Dell Optiplex 7000 Small Form Factor Unbox and Upgrade

This video will walk through upgrading a Dell 7000 Small Form Factor. RAM will be upgraded from 4 GB to 128 GB. 2 NVMe drives will be added and 2 SATA SSD drives will be added.

[@khicks]

Hey man, just wanted to let you know that your video saved my memory upgrade plans. This machine is super picky about what kind of memory it will take, and I was at wits' end after trying two popular off-the-shelf models from Corsair and Crucial -- including one that Crucial specifically lists as compatible -- to no avail. Dell's official RAM is so expensive, and all the user forums I read suggest using DDR5, also expensive. For some reason the Optiplex 7000 SFF accepts the CT2K32G4DFD832A, which I'm happy to take as a win. And it's cheaper than the models I first tried! Thanks a ton!

[@hoyty76]

I was totally unaware of that. I guess I just got lucky with the modules I picked.

[@abertj.7365]

@@hoyty76 Which Crucial RAM did you install that worked, please exact part numbers. As I understood from the Dell site this model uses just DDR5 so @khicks how is that CT2K32G4DFD832A that's DDR4 worked?

[@hoyty76]

@@abertj.7365 there may be a version of this computer that has DDR5 but my model had DDR4.

[@davebrown6543]

Great video! Could you list the kits and parts used? Thank you!

[@hoyty76]

Samsung 990 Pro NVMe 2 TB Samsung 870 QVO SATA SSD 4 TB Crucial 64 GB DDR4 3200 Kit CT2K32G4DFD832A StarTech.com 2.5" to 3.5" SATA Hard Drive Mounting Bracket Kit 10Gtek 10Gb PCIe Dual SFP+ Intel X710-BM2

[@001dman]

hmm interesting. work just tossed one of these (i have no idea why.. they upgraded all the computers. but this one was in the "take it home with you pile". looks like its a decently upgrade-able little machine.. thinking about setting mine up as a HTPC

Great video. Please, how did you get the 3.5 inches metalic and plastic drive cage/bay? What option did you have to select to receive this parts? Thank you.

[@hoyty76]

The outer piece came with computer. The inner piece mounting the drives I ordered separately.

@@hoyty76 the outside being the metallic one, right? It's not easy to get a direct answer from Dell's sales people here in Brazil. Thank you very much.

[@christopherderasmo5041]

Hope you did the digital update for the Samsung storage.

[@yayaholistic]

Hi, thanks for the video! Quick question for ya. You said you had an issue with the “NVMe controllers having errors under heavy load”. My question is: Would replacing them with NAS rated NVME’s (like Seagate Firecuda 525 m.2 NAS nvme) fix this problem? I am considering turning my optiplex 7000 SFF into a server and wanted to get your opinion before I start buying parts.

[@hoyty76]

I don’t know. Haven’t been able to determine root cause of issue.

[@saltfork]

I'd love to know what OS you put on there. And if you have had any issues due to power constraints, or any issues with the network cards.

[@hoyty76]

I put Server 2022. No issues with network card. The biggest issue I have had is the NVMe controllers having errors under heavy load. Had to stop using them other than boot drive.

[@saltfork]

@@hoyty76 Did it seem to be when accessing more than one at once (i.e. a file copy from one file system to another) or even when accessing only one? It sucks that you ran into that but I'd have been shocked if what you did ran flawlessly.

[@hoyty76]

@@saltfork I was storing VM on the drive. It almost always happened when doing windows updates on one of the VM. Lots of intense file activity.

[@abertj.7365]

Which Crucial RAM did you install that worked, please exact part numbers. Always list the exact parts you used that worked this will help us not to order the wrong parts but the verified ones that already prooved worked.

[@przemekn.8814]

How many watts does the computer's power supply have?

[@LuisAFlorit]

Probably you would have heat problems if not used as a light server.

[@zeroturn7091]

Does Server 2022 use NTFS, or is ReFS mandatory?

[@hoyty76]

NTFS, REFS is still very limited use.

[@zeroturn7091]

@@hoyty76 Good to know I’ll give it another look as I need a more uniformed file system across my LAN to minimize downtime.

[@asfaltweg]

So this optiplex has pcie 4.0 not 3.0?

[@hoyty76]

The x16 slot is PCIe 4, the x4 is only 3.