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

[trs96]

how does the 9020 compare to the 9010 (all things being equal?)

Mainly it's all the improvements Haswell brought with it, including the integrated voltage regulator (formerly part of the chipset), lower temperatures and power savings. Haswell focused on increasing efficiency in a big way. Haswell got AVX2. Better iGPU performance. etc etc. The Haswell refresh CPUs got a nice base clock increase. That's why I prefer using a 4690 or 4790 in these. The 27" 15,1 iMac used an i5-4690 or i7-4790K. The latter is simply an overclocked and unlocked 4790.

In terms of the motherboard design on the MT models, the Sata and USB 3 ports were moved so that longer 8+ inch graphics cards wouldn't block them. That was one big reason the 4th gen. 9020s have an advantage over the 9010s. It makes it much easier to use a 570/580 if you upgrade the PSU.

Here you can see how they moved these three ports to the left. The black cable is plugged in the USB 3.0 header.

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

@craighazan, have you moved forward with booting from nvme? I am curious how big a bump that provides and is it worth the effort, or just a fun thing to try? How about nvme performance as a read/write for video editing scratch files? And if I have a RX 570 in there, will the performance of the remaining PCIe slot be worth it?

 

[trs96]

I am curious how big a bump that provides and is it worth the effort, or just a fun thing to try?

I've tried it. Boot times are not faster. Opening large programs is a little faster. Kind of just a fun thing. It's only really indicated if you work with 4K video editing or high res photos. Then it makes a bigger difference.

 

[trs96]

if I have a RX 570 in there, will the performance of the remaining PCIe slot be worth it?

A 570 installed won't use up all the PCIe lanes as this Optiplex mATX board has the Q87 chipset. Just as many lanes as standard Z87 chipset board. It's the cheaper stripped down boards like H81 chipset that don't have the full PCIe allotment. You also have an i7-4770 or 4790 too so 16 PCIe lanes to the CPU that the 570 has access to.

Intel product specifications

Intel® product specifications, features and compatibility quick reference guide and code name decoder. Compare products including processors, desktop boards, server products and networking products.

ark.intel.com

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

4 Displays!
2 on the onboard DPs, 2 on the K600

ViewSonic VX3276-2K-MHD 32 inch IPS 1440p at 25460 x 1440 via onboard DP
Dell D3218HN at 1080p via DP to HDMI via onboard DP
ViewSonic VA2431wm at 1920 x 1080 via DP to DVI cable attached to K600
Dell D3218HN at 1080p via DVI to HDMI cable attached to K600

 

[trs96]

4 Displays!
2 on the onboard DPs, 2 on the K600

Doin' that for fun or do you really need 4 displays ?

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

Doin' that for fun or do you really need 4 displays ?

Completely for fun - I generally run 2 monitors. I just wanted to see if all the ports would be usable and recognized by Big Sur/OptiMac. As I added each monitor, the display on all the existing monitors would go to static, like on old-TV when the broadcast ended (did I just age myself?). Then in about 3 seconds they would all come back along with the newly plugged in monitor.

 

[craighazan]

@craighazan, have you moved forward with booting from nvme? I am curious how big a bump that provides and is it worth the effort, or just a fun thing to try? How about nvme performance as a read/write for video editing scratch files? And if I have a RX 570 in there, will the performance of the remaining PCIe slot be worth it?

Sorry for the delayed response BGG!. Well for the OC install on the 9020 I just used a standard SSD, did I see improvements in boots and loads, probably not. It was also an attempt at the time to get a fusion drive , but even that seems redundant now. In a 7040 MT, the onboard M.2 slot is definitely worth it, with a Samsung EVO pro NVMe installed it read and writes as fast as my M1 MBA. It was a fun thing to try, pretty easy to set up and worked really well, more useful for video editors than general use peeps like I.

 

[trs96]

OC Gen-X App

I've been testing out the latest versions and they are having issues. Seems to crash when creating the EFI folder. It creates the folder but kexts, drivers etc. are not in the sub folders. Happens in both Mojave/Catalina.

Is anyone else having this same problem ? If you do, don't send the report to Apple as it's useless to them.

 

[MTYEAGLESCOUT]

I did the CMDs from this from Optiplex-3020-Hackintosh-OpenCore

I have the MT Chassis and is working. I am only having issues I think Dell Disable the internal USB header.