Optiplex 7010/9010 Front I/O panel pinout

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[extra8]

Installing 3rd party ATX motherboard into Optiplex 7010/9010 MT case

 

I had a specific need to install some used Intel 8th gen ATX motherboard into a couple of old Optiplex 7010/9010 MT cases.  The old Optplex MT cases are unique in possessing two front accessible external 5.25" drive bays where we fit Startech hot swap drivebays for 3.5" drives.

 

Inspect motherboard vs Wide mounting posts 

 

The pressed steel mounting posts in the chassis are abnormally wide.  Approximately 8mm in diameter.

 

 

Inspect the underside of the new motherboard to see if there are any exposed solder pads close to the mounting holes.

 

 

In above image, the yellow circle is an approximate outline of mounting post in the chassis.  The two red circled solder pads are too close for comfort and 'could' short circuit with the case when the motherboard is screwed down.

 

As a precaution to prevent short circuits, simply place some clear self adhesive tape (I used Scotch Magic tape) over the pressed mounting holes in the chassis.  The Magic tape is easy to puncture when inserting the mounting screws.

 

 

Replacement USB2 & HD audio cables

 

It was quite job to rewire the audio and USB2 cables using information in my first post of this long thread.  One issue is jack detection pins for both the microphone and headphone jacks in the Optiplex 7010/9010 are non-standard. As a consequence, the only solution was to permanently enable the jacks regardless of whether any mic or headphone was inserted.

 

When I came to modify another Optiplex 9010 MT case, I had run out of used 10 pin header plugs and cables.

 

I purchased a used USB2 and audio front panel for a Dell Vostro 200/Inspiron 530 MiniTower case.  The part no. is badly faded but comparing with others on sale, it looks like Dell Part no. XW931 rev.00

 

 

Unfortunately, there appears to be more than one manufacturer of this part number.  The part I used has a smooth back and moderately easy to tear apart.  The other type with the rectangular holes is almost indestructible!

 

 

HD audio header

 

To my surprise, I discovered it is possible to transplant these audio jacks and USB2 cables to the 2012 model Optiplex 9010 MT front panel.  I repeated it for a 2013 Optiplex 7010 MT front panel later.   I have noticed the USB3 cable for my 7010 MT (made in 2013) is a pair of flat cables, whereas the USB3 cable for the older 9010 MT models is a single round cable.

 

The images below are for 2012 Optiplex 9010 MT.  The Front panel audio/USB assembly has the Dell Part no. 0DH7MN.

 

The original audio jacks slide into the slots shown below.  However, the slots are slightly too narrow for the Vostro 200 audio jacks.  Don't try to force the Vostro 200 audio jacks into the Optiplex carrier, you will likely crack the plastic.

 

 

To fix the problem, simply use a flat needle file and carefully file down the protruding black plastic tabs of the Vostro 200/Inspiron 530 jack sockets so they are a bit thinner.  You only need to shave off around 0.5 mm layer of plastic.

 

I dismantle the second Vostro 200 front USB2/audio front panel.  The sockets appear to be identical in dimensions.  The tabs are not as wide.

 

 

The Vostro 200 audio jacks will then slide into the slots as shown below.  The new cable should be long enough to reach the 10 pin HD audio header located towards the rear of most 3rd party motherboards.  The total length of the new audio cable including the jacks/plugs is 57.5 cm.

 

 

 

Use the longer USB2 cable with the white header plug.  It is similar length to the original Optiplex 7010/9010 front panel cable, 46 cm.  It should hopefully reach a 10 pin USB2 header on the new motherboard.  The hole in the back of the plastic carrier will require modifying because there are two USB2 round cables instead of the original one thicker USB2 cable.

 

 

 

USB2 header

 

The USB2 sockets from the second Vostro 200 front USB/audio panel appear to be the same, apart from the extra insulation shown below.

 

If you find the two halves of the black plastic shell won't come together for the clips to snap together, you may find the braid of the audio cable has been soldered to the side of the Vostro 200 USB2 socket.  Use a needle file and file away the plastic rib which is coming into contact with the raised blob of solder.

 

USB 3 header

 

Dell's 20 pin USB 3 plug is non-standard.  It won't plug into a 3rd party ATX motherboard 20 pin USB 3 header.  The Dell plug has a locking latch.

 

I managed to remove the shroud from the 2013 made 7010 MT motherboard and fit it to the new 3rd party Asus motherboard, so the Dell latching mechanism could be retained.

 

When I attempted the same exercise with a 2012 made 9010 MT motherboard, I ended up cracking the shroud !   I ended up using pliers to pull off the metal latch from the side of the Dell USB 3 plug, and cut away/file down any remaining bits of plastic on the side of the blue plug.  To ensure the plug doesn't become detached from the motherboard, I applied a large blob of hot glue to one side of the plug/socket.

 

 

Finally completed retrofitting the third Optiplex 7010/9010 Mini Tower with used Asus H310M-R R2.0 motherboards with i5-8400/i5-9400 cpu with stock Intel coolers.  Two motherboards from a IT recycling firm suffered from minor faults so had to be replaced/refunded.  The first PC was upgraded one year ago and has been faultless in use.

 

RTX 4060 gaming PC

 

For the third PC, I decided to turn it into a Flight Simulator 2020 gaming PC to see how it compared to our existing xbox series S.   

 

I purchased a Corsair CX650 650w PSU.  I couldn't believe it when I saw it came with molex PATA power cable as well as SATA power cable.  Fortunately, I had a spare PATA to SATA adapter, otherwise, I would have left the DVD drive disconnected.   

 

The other issue is the Dell PSU uses low profile right angled SATA power connectors unlike the CX650.  After installing the CX650, I realised I couldn't close the door.  I have used offcuts of 7mm laminate flooring as trays for the pair of 2.5" SSDs - I simply reduced the length of the trays so the SATA power cables no longer hinder door closure.

 

I hot glued a block of wood to the base to support the sagging end of the GPU as a precaution.

 

I did consider buying a used GTX 1660 Super, but these cost something like £100-£120 in the UK off eBay and of course with no warranty. (I think they were £220 new in 2020 before lockdown).  There were no offers on RX 6600 which I'd seen as low as £160, so went for brand new 2023 MSI RTX 4060 Ventus 2x when it was on offer for £248 instead of £290 in the UK.

 

I'm no expert on GPUs, but the 2023 RTX 4060 8GB (MSRP US$299) appears to be similar in performance to the 2019 RTX 2080 8GB which had an MSRP of US$699.

 

I am using the existing Dell case fan, linked to motherboard temperature (Turbo setting) - it is less disturbing than linking to cpu temperature.  I haven't decided whether to replace it with new front and rear fans - I would look at cutting a round hole in the front chassis to improve air flow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Slimecrush]

Your posts about the 7010SFF has been so incredibly helpful for me, really really appreciate the detailed write ups, they're fantastic! I was hoping I could pick your brain, because i'm at a loss now at this point. Also, so weird you posted Wednesday about that front panel when i was doing a similar (albeit uglier) hackjob into a SFF case for my batocera box...anyway

 

so long story short, maybe ill do this bullet point

- Acquired 12 optiplexes off marketplace, they were all previous work stations, now end of life

- i7-3770 models

- Gutted one of them, everything out of the case and crammed into another SFF case

- I've re routed the front panel i/o into the new case, and it works fine, just needs to be redone to look a bit cleaner
- Using an evga 850 psu, some old 250gb Seagate barracuda that came with the machine, windows 10 was working fine

- Ok great, evertythingf boots in this new case, lets try the video card

- GPU is a Radeon rx 580 8gb (is it supported? i assumed any gpu was supported as long as it fit (which any will if the motherboard is out of its case)

- Plug in GPU, plug in DVI cable, power on, get the Error about Having two monitor cables plugged in at the same time, and how with a GPU i need to use IT exclusively

- Great, unplug the vga cable out of the onboard graphics, restart

- Nothing, black screen

- Alright maybe its drivers or something in the bios, ill update that

- log into windows, update BIOS to probably A25, whatever the latest is on DELL's site, try to install AMD drivers, wont let me, windows 10 version too old

- Update Windows 10, hangs at 90% within the automatic updates, so download separate update client from Microsoft, everything runs fine, updates, restarts

-

Here's where I think I messed up...i mean even more than it already was messed up...

-

- I am pretty sure, during one of these restarts, post update, I had plugged the DVI cable back into the mobo, post bios update, post windows update, but maybe before all the updates were applied? Because now its black screen again, and i switched off the pc to keep troubleshooting, forgetting it was probably applying updates, I just couldn't see them because the GPU wasn't being recognized...

- Switch back to onboard on the VGA, Windows starts with "Restoring your previous version of windows" 

- So I interrupted something I think

-At any rate...go to bed, next day, windows is back and restored, ok great 

- Alright maybe i can get into the bios, restart, mashing on F2, DEL, F11, (Not F12 yet) nothing, just hangs at the screen that gives me the Options for booting into setup, for "continuing press F1", for "run a diagnostic F5"

- Switch keyboards, nothing, same issue, HOWEVER, the KB worked in Windows, tried plugging it into front and back USB ports, still nothing

- Now I'm desperate, so I start fooling with the Password jumper, because...

- This whole time there's also been an Alert that mentioned The Service Jumper was either installed...or not installed...I can't recall, But i had never touched that first or last since this nightmare began

- I was also getting the jumper PSWD reset warning at the very very beginning of post

- So Now I'm trying to reset my bios i guess? And I'm minutes away from saying f it and just ordering some LGA1155 motherboard and pitching the works of this thing in the trash

- The Batocera drive...the original purpose of all this, does have the correct AMD drivers on it, afaik

 

I think that's it so far, Do you have ANY suggestions for me, anything at all

 

The next thing I'm going to try is the RTCRESET, once i figure out where that jumper is, and i think it's next to the 4x PCIE slot

 

IF YOU HAVE READ THIS FAR, THANK YOU AGAIN

 

I can also send pictures if need be

[extra8]

Unfortunately, I need to check my last remaining 7010 to see if the setting exists,  but if you only planned to use the RX580, did you consider disabling the onboard graphics chip in the BIOS ?

 

If you read the long thread, there is an issue with BIOS A21 (7010) and A22 (9010) and later.  It is supposed to fix graphics compatibility issues, but I recall I had to revert to A20 for 9010 (or A19 for 7010?) to fix a particular problem with a GT710 and my former Samsung TV !

 

One recent problem I have encountered with my original 9010 MT which ran macOS Mojave through onboard HD4000 via DP socket.  For some unknown reason, Windows 10/11 graphics no longer works through HD4000 and DP socket any more.  I just get blank screen.   I even tried updating the bios from old A20 to very latest (A29) but it didn't solve the problem.    VGA works fine.  I didn't investigate any further as the machine in question was for adhoc macos testing.  I recently scrapped the 9010 board and replaced it with a spare 7010 MT board to fix the Windows DP issue.

 

I should add the same Windows SSD works fine in another 9010, and a 7010 (latest bios) and Windows graphics works fine.

 

I would try setting the Service jumper to see if that helps.

[extra8]

NVME boot drive information

 

Changing the subject, I came across this blog last summer about installing M2 NVME drives in Optiplex 3010/7010/9010.

 

https://www.tachytelic.net/2021/12/dell-optiplex-7010-pcie-nvme/

 

I tested it on my retired Optiplex 7010 MT by modding the A29 BIOS with a used  NVME drive.

 

The Adapter card was purchased from eBay China many years earlier. It was listed as "XT-XINTE SSD to PCI-E NGFF M-key M.2 NVME AHCI 16x x4 Adapter Riser Card" and looks like this googled image:

 

I think this particular green coloured adapter is discontinued.

 

It is installed into the long blue PCIe slot of the 7010 MT motherboard.

 

AS SSD benchmark under Windows returns considerably faster results with NVME compared to 2.5" SATA SSD.

 

I can also confirm the above adapter does NOT work with M2 SATA SSD.  It only works with NVME drives.