Dell Optiplex 9020 (D07S) SFF as a NAS?

[1human]

Hi. I bought a Dell Optiplex 9020 SFF not realizing "normal" ones are bigger than these little units. I wanted to convert it into a NAS using either TrueNAS Scale or Ubuntu Server. I already have experience using Ubuntu Server and have it on an old laptop.

It has 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and an optical drive which can be disconnected for a SATA cable.

I was on track to disconnect the optical drive and install a 3.5" HDD for storage but.. the power cable doesn't have enough pins and the other one is being used for the boot SSD. I have a USB3 to SATA cable that I can use for the SSD and that would work but it's not ideal.

 

If you have any advice please let me know! The system was relatively cheap so if I have to repurpose it, it's not a big deal.

 

[Ha-Satan]

I'm confused about the "power cable doesn't have enough pins" part. The 3.5" drive should take the same SATA data and power cables as the optical drive you're removing, shouldn't it?

[1human]

1 hour ago, Ha-Satan said:

I'm confused about the "power cable doesn't have enough pins" part. The 3.5" drive should take the same SATA data and power cables as the optical drive you're removing, shouldn't it?

It seems that the photo didn't attach.

Please take a look at the attached photos. The P4 cable was the one connected to the optical drive which wont work with a 3.5" drive.. either I'm really dumb or this is really weird. The P3 cable is being used for the SSD but temporarily I'm using a USB to SATA adapter for the SSD.

 

[Ha-Satan]

Is that not a standard SATA cable? It's a little bit hard to tell from this angle. Can you take a picture of the pins themselves?

 

It's totally possible Dell is using some weird cable I'm not familiar with, but on every machine of theirs I've ever disassembled it was a standard SATA cable for the optical drive.

[1human]

2 minutes ago, Ha-Satan said:

Is that not a standard SATA cable? It's a little bit hard to tell from this angle. Can you take a picture of the pins themselves?

 

It's totally possible Dell is using some weird cable I'm not familiar with, but on every machine of theirs I've ever disassembled it was a standard SATA cable for the optical drive.

The SATA cables are standard but I don't have enough power cables for 2 drives.

Photos of the pins are attached.

 

[Ha-Satan]

7 minutes ago, 1human said:

The SATA cables are standard but I don't have enough power cables for 2 drives.

Wasn't there a regular SATA power cable attached to the optical drive?

[1human]

Just now, Ha-Satan said:

Wasn't there a regular SATA power cable attached to the optical drive?

there wasn't.. there was just the P4 cable. super weird. The photo of the optical drive ports are attached as the first photo.

[1human]

1 minute ago, Ha-Satan said:

Wasn't there a regular SATA power cable attached to the optical drive?

I can try and replace the entirety of the connection to the motherboard. It looks like an 8 pin type thing.

[Ha-Satan]

5 minutes ago, 1human said:

there wasn't.. there was just the P4 cable. super weird. The photo of the optical drive ports are attached as the first photo.

Yeah, I guess that is slightly smaller than regular SATA power.

 

In that case I dunno lol

[1human]

Just now, Ha-Satan said:

Yeah, I guess that is slightly smaller than regular SATA power.

 

In that case I dunno lol

Found something.

Apparently it's Slimline SATA that can be adapted.

Still kinda sucks tho bc there's 3 SATA ports on the motherboard and only 2 power cables that can be used.

[Ha-Satan]

1 minute ago, 1human said:

Slimline SATA

Well, that's a new one for me! TIL

[1human]

1 minute ago, Ha-Satan said:

Well, that's a new one for me! TIL

Time to wait for a random aah adapter to arrive from AliEx

[Needfuldoer]

You should be able to split that regular SATA cable at least once to run two drives, especially if they're laptop drives or SSDs.

 

The Optiplex x020 lineup has plenty of compute power to be a NAS. Your only limitation is physically fitting drives into the case. You may have to run a drive "outboard" and snake a SATA cable out of an IO slot. It's not pretty, but it works. 

 

If you don't mind the physical size of a full tower, you could get your hands on the minitower version of the 7020. Even if it's a barebones machine, the CPU, RAM, and storage you've already got should just drop right in. (Unfortunately Dell discontinued the "DT" desktop variant with the Sandy/Ivy bridge x010 generation; those could take a 3.5" drive and had a full size 5.25" bay you could adapt to a 3.5" or four 5/25" bays.)

[1human]

6 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

You should be able to split that regular SATA cable at least once to run two drives, especially if they're laptop drives or SSDs.

 

The Optiplex x020 lineup has plenty of compute power to be a NAS. Your only limitation is physically fitting drives into the case. You may have to run a drive "outboard" and snake a SATA cable out of an IO slot. It's not pretty, but it works. 

 

If you don't mind the physical size of a full tower, you could get your hands on the minitower version of the 7020. Even if it's a barebones machine, the CPU, RAM, and storage you've already got should just drop right in. (Unfortunately Dell discontinued the "DT" desktop variant with the Sandy/Ivy bridge x010 generation; those could take a 3.5" drive and had a full size 5.25" bay you could adapt to a 3.5" or four 5/25" bays.)

Yeah I did some more research and bought a splitter to run 2 drives hopefully but also that Slimline SATA can be adapted to full-size. Waiting for it now.

At the moment I have some random USB to SATA adapter for my boot drive and have that outside of the case. I think I could fit 2 3.5" HDDs inside the case with some.. electrical tape, along with a boot SSD. I have a free PCIe slot I can adapt to NVMe if need be.
beats paying Apple 4.24 CAD a month for 200GB of storage.

I looked at the MT 7020 and it looks like a typical full size tower system. I'll look into it. Do you know a fair price for the baseline system and how many drives can fit inside the MT?
I'll probably be using 4 3.5" drives at the very max and 2 at the minimum for redundancy. Going to go and get 2 WD Red drives for this system and replace this old 3.5" drive.