The Real Dell Optiplex 790 SFF Sleeper Build

[Mechex]

Hello @kkpatel87, thank you for your kind words!

Of course, I am going to smooth out the interior of the case and paint it matte black. Some features still need to be cut out of there to fit all the stuff. I was going to do that next, but I can't go to the workshop now because of health issues. I still have one cable here that needs a little mod, so I think I can knock that out till the end of the week. 

[Mechex]

I mentioned that cable which needs some modification so here's the deal: 

 

This is the optical drive that came with the Optiplex. It's just a basic notebook type optical drive in a plastic closure. I intend to keep this thing intact and functional in my build as well. Mostly for keeping the sleeper convincing, but a couple of times it came in handy for me when doing archeological dig in my old data stash Turns out this thing has a funny connector on the back though. 

 

After some googling I found out this thing is called Slimline Sata. I found this conversion to molex, but that is quite inconvenient...

 

That means another cable that I have zero space for. Unless... Could I make that molex go straight into the psu? 

 

Looks like I can! I hope it will work I have no idea how to shorten a Sata cable though...

[Mechex]

It turned out pretty amazing! I am starting to realize how much of a pain will cable management be though...

[kkpatel87]

6 minutes ago, Mechex said:

-snip-

I think the power cable change is a bit too short. You might want to design the route the same way the SATA cable is routed. It would look much neater.

[Mechex]

13 minutes ago, kkpatel87 said:

I think the power cable change is a bit too short. You might want to design the route the same way the SATA cable is routed. It would look much neater.

Actually, I think I could have made it even a little bit shorter, so it would fit closer to the former hdd bay. I need as short cables as possible, because they will be a mess and limit my airflow.

[Mechex]

Today I turned on the psu and motherboard for the first time to check if they even work, update the bios, etc. and just for fun, this is the graphics card from my current rig performance wise it would probably be enough, but the damn thing is bigger than the entire case

[Bitter]

2 hours ago, Mechex said:

Today I turned on the psu and motherboard for the first time to check if they even work, update the bios, etc. and just for fun, this is the graphics card from my current rig performance wise it would probably be enough, but the damn thing is bigger than the entire case

We have the same video card, what a beast!

[Mechex]

On 5/24/2020 at 7:06 PM, Bitter said:

We have the same video card, what a beast!

Really? Nice! It's a beastly card indeed, not only in physical size, but in performance as well! (and power draw too ) According to tiers on this forum, I will be upgrading from tier A card to tier E, but the small, portable size takes some sacrifices. 

[Bitter]

37 minutes ago, Mechex said:

Really? Nice! It's a beastly card indeed, not only in physical size, but in performance as well! (and power draw too ) According to tiers on this forum, I will be upgrading from tier A card to tier E, but the small, portable size takes some sacrifices. 

Yeah, not the most power efficient thing but a good performer especially in compute/media production given the cost.

[Mechex]

Look what arrived today! Definitely the biggest expense of this build by far. I will do some benchmarks to see how much of an upgrade is it going to be from vega64 and to find out if (or how much) it will be bottlenecked by my r5 2600 because, yeah... I'm kinda broke now

[Bitter]

Oh, mines a V56 not a 64, same cooler though!

[Mechex]

So you might have noticed that while all sleeper sff builds revolve mainly around cooling, I have barely mentioned it. I think it's time we delve into the make or break of tiny but powerful systems. 

 

This case has only one 80mm fan position and no space for anything else. There is only one possible way for airflow (see picture below) which is down in the lower part of the case. But.. all the important parts are in the upper part of the case, that won't help at all! Well, looks like I need to transfer all that heat to the lower part of the case. What's the best way of transfering heat in pc? Yeah, that will be water. 

 

Also I really need the graphics card to be single slot to fit in there. Kinda sucks that I won't be using this beautiful cooler though. 

[N3URAL]

Eagerly following this thread! 

 

I have the same case and trying to put a full-size RX580 in there... I am trying to determine if I can keep the existing mobo but move the components around inside. 

 

HOW ARE YOU GOING TO WATER THIS BEAST I MUST KNOW!!

[Mechex]

Hello @N3URAL, thank you! 

I do have it roughly laid out in my mind, but it is going to be really tight. I don't even know yet if the amount of radiators I can put in is sufficient for the 2070S. It's a pretty efficient gpu though, if I used that vega 64 the pc would liquify

[N3URAL]

@Mechex Yea I have the same Vega 64 and good lord can they eat power! Overclocked at +50% Power Limit that thing will be pushing 450 watts alone. I had to watercool mine, but don't want to get off-topic.

 

I'm trying to determine if I can move the motherboard up about an inch so it's almost flush with the top of the case. That would give me some needed room! Did you have a small bracket you had to remove in the upper left corner of the case next to the I/O cutout? Mine seems to have some sort of support piece there that I don't see in yours. 

[Mechex]

@N3URAL you mean the thing that holds the side panel on? Yeah, I pulled it out, I will put it back once I'm done cutting up the case. I think I've seen an rx580 inside of one of these, it was fixed on the top of the mobo, so the gpu I/O bracket replaced the mesh part next to motherboard I/O. Altough I think a power supply might be a problem in your case, can the 240W handle rx580? 

[Mechex]

Welcome back!

I did a lot of thinking and planning, and I realized I screwed up quite a bit. It was quite a knucklehead move and I could have avoided it easily. I ordered the wrong waterblock for the gpu, the one for the non Super version of the card. When I realized it I hoped it had the same pcb and it would fit, but mounting holes and VRM layout is different. I was even ready to have at it with a milling machine, but there is not enough meat to mill away without leaking. Crap. So now I have this useless waterblock for a card that no one is ever going to watercool and I need to burn money and wait who knows how long for another one. F*ck.  

[sub68]

looks like a nice build keep going

[sub68]

BTW I am doing a sleeper out of a old dell vostro

 

[Mechex]

19 hours ago, sub68 said:

BTW I am doing a sleeper out of a old dell vostro

 

Not bad! That should be a pretty simple rebuild though. I'm looking forward to see it finished! 

[sub68]

Just now, Mechex said:

Not bad! That should be a pretty simple rebuild though. I'm looking forward to see it finished! 

yeah I am waiting for him to give me money so I can buy the MOBO and GPU

[Mechex]

Waterblock finally arrived today, it was the first time I had something stopped by customs. I initially wanted to do some progress in the meantime, but yeah, who was I kidding Anyway, this means I'm back at it and I don't want to take any long breaks before it's finished. 

[Ratchet7989]

Paying close attention and taking notes. Got an older optiplex of similar size that i really wanted to make into a sleeper. Decided it may be too hard, but after seeing your so far success i am re-inspired  

[Mechex]

15 hours ago, Ratchet7989 said:

Paying close attention and taking notes. Got an older optiplex of similar size that i really wanted to make into a sleeper. Decided it may be too hard, but after seeing your so far success i am re-inspired  

Thank You so much! You inspired me to finally get to it and finish it, I've been struggling to make some time for this project, but I'll work on it soon.

[YT_DomDaBomb20]

Didn’t read through pages 2 and 3, but maybe you can cut a hole for gpu I/o next to mobo I/o. With a long riser