to door it was about 200 yards.
From clicking Buy Now to back home and taking the cover off < 5 mins.

 

[trs96]

(never seen the drives power coming off a MB before)

The HP 6300/8300 SFF machines have the same SATA power connections coming off the motherboard.
It's pretty standard for OEM machines from that era.

 

[nicksoph]

@trs96 really? - I've got some of those - didn't notice that. Edit - Checked, and, yes, as you say. I think I just noticed this one because it was a MT.

 

[Poli169]

So what BIOS are you all running on the 9020? I might have to bite the bullet and buy a dedicated GPU can't get the 4K working.

 

[craighazan]

The inside of my 9020 is a little bit messy. There are so much excess cable coming from PSU and the vendor placed them inside of one of the bays. Now all my 3 HDDs are stuck up each other. It is not a nice way doing it but I cnat think of another alternative.

View attachment 413991

The lack of space and airflow between your graphics card and the case concerns me. I would not be happy if that's what I got for my money. Speaking from experience after losing an RX 580 that had a similar amount of space above its fans, you have to force the air coming out of the graphics card, out of the case. It's to tight in my opinion, consider another fan or at least rearrange the HDD.

 

[trs96]

So what BIOS are you all running on the 9020? I might have to bite the bullet and buy a dedicated GPU can't get the 4K working.

I have a 9020 running on BIOS A20. Can't really test 4k as I've only got a 4K TV with HDMI 2.0. It might work with the DP to HDMI active adapter but I'm not keen on spending over 20 USD for the adapter when I won't use it long term. I really hate using a 43" or larger TV as a monitor. It's way too much screen real estate and wastes a lot of electricity to push all those pixels. If you want to try one of the active adapters it might work. I can give you a few choices to pick from. The other way to possibly get 4K via DP would be to experiment with different ig-platform ids to see it an alternate one would work. Post in the graphics forum and see if you can get some tips for HD4600 and 4K. I know that one moderator, nobodynose had it working on his Haswell system at one time.

Are you primarily going to stream 4K content ? How will you use your LG 4K monitor with the 9020 ?

 

[trs96]

For anyone that wants 4K guaranteed to work, that lives in the US. Newegg has a great Sapphire RX570 Pulse deal. I've never seen it lower than this unless there were rebates. Who wants to send in and wait for rebates anyway ? It's just over 9 inches long so fits easily in the MT case. The PCIe bracket latch might get some interference but that can be easily modded so that it fits. See the Pic below. The reason why a 570 or 580 is a good longer term investment is that support for HD4600 may get dropped in 2-3 years but these Radeon cards are in so many recent Macs that the support will go years farther into the 2020s. These can also power 6 or 8K monitors too if those ever get to an affordable price.

https://www.newegg.com/sapphire-radeon-rx-570-100412p4gocl/p/N82E16814202283

I'm sure you could dremel a little section of plastic here on top where it latches or mod the latch itself to make it fit.
➙ Plastic shroud area that can get in the way

 

[Poli169]

I have a 9020 running on BIOS A20. Can't really test 4k as I've only got a 4K TV with HDMI 2.0. It might work with the DP to HDMI active adapter but I'm not keen on spending over 20 USD for the adapter when I won't use it long term. I really hate using a 43" or larger TV as a monitor. It's way too much screen real estate and wastes a lot of electricity to push all those pixels. If you want to try one of the active adapters it might work. I can give you a few choices to pick from. The other way to possibly get 4K via DP would be to experiment with different ig-platform ids to see it an alternate one would work. Post in the graphics forum and see if you can get some tips for HD4600 and 4K. I know that one moderator, nobodynose had it working on his Haswell system at one time.

Are you primarily going to stream 4K content ? How will you use your LG 4K monitor with the 9020 ?

Maybe for movies mainly and just normal web surfing. And mainly just to see if I could figure it out and get it working. What options do I have for the GPU besides the Quadro? I have a SFF.