The Dell OptiMac Big Sur/OpenCore Thread - For 7020/9020 Optiplex Desktops

[chop249]

DP adapted to HDMI. Note that not all DP to HDMI adapters work equally. The active DP to HDMI adapters seem to always work, especially if the monitor is 4K. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086QQT48Y/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

1080p monitors don't need an active adapter, this lower cost version will work with those.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076RFF7Q3/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

I just ran across a GTX745 It has 1 DVI and 1 HDMI port. Would that be a better solution? Although I am fairly sure none of my displays have HDMI. Could I run 1 off the HD4600 and a second off the GTX745?

 

[trs96]

I just ran across a GTX745 It has 1 DVI and 1 HDMI port. Would that be a better solution? Although I am fairly sure none of my displays have HDMI. Could I run 1 off the HD4600 and a second off the GTX745?

That's an unsupported Nvidia card. Here's a partial list of ones that don't work with Mojave, Catalina or Big Sur.

• GTX 970
• GTX 960
• GTX 950
• GTX 750/Ti
• GTX 745

The latest macOS you could use it with is High Sierra.

If you want a low cost, supported card get this one and use the DVI output.

NVIDIA QUADRO K600 https://www.newegg.com/p/1FT-0004-00384?​

The Quadro K420 is the same card but this one has 2GB of Vram instead of 1GB.

Amazon.com

 

[craighazan]

Left it to update overnight and woke up to macOS Big Sur 11.6!.

 

[trs96]

Left it to update overnight and woke up to macOS Big Sur 11.6!

That's really a completely "unattended" install. It can't get any easier than that.

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

Is anyone doing multiple macOS on this build? I want to be able to boot Big Sur, which is working fine right now using OC 0.7.0, and also boot Windows 10 Pro, also working fine, and now also Mojave (for 32-bit apps I still own that are never going to be upgraded).
I installed a second 250GB SSD (PNY) and then built a Mojave installer USB using the create media method. Did nothing else. Booted OC, selected the USB installer, and installed Mojave to the new SSD. Now, I can boot OC and select Mojave disk - it boots, but of course I see the "complaint" about Incompatible disk features because APFS is different on Mojave and Big Sur. I ignore that and I've tried my apps which are installed on an external 3.0 drive. Works great. I'm just curious if I am missing something? Can I proceed to install Catalina in a similar way? I have not tried to set up Apple ID, etc. on the newly installed Mojave.

 

[craighazan]

Sup BGG!, I've just attempted to answer you question. I attached an external SSD and booted into Big Sur 11.5.2 without any issues. I can't answer if earlier OS's work though, I only have Big Sur lying around.

 

[trs96]

Is anyone doing multiple macOS on this build?

I dual boot Catalina (Nvme) and Mojave (Sata SSD) and it works. The OC picker shows both drives and no complaints. I keep the OC EFI folder on the EFI partition of the Mojave SSD. So they share the same serials and MLB. Just like multibooting different macOS versions on a real iMac 15,1. Try connecting the Mojave SSD to an internal Sata port and see if it gets rid of the complaints.

 

[joostiphone]

@trs96 Hi there. Did you already manage to update to OpenCore 0.7.4? Just wondering if everything's alright using it with our builds or are them some specialities I need to consider?

 

[trs96]

Did you already manage to update to OpenCore 0.7.4?

Have not looked at it yet. Seems that it's really only needed for those upgrading to Monterey once the public release is out. Note that iMac 15,1 is not supported in Monterey. Will require a newer SMBIOS and new serials.

Just wondering if everything's alright using it with our builds or are them some specialities I need to consider?

Not 100% sure but it will probably not cause any issues with a Dell 7020/9020 desktop.

 

[joostiphone]

Have not looked at it yet. Seems that it's really only needed for those upgrading to Monterey once the public release is out. Note that iMac 15,1 is not supported in Monterey. Will require a newer SMBIOS and new serials.


Not 100% sure but it will probably not cause any issues with a Dell 7020/9020 desktop.

I'm using Monterey indeed, beta 7, hence my question to upgrade OC and to beta 8.

That's good to know indeed. Funny thing is, is that up until beta 7 of Monterey, using OC 0.7.1, it works fine with iMac15,1.

I don't mind using another system definition, which one do you recommend? Should it also be Haswell? because the latest version with Haswell(S) is a iMac15,1. Or can it be e.g. Skylake (S) iMac17,1?