Dell Optiplex 790 power switch?

[nixtone]

Hey guys,

I've bought some parts to build a home server and had a question about the proprietary board for the Dell Optiplex 790 SFF (Dell D28YY)

This is the small form factor board.

I was wondering, as I've found mixed responses.

 

This board is mATX, or something else?
And the power switch header located here: 

 

Is a proprietary 5 pin header for the power switch (it's a single switch but I do believe it includes LEDs, and sorry for the big picture dunno how to change)

 

I was wondering if I could use a standard 2 pin power switch for this or turn it on via jumping certain pins, and which pins?

Thanks everyone and sorry for being vague!

[Swealteek]

9 hours ago, nixtone said:

Hey guys,

I've bought some parts to build a home server and had a question about the proprietary board for the Dell Optiplex 790 SFF (Dell D28YY)

This is the small form factor board.

I was wondering, as I've found mixed responses.

 

This board is mATX, or something else?
And the power switch header located here: 

 

Is a proprietary 5 pin header for the power switch (it's a single switch but I do believe it includes LEDs, and sorry for the big picture dunno how to change)

 

I was wondering if I could use a standard 2 pin power switch for this or turn it on via jumping certain pins, and which pins?

Thanks everyone and sorry for being vague!

Its Matx how every i think 1  mounting hole don't line up. it fits a normal Matx case just fine

[nixtone]

1 minute ago, Swealteek said:

Its Matx how every i think 1  mounting hole don't line up. it fits a normal Matx case just fine

Sweet, thanks for this. I'm going to be drilling mounting holes anyways so that's good to hear

 

Now I just need to find out wtf is going on with the power switch lol

[Swealteek]

9 hours ago, nixtone said:

Sweet, thanks for this. I'm going to be drilling mounting holes anyways so that's good to hear

 

Now I just need to find out wtf is going on with the power switch lol

Wait i was looking at the rong board. It wil fit in a Matx case how ever you need more room in the back.

 

Lets see Matx is H 9.6 × L 9.6. but your board is more linnier see H 7,6 and L 10,6 inch. So you need more room in L.

[nixtone]

2 minutes ago, Swealteek said:

Wait i was looking at the rong board. It wil fit in a Matx case how ever you need more room in the back.

 

Lets see Matx is H 9.6 × L 9.6. but your board is more linnier see H 7,6 and L 10,6 inch. So you need more room in L

Interesting, typical non-standard board lol, like those HP BTX aidsfest boards

Are they the official dimensions?

[Swealteek]

9 hours ago, nixtone said:

Interesting, typical non-standard board lol, like those HP BTX aidsfest boards

Are they the official dimensions?

Mounting holes look Matx for sure do

[madtrigger]

Hi nixtone,

 

have you found a solution to the 2-Pin-Power Switch Connection? I just ordered this board as a replacement and will face the same problem once it arrives. Is the 5-Pin cable in your photo an adapter or did you take it from somewhere else?

 

Thanks in advance for a fast reply and

 

kind regards,

mad

[nixtone]

21 hours ago, madtrigger said:

Hi nixtone,

 

have you found a solution to the 2-Pin-Power Switch Connection? I just ordered this board as a replacement and will face the same problem once it arrives. Is the 5-Pin cable in your photo an adapter or did you take it from somewhere else?

 

Thanks in advance for a fast reply and

 

kind regards,

mad

hey mang, thats just a stock photo I found from another forum. I did quite a bit of research (I haven't received the board yet but will receive it in the mail sometime this week) and I believe the 2 pins towards the left of the pic are the 2 power pins then the next 2 are HDD leds. I'm just going to 'yolo' it when i get it and see what happens

Also, that's the 5 pin OEM / proprietary power connector from the Optiplex 790 itself (the switch has the hdd and status leds inbuilt)

EDIT: Actually that's some guys attempt at guessing the pins but he had the wrong order, the OEM part looks similar but it's just a block of 5 pins

EDIT x2: And check this out, it may help you: https://www.techspot.com/community/topics/dell-optiplex-7010-motherboard.198629/ and

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forums/topic/26663-hacked-arcade-button-to-power-up-cabinet-sets-off-dell-alert-message/

EDIT x3: 

This is the front panel connector layout I ripped from another LTT post here, I'm going to need it for the front panel usb headers

[Biggerboot]

I've managed an Optiplex 790 board into a standard case just recently with little/no modding (I'm not sure if it was the SFF version or not, I can check later).  

The power switch probably can be tripped if you take a screw driver across all the pins.  My particular optiplex powers on via switching the PSU on (blessing in disguise), but I can't say if they're all like that.

 

I've previously attempted what you described and I couldn't get my case's power switch cable to fit on two of the pins vertically (which is how I think they designed the proprietary socket).  There may be a few fixes for this, like use of some generic jumpers (it's just copper wire), or purchasing an optiplex front panel switch and modding it into your case.

 

All-in-all, be careful when hooking generic stuff onto the proprietary pins without any converters.  I blew out a stock cooler trying to do so. lol

[nixtone]

Just now, Biggerboot said:

I've managed an Optiplex 790 board into a standard case just recently with little/no modding (I'm not sure if it was the SFF version or not, I can check later).  

The power switch probably can be tripped if you take a screw driver across all the pins.  My particular optiplex powers on via switching the PSU on, but I can't say if they're all like that.

 

I've previously attempted what you described and I couldn't get my case's power switch cable to fit on two of the pins vertically (which is how I think they designed the proprietary socket).  There may be a few fixes for this, like use of some generic jumper wires (it's just copper wire), or purchasing an optiplex front panel switch and modding it into your case.

 

All-in-all, be careful when hooking generic stuff onto the proprietary pins without any converters.  I blew out a stock cooler trying to do so. lol

Jesus, I could probably just break the plastic shrouding off or strip the plastic connectors off the wires and wrap them around the pins or someshit.

What did you do to blow the cooler? Lol, which pins? The power?

[Biggerboot]

3 minutes ago, nixtone said:

Jesus, I could probably just break the plastic shrouding off or strip the plastic connectors off the wires and wrap them around the pins or someshit.

What did you do to blow the cooler? Lol, which pins? The power?

Nah, I recently tried to connect an intel stock cooler to the 5-pin cpu fan socket on dell boards.  They do sell converters for this but I tried some jumper wires from my raspberry pi kit.

The plastic shrouding is tricky, I think they purposely placed them next to some capacitors just so doing that would be more difficult.  I dont have the proper tools to be that precise right now.

[nixtone]

2 minutes ago, Biggerboot said:

Nah, I recently tried to connect an intel stock cooler to the 5-pin cpu fan socket on dell boards.  They do sell converters for this but I tried some jumper wires from my raspberry pi kit.

The plastic shrouding is tricky, I think they purposely placed them next to some capacitors just so doing that would be more difficult.

Oh shit, I'm going to be using a stock intel cooler... Recommend attaching to #2 instead of #16?

[Biggerboot]

Just now, nixtone said:

Oh shit, I'm going to be using a stock intel cooler... Recommend attaching to #2 instead of #16?

Tbh I'm using molex for my CPU cooler right now.  It's loud but it works.  Converters will run you $5 on ebay though.

[nixtone]

4 minutes ago, Biggerboot said:

Tbh I'm using molex for my CPU cooler right now.  It's loud but it works.  Converters will run you $5 on ebay though.

Haha! Was just about to say, I've got a billion molex to PCI connectors I must have molex to fan, and yep, molex to 3pin fan. 2ez
Probably safer as well lol.

Anything else I should know?

[Biggerboot]

Just now, nixtone said:

Haha! Was just about to say, I've got a billion molex to PCI connectors I must have molex to fan, and yep, molex to 3pin fan. 2ez
Probably safer as well lol.

Anything else I should know?

Just never expect things to go smoothly. lol

But nah, you should be fine.  You'll get some warnings that no CPU fan or Sysfan is detected, but you can skip past it.

[nixtone]

Just now, Biggerboot said:

Just never expect things to go smoothly. lol

But nah, you should be fine.  You'll get some warnings that no CPU fan or Sysfan is detected, but you can skip past it.

Too easy. This board takes standard ATX power doesn't it? Cos HP BTX boards in the same sort of system take their proprietary BTX power supplies..

I know it's got a 24 pin standard P1 ATX connector BUT other Dell OEM boards have the same thing but larger and you need their special connector.

So this is the same? And RAM compatibility seems to be straight forward, I've got about 12gb of random generic OEM RAM from other systems so I should be right?

Cheers again

[Biggerboot]

4 minutes ago, nixtone said:

Too easy. This board takes standard ATX power doesn't it? Cos HP BTX boards in the same sort of system take their proprietary BTX power supplies..

I know it's got a 24 pin standard P1 ATX connector BUT other Dell OEM boards have the same thing but larger and you need their special connector.

So this is the same? And RAM compatibility seems to be straight forward, I've got about 12gb of random generic OEM RAM from other systems so I should be right?

Cheers again

I have a standard corsair PSU powering my 790 (again may be non sff).  No problems, just that caveat I mentioned about it switching on by itself.  If you shut down you also need to switch the PSU off.  I've had it turn on again magically after shutting down.

[nixtone]

Just now, Biggerboot said:

I have a standard corsair PSU powering my 790.  No problems, just that caveat I mentioned about it switching on by itself.  If you shut down you also need to switch the PSU off.  I've had it turn on again magically after shutting down.

Sweet as, I'm guessing it's a PSU you bought?
And that's mega weird... I know when they came out of the factory you could switch them on and off via the PSU (on/off switch on back to boot system) maybe that's why

[Biggerboot]

Just now, nixtone said:

Sweet as, I'm guessing it's a PSU you bought?
And that's mega weird... I know when they came out of the factory you could switch them on and off via the PSU (on/off switch on back to boot system) maybe that's why

Yeah, older one (VX series).  I wasn't sure if that was an actual feature or my PSU was tricking the board into turning on.  Makes sense.

[nixtone]

1 minute ago, Biggerboot said:

Yeah, older one (VX series).  I wasn't sure if that was an actual feature or my PSU was tricking the board into turning on.  Makes sense.

That's funny  

What cpu?  

[Biggerboot]

Just now, nixtone said:

That's funny  

What cpu?  

i3 2120.

[madtrigger]

Nice to see this many replies! Thank you! This whole build will become pretty tricky I guess. I also wanted to use the stock cooler ... but I should have some molex adapters lying around. My Board will arrive tomorrow and I will keep you updated.

[madtrigger]

18 hours ago, nixtone said:

hey mang, thats just a stock photo I found from another forum. I did quite a bit of research (I haven't received the board yet but will receive it in the mail sometime this week) and I believe the 2 pins towards the left of the pic are the 2 power pins then the next 2 are HDD leds. I'm just going to 'yolo' it when i get it and see what happens

Also, that's the 5 pin OEM / proprietary power connector from the Optiplex 790 itself (the switch has the hdd and status leds inbuilt)

EDIT: Actually that's some guys attempt at guessing the pins but he had the wrong order, the OEM part looks similar but it's just a block of 5 pins

EDIT x2: And check this out, it may help you: https://www.techspot.com/community/topics/dell-optiplex-7010-motherboard.198629/ and

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forums/topic/26663-hacked-arcade-button-to-power-up-cabinet-sets-off-dell-alert-message/

EDIT x3: 

This is the front panel connector layout I ripped from another LTT post here, I'm going to need it for the front panel usb headers

I now checked out your links. Did I understand correctly that you HAVE to connect all wires to the 5-pin PWR-Switch-thing? I don't need reset or HDD led, so I would just go with the power switch itself (2 pins). Also, trial and error seems not that much of a deal since there are only 5 possibilities.

 

Can you tell me, if you HAVE to connect a front panel? I don't need any front audio/usb/whatsoever, I will just use with the rear outputs.

 

I also found my molex to fan adapter, so this problem should be covered B-)

[nixtone]

2 hours ago, madtrigger said:

I now checked out your links. Did I understand correctly that you HAVE to connect all wires to the 5-pin PWR-Switch-thing? I don't need reset or HDD led, so I would just go with the power switch itself (2 pins). Also, trial and error seems not that much of a deal since there are only 5 possibilities.

 

Can you tell me, if you HAVE to connect a front panel? I don't need any front audio/usb/whatsoever, I will just use with the rear outputs.

 

I also found my molex to fan adapter, so this problem should be covered B-)

Don't think so And same, I've got 2 so I'm all good.

My board should arrive tomorrow as well  

What cpu are you using?

[nixtone]

Can’t seem to get it to boot even when trying to jump al pins... did you get yours working?

EDIT: Everything works

i believe the power pins are the two closest to the side aka the opposite end of the single pin

but yeah starts up automatically with psi plugged in. Had some issues with cpu power orientation and ram compatibility running 2x2 sticks of general 1333mhz ram

good as gold! Also the moles fan connector disables the ability to alter the fan speed so I’m stuck listening to 3000rpm whine (till I get a cable ;))