Dell OptiPlex 7070 Micro Project TinyMiniMicro Guide 

As someone who works with tons of these Dell optiplex minis, they're impressive for their size and the bios is so much nicer to work with than those HP SFF.

Thank you for getting back to the 'home' part of serve the home.

I love these project tinyminimicro videos. Sure the insane enterprise hardware videos are cool to see whats out there, but theyre just not that practical to know about. These types of videos are good for actual ideas

Watching this again trying to pick out a mini pc rather than pay for an rpi 5 and I realized I have the same shirt. Patrick - man of style.

Thanks for the heads up on the RAM! I am running a 65W version of this. I have a 2TB m.2 NVMe, I modified the caddy to put a 5TB Seagate BarraCuda 2.5" (15mm) for storage, and I put the i9-9900 CPU. I originally went with 32gb G.Skill Ripjaws but would really have preferred the 64gb option. I think I'm going to find a way to make that happen now that I know for sure I can. I have to say, this machine is a little beast. I did however upgrade the power supply and went with a 240W brick. I noticed the 240W brick is much cooler when the system is under load and it allows the CPU all the room it needs. I am running into some CPU throttling but I'm currently looking into some possible modifications to fix that as well. Another option I hadn't thought possible before owning this system is that it handles video games quite well. I'm using it as a sort of media server/HTPC. I ended up connecting some Xbox One controllers to it and installing Steam to test out some of my games in my library. After realizing this thing will run GTA 5 with no issues, it's changed a lot of the way I think about gaming requirements.

There's also an i9-9900T 35W CPU that's 8/16 cores/threads in Intel's arsenal.

I love this series. Since you guys use Proxmox in production, could you do a video on doing a ceph cluster on 3 of the tiny mini micro computers? =)

Welp, just bit the bullet and took your advice. Bought a 5080 (10500T, 16gb, 1tb nvme) to replace my 9020 (4570T, 8gb, 120gb msata). Thanks for all the help!

i got one on ebay for 245 with a keyboard and mouse, had to get a displayport to hdmi dongle at best buy for 9 bucks :D its arriving today! planning to run proxmox and home assistant with frigate :)

I love this series, hope you get back to it soon!

there's a fiber optic NIC that plugs into the wifi slot too.

I love this Project as well. Thanks so much.

I have the 7050. These exhume quality! Fantastic, Love mine with Linux Mint and its fast!

You can easily convert DP to HDMI, including audio, using a passive dongle or cable. However, try to convert HDMI to DP. You'll need a conversion adapter. DP, IMHO, is a better option than HDMI. $$

Extremely competent! Thank you!

The 2 front 3.5mm jacks are headset and line out.

Use these specific boxes at Best Buy for our workstations. Awesome little buggers!

I have a client that bought 18 of the 3080s new directly from Dell. 8 had failed hard drives in the first year (all Toshiba drives), and three had the power adapters start to go. The adapters stoped negotiating correctly and the systems thought they were 35w adapters and throttled the PC to 792mhz. They got the adapters swapped under warranty but chose to have me swap the failing drives with new SSDs instead of sending them back to Dell for repair.

I want all servers, desktops and laptops to have USB-C, why? well for KVM, i work on servers, desktops and laptops all the time, and having a single port, and a single cable, that carries, not only keyboard, video, and mouse, but also carries internet and power? well sign me up, give me a 24 port USB-C KVM/POE Switch combo that can power 24 laptops at a time, no need for power bricks, or ethernet dongles

I got 2 minis for free from a friend and would love to see what you guys do with these... Mine are 4th gen so older but still capable

I reeeaaally like Optiplex and Latitude models. I use 2 Optiplex and 2 Latitudes at work and I personally own a Latitude at home.

2:05 that serial port can be replaced with an inexpensive 10gb ethernet outlet which connect to internal pcie.

I was looking forward to you discussing which DP and HDMI versions the 3070 and 7070 run and whether they are capable of 4k60 and HDR, since the on board 630 graphics are certainly capable of that. I am trying to figure out if these systems will be good HTPC. Also would have been helpful what omission of vPro means in terms of homelab/media pc usage

I just got one yesterday and wondering if I can max it up to 64GB, thanks, solid and useful content, great job.

The BG4 SSD actually leverages on system memory for cache under NVMe HMB. Linus made a video on the Kioxia BG4 which covered how HMB can allow for smaller M.2 drives without sacrificing alot of performance.

Wonder if there is a way to make a big common power supply, and save on efficiency like with pi-clusters.

These are great, but I still like the HP elitedesk 800 g4 more because it has space for 2 m.2 nvme and with some creativity you can fit a 2.5" hdd too as the SATA slot is a cable not hardwired.

how do i install linux on it? when i install, the micro enters the dell recovery screen.

Thanks!

Which one do you think is a better choice - Optiplex 3060 with i5 8500T OR Optiplex 7050 with i5 7500T. I would be using it for personal home use (meaning remote management capabilities aren't required). Thanks in advance.

I wish the USB TV tuners worked well with Plex or i'd use one of these for plex, as my file server is seperate., i ended up having to replace my old Dell Poweredge R 710 with a home assembled server with 3x TV tuner cards (total of 12 tuners so that 6 can be recoreded at once and 6 playbacks) I used a 3700x temporarily and am hoping to get something like a Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G/5650G for ECC and on board video, as right now my server does not have a video card, and is not working well with ECC, the ECC issue could just be the board, but i couldnt find any board with a QVL that included ECC that was available so i went with asrock B450 Pro as it was at least stated to support ECC

My first choice would be HP EliteDesk 800 G2 mini, this is my second choice. You can basically buy 3 of G2 minies with the Dell 7070 budget, but Dell has a more modern CPU. I guess it depends on the usability. If you only need one tiny server I would definitely recommend the Dell, it packed more of a punch. But if it is for a cluster of 3+ nodes then I think the G2 is a better choice. Otherwise with the money you are spending on the project might as well get a proper Dell R730XD. Does anyone know if there is Tiny terminal around this volume that support 3.5" Hdd??

Which one you think is the better option the 7070 or 7099

had some weirdness with 5050 micro (7500t + I219 nic) and centos 7. Nic wouldn't run full gigabit no matter what on linux, windows was ok.

Is the cooling enough? Does it have external cooling aftermarket? Some examples like raspberry pi 4 colling case or Xbox one usb cooling fan on top? Does this have something similar?

Is this dell 7070 micro ff better then Lenovo M720Q ?

Patrick, I've really been enjoying this series. Have you seen any TinyMiniMicro systems with three DP/HDMI ports onboard? I see many with 2x and a VGA, but a VGA is not suitable for modern displays.

Is there a good rackmount case for the Dell Optiplex 7070 Micro?

You alluded to circumventing the bios error when using a 65W adapter. Can you please elaborate? Is it possible to use a generic SMPS like Meanwell? I think the bios and the adapter communicate capabilities, and prevent use of 3rd party adapters.

Quick question, clean used 9700t 16gb variant for Less than $600 USD a good deal?

Is fan noisy? I would like to use it as home server. If fan noise is hearable i will buy msi cubi 5 instead

Hi, I've just bought the Micro 7060 i5 8500t for Proxmox etc. I wonder if that will support 32gb of Ram as well?

Does your computer support up to 64GB of RAM? According to the specifications from Dell, they state that the Dell 7070 MFF only supports up to 32GB RAM. I'm contemplating upgrading to 64GB, but I'm concerned that it might not recognize the full 64GB.

15w at idle is crazy, you can get a used enterprise grade server that is cheaper and consumes less electricity but size of course is a compromise. I want it but that cpu running 24/7 adds up pretty quick which makes this purchase nonsensical price wise

Hi, Patrick! Have you got any chance to test WoL on Dell Optiplex series? I'm curious- does Optiplex support “wake-ol-lan after G3” (after power loss)? This feature is pretty common for Lenovo Think* devices, according to my experience. What about Dell?

What is the speed of the M.2 slot? Is it x4 or x2? Because on my Dell 3060 Micro, the PCIe slot speed is x2.

for the i5 the theoretical Ram limit is 128GB - but no one wants to chance buying 64GB sticks at that price to test it - the most they've tested therefore is 64GB. Who wants to put their hand up to test 128GB and report back?

Sir where can I buy the optimal HDMI Port for 7070 please tell sir

what model of dell OptiPlex micro can add a pcie lan port? can you give me the model thanks

What could the clusters uses for these devices be I am new to this and just wondering what use cases they have?

I was able to get a 5070 with Q370 chipset, but can't do the 65W CPU either. Is there a decent site to search for these T-Series 9th gen chips used or OEM?

hi, to get the built in wifi working, do you need an external antenna? or USB dongle? or if it comes with a wifi card build in will the wifi work without any other hardware? thanks

Is there just a blank Space on the 3070, where the serial Port would be, or is this some sort of strange Port i never saw?

Can someone please kindly advise which tiny box can support 8c16t CPU and 128GB RAM (4 sodimm slots)? Thanks so much!!

Patrick is there anyway to contact you?

Good, but enunciating clearly would provide a significant inprovement.

i guess your poject "tiny mini micro" only consistst of reviewing SFF systems ? as nothing else ever came :) ... my chef would lay me off having a project stretched that long :) for the money you spend i could buy 10 after market S3467 with CPUs and Ram :)

How much did Dell pay you?! Its quality is questionable. I had several dell products, none of them last more than one and a half years