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[WIP] Dell Optiplex 7040 MT (Q170-Skylake)—i5-6600—OC Big Sur

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craighazan's [WIP] Build:
Dell Optiplex 7040 MT — i5-6600 — RX 560



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Components

Dell Optiplex 7040 MT motherboard JCTF8. AmazonNeweggEbay

6th gen Intel i5-6600 @3.3GHz, boost 3.9GHz, HD 530. AmazonNewegg

Crucial 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) SR x8 DIMM 288-Pin Memory. AmazonNewegg

Thermaltake Gravity i2 95W 7-Bladed 92mm 4-Pins PWM Aluminum Extrusion CPU Cooling Fan. AmazonNewegg

MSI AERO ITX RX 560 4 GB GDDR5 OC. AmazoneBay

Dell Optiplex 7040MT SATA power cable. eBay


Already Owned

Dell Optiplex 7010/9010 MT power button cable. Salvaged from a Optiplex 7010

Intel CPU cooler.

HP SSD EX920 M.2 256GB. AmazonNewegg

Dell 250W SFF PSU. Salvaged from a Optiplex 9020

Gigabyte RX 570. AmazonNewegg

Dual Band BCM94360CS2 PCI-E 867Mbps 802.11AC BT4.0 Wifi PCI-Express adapter card. AmazonNewegg


Comments

The Story: After using new motherboards for my last two builds, I wanted to get back to starting from a budget board. I felt restricted by the Optiplex 9020 SFF and couldn't upgrade it as much as I wanted to, but the Dell 7040 gave me much better options for a mid range gaming build. Fortunately the only parts I had to buy for this build were the motherboard, RAM and processor, I salvaged the power switch cable and PSU from the 9020, I already owned a HP EX920 256GB NVMe, stock Intel CPU cooler, Dual Band BCM94360CS2 PCI-E 867Mbps 802.11AC BT4.0 Wifi PCI-Express Adapter Card and a Gigabyte RX 570.

BIOS: I came across pastrychef's $62 Dell Optiplex 3050 Clunker and used the same BIOS settings from his build.

General > Boot Sequence > UEFI
System Configuration > SATA Operation > AHCI
System Configuration > Serial Port > Disabled
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Installation: I already had a Catalina 10.15.4 USB installer and using this EFI folder, (attached at the bottom of the post). I was able to boot to desktop pretty quickly. I updated to 10.15.5 without any issues.

Screen Shot 2020-07-07 at 11.38.05 PM.png


Benchmarks: The GB5 score surprised me!, my Mac mini has H110 chipset paired with a 13-7100 and it just gets over 2000. This Q170 chipset paired with 1 generation older i5-6600 scores far higher.

Screen Shot 2020-07-13 at 9.55.37 PM.png


HP recently supplied me with a new EX920, replacing one I returned after it burned out after 1 month!. This one though seems much happier, it even reached 67 C under benching and managed to survive. Technically there are three slots you can install an NVMe, the regular slot and via an adapter, the X4 slot and X16 slot.

M.2 Slot X4 Slot via adapter X16 Slot via adapter
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Screen Shot 2020-07-13 at 9.52.56 PM.png
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Attachments

  • optiplex-7040-desktop_owners-manual_en-us.pdf
    3.2 MB · Views: 431
  • EFI 7040.zip
    29.8 MB · Views: 341
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Craig, was wondering what the board dimensions are from where the yellow and blue arrows are shown. Post them if you have a chance.

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Just measured it, seems to be square at 242mm (9.5") X 242mm (9.5").
 
Just measured it, seems to be square at 242mm (9.5") X 242mm (9.5").
It's very close to standard mATX which is 244 x 244mm. I'm pretty sure the standoff mounting points don't all line up with the standard ones. Dell tries their best to make it difficult to mount in any case but the one they sell with it. It looks like only 4 or 5 case standoffs in a mATX case would line up with the holes in the motherboard.
 
Here's a diagram that shows (darker grey area) where the normal mATX mounting points are. The ones at the top (White area) look just like they should when it's a full size ATX board. Very strange what they did.

Screen Shot 2020-07-14 at 8.29.16 PM.png
 
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It's very close to standard mATX which is 244 x 244mm. I'm pretty sure the standoff mounting points don't all line up with the standard ones. Dell tries their best to make it difficult to mount in any case but the one they sell with it. It looks like only 4 or 5 case standoffs in a mATX case would line up with the holes in the motherboard.

I would be happy with just 4 or 5 holes lining up with the standoffs, I think the G5 is only held up with 5!, 3 holes are not used. I might purchase new standoffs and mount the board like how it's shown in that awesome 2009 Minimal Mac Pro video. That's how I mounted the board in my G5, as long as the PCIe slots line up, I would prefer to do it that way.
 
I might purchase new standoffs and mount the board like how it's shown in that awesome 2009 Minimal Mac Pro video.
Yes, that's an excellent demo of how to replace/realign the standoffs in that Mac Pro for a new board. I think it's good for readers of your build to know that you really can't simply drop this into any mATX case without doing some basic modding first. Leaving case standoffs in place that would contact the bottom of the Dell 7040 board would short it out and cause permanent damage to it.

It would also work well to put this board on a test bench as the front USB port(s) and the audio/mic jack is attached directly to the board with no separate parts needed.
 
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All is well in the land of 10.15.6. I will admit though after finally installing and reaching the login screen, it rebooted and I got the big power symbol with some text in front of it. But everything is cool and the gang now!.

Screen Shot 2020-07-15 at 10.57.22 PM.png
 
I tried out my new, (from eBay $89), 500 GB 970 EVO Plus on my 7040MT. I bought it for my G5 but that involves a lot of removing G5 to install and connect an Ethernet cable for Windows installation, I'll do that when I have more time!, but I can simply plug and secure on this WIP. Did buying a 500 GB EVO Plus for cheaper than most places worry me?, a little, questions such as, does it have the latest firmware?, YES!. Was it really 'Brand New'?, YES!, the box looked new with all the stickers sealing it untouched. I put the NE-128 back into the adapter and installed into the X4 slot and plugged the EVO Plus into the M.2 slot. Fast!.

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3.3 GB/s read speeds ! What will you do with all that performance ? Very good deal on the NVME SSD.
 
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