Dell OptiPlex 3050 Micro Project TinyMiniMicro Guide

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In our Dell OptiPlex 3050 Micro Project TinyMiniMicro guide and CE review, we compare this system to other TMM nodes we have tested. We check out some of the key features we found when testing this and comparing it to the other nodes we purchased.
Also, we are trying a few new light/ camera/ lens options in this video, some did not go well.
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Table of Contents
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00:00 Introduction
02:21 External Hardware Overview
09:50 Internal Hardware Overview
15:05 Performance
16:27 Power Consumption
16:54 Key Lessons Learned
19:00 Wrap-up
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Other STH Articles Mentioned in this Video
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Other STH articles referenced in this video:
- Project TinyMiniMicro Catalog forums.servethehome.com/index...
- Plex on Project TinyMiniMicro Guide www.servethehome.com/sth-proj...
- pfSense Firewall on Project TinyMiniMicro Guide www.servethehome.com/guide-ti...

[@ulkesh78]

I ran hundreds of these through my shopfloors when I worked for GE. Great little machines for basic use. Usually pretty stable and very few issues too.

[@BankvsYouTV]

Been in IT for just about 40 years. I just bought 4 of these to replace office WS. Thanks for the video.

[@inlinesk8r477]

This is my favorite series. I set up for a lot of people little servers, desktops, linux workstations, virtualization boxes, and compute clusters. Since I don't have time to search them all, so this series always helps me

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

We have it linked in the description but there is a guide in our forums to different options over many different generations

[@twogbsd]

I love how enthusiastic you are for each video!

[@Wasmachineman]

I have a OptiPlex 3040 I use as a seedbox. AWESOME machine for the money. Popped in a SM863 960GB SSD and 16GB of RAM and even with the lowest-end CPU option (the Celeron G3900T) it flies! Oh, and under 5W idle use with a rather hefty undervolt.

[@ShantonuSarker]

back in 2017, i had 16 tiny PC clusters (m93p) , costs around $120 each with 8gb/i5. These are great for small server (24/7 usages). With wake on LAN option, it was super easy to manage via remote.

[@amosgiture]

The camera work is notably more cinematic, those flyby zoomed in shots of the inside of the system are super cool.

[@kerezymaii]

We have these at work. As a computer interested person, I wondered what their specs were like. Never seen such a tiny desktop PC before

[@bret44]

on my 3040, you can unscrew the logo from the back and rotate it.

[@cyboric]

Is the 3040 worth it???? I saw a decent price in my local used tech supplier

[@bret44]

@@cyboric it's a dual core system so it's really only good for productivity/browsing but for that it works very well if you have at least 8gb of ram

[@ErraticPT]

Nice closeup of the dirt and dust.😉

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

This one was surprisingly dusty. New macro lens setup clearly needs more light but it gets into these systems. First time using it in a video so I was surprised to see how well it captured the dust even without enough light

[@crickettheath3348]

I have this little tower. I got a crappy 126GB m.2 nvme drive and NO network card but everything was in working order. I bought a new Samsung EVO 870 500GB SSD from Amazon , a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card and kit from Ebay, and "clean" installed Windows 11 x64 in it without issue. Everything working smoothly. My 6th gen unit came with a TPM 2.0 already installed so I didn't have to "hack" install the OS. Over all, a nice system that doesn't take up space under/on my small desk. It actually hides under my 24" monitor that sits on a stand. NICE!

[@Mireaze]

I feel like the cosmetic damage, such as the loose face plate just add character to the used machines, and lets them tell a story. But then again maybe I'm just crazy 😂

[@manuelgp343]

I got this baby for ~200 euros last week (6400T, 16GB DDR4, 128GB, Intel AC Wifi), got blown away by the amazing performance of the 6400T I was used to the 4590T for my homelab which is 22nm and heats like a little bonfire, this thing on the other hand takes a beating without going above 50 (C) degrees.

[@CarthagoMike]

That's a pretty good deal, especially with 16GB instead of 8GB.

[@t0p_snek407]

i just picked one of these up at a yard sale for 2 bucks lol, works fine and i couldnt be happier

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

Wow! Awesome.

[@taichanie]

I have a 3050 Micro. I bought it for 200 Shipped with a "I3 7100t" this was fine as all I wanted it for was a tiny machine to take with me to hotels and hook to the TV that could do HEVC. Well I got it and it was a I3 6100t. Because of work I literally couldn't ship it back before return period was over so got some reimbursement from the seller. Sold 6100t and stuck a normal desktop 7th gen G series cpu in the computer. Between the reimbersement and selling the cpu I had $40 into the machine. Picked up a cheap NVME SSD (Spinning drive gets used for media storage) and now have a great little portable media player that works even when the hotels wifi sucks.

[@traderryan713]

Might have to get one for my van as my trading computer. I just need to be able to run 3 monitors. But no special graphcis, just think or swim. Researching and learning.

[@allezvenga7617]

Thanks for your sharing

[@Standbackforscience]

Patrick definitely has the gift of the gab.

[@dimitristsoutsouras2712]

Does this system with latest bios able to run a xeon E3 1200 v2 or v3 depend on the chipset I ve tried on a optiplex 7010 with xeon and embedded graphics and played out really well and I was able to passthrough things. Of course here I don t see a point to care for that vt-d option since you dont have anything to passthrough to a possible VM OS.

[@edurm6766]

I love these videos. I snagged a 3070 with an i5-9500T for around $220 recently. It was essentially brand new with 4 months of warranty left. I’m not sure if it was ever used. My purchase was all based on this video series. I upgraded the RAM, changed the thermal paste, and added a SATA SSD. I’m planning on running Proxmox so I can use FreeNAS as a NAS and offload any VMs/Jails I was using onto the 3070. These things are awesome for the price. I have an 8th Gen i5 NUC, but the girlfriend is now using it to work from home. I like the 3070 way more at this point. The only thing missing is Thunderbolt. Keep it up and thanks!

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

That is an awesome snag Ed!

[@Sam-kx7jc]

Just bought three of these with i5 7500T and 8GB Ram for £70 each. Can’t wait to start home labbing!

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

Awesome!!!

[@monkohm6918]

I am so happy I stumbled onto this series. I am moving house soon and have been racking my brain as to what I should put under the TV and play nice with 4k60 over HDMI (as my main PC will be relegated to an office) to be able to use Steam Home Streaming along with light web browsing and this kind of thing looks perfect. Until now I had assumed that a Ryzen APU build was my only route. Edit: Oh man, the 3060 with the 8500T looks perfect. £270 is not bad money really...

[@pieterschaar5613]

Be careful intel CPU's don't do 4k60 until the 11th Gen, all before them are 4k30, you can how ever get an active adaptor from DP 1.2 to HDMI 2.0 (4k60) to get around this

[@monkohm6918]

@@pieterschaar5613 Thanks for letting me know. I checked the 8500T on ark earlier and saw 4k60 marked as supported. I assume that is via DP only, with HDMI limited to 4k30? Looks like i'm back to searching for a APU build then when adapter cost is factored in, unless the Dell outlet or similar comes to the rescue.

[@pieterschaar5613]

@@monkohm6918 That's right DP 1.2 can but HDMI 1.4 can't, need HDMI 2.0 for 4k60

[@SimmanGodz]

I can't rotate the logo? Hard pass for me. Going back to my 386 machine.

[@GoWstingray]

I got an i7 6700 in my elite desk mini when work ordered it a few years ago, so HP offer higher end cpus. Never missed a beat and it on 24/7 great little desktop.

[@thaiefahmed9561]

It looks cute.

[@daniariyanto]

I hope you answer my question, Can I upgrade the 2.5 HDD drive to 5tb capacity that have Z-Height 15mm.

[@speed402]

Hey, i am thinking about getting one for autocad use, will it run it?

[@nickb953]

I order this but I have little issue. What is power adapter as there are different version with difference in the pin dimension. Thanks

[@tomcat2512]

Would the M.2 slot a PCIE that can fill in by NVME?

[@noahlistgarten7832]

It's not strictly Tiny/Mini/Micro, but would love to see a video of the Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra (in monitor stand computer).

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

We have the Lenovo M90n queued so I have been looking for the 7070 Ultra around the same price.

[@faridbang9851]

Could I buy one of these with a Pentium G4400T and put in an i5 6600k that i have laying around? would it automatically limit the cpu to not exceed the power budget?

[@andrewshearstone1101]

I've got the dell optiplex 3020 and my logo moves mine only has DP and VGA though :(

[@kreemliin]

Hey Patric 👋 i just picked one up for a unbeatable 80$, i have an issue where my cpu is locked at .79 ghz also would a 90w adapter work ?? it came with an aftermarket charger with a plug adapter.. worried the psu is the culprit, seems like it’s to spec tho..? any help greatly appreciated 🤝

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

Great price. Good chance the PSU is the issue. These 1L PCs usually sense which PSUs are attached. Otherwise I am not sure what might cause that

[@NikitaLab]

Hey Pat have you considered the Wyse units for TinyMiniMicro? I think the 3040 is really neat

[@charlesturner897]

I think they'd be quite limited, I have one that I'm planning to use as a pfsense router, not sure what else you could do with them

[@TRFH94]

You can swap the limiting 8/16GB eMMC memory chip to increase storage capacity, i‘ve done this already on three Units and installed Windows 10 Pro on them, works flawlessy, one of them is running as a office computer in my family.

[@Ressy66]

3050's are perfect for freepbx, can handle hundreds of calls

[@MEADVICE]

Very in depth but can the processor be upgraded or is it soldered to the board

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

The 1L PCs are socketed. The 0.35L PCs (smaller than this like the Lenovo Nano) are soldered.

[@reynaldoranoa9653]

Sir good day, sir I want to ask, if the OS of this dell 3050 micro is installed on the 2.5inch ssd, but you put an NVME SSD that also has the OS installed, but you don't use the 2.5inch ssd will it boot up?

[@anirudhnagulakonda4266]

Can you look at the Dell Opitplex 3020 Micro?

[@meegmemes]

Should I buy one and install proxmox on it?

[@geonerd]

I'd love a portable computer, and am patiently (Grrr...) waiting for a Renoir based NUC or micro.

[@Zosu22]

ASUS has some Renoir nucs though I don’t know if they have any supply.

[@BrianThomas]

Does anyone know if the WIFI M.2 slot can be used for something else? Like a hardware decoder for example. Is it WIFI only?

[@Ivansgarage]

Do you have any mini lenovos for sale

[@user-er2xl6rh5p]

does it have ell OptiPlex 3050 optical input?

[@Waaaaaaaaaaaang]

Aren't these videos supposed to be published on Mondays?

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

Great question. Usually, we aim for weekends with these. Monday's tend to have a lot of STH coverage with product announcements. For example, last week we had Flash Memory Summit. This week is Supercomputing. Every so often these TMM videos get a Monday or Friday slot but they are usually planned for the weekend.

[@jacekjagosz]

It is already monday where I am

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

@@jacekjagosz Running a bit late this week :-)

[@tjmarx]

It's Monday in Australia... Great video mate, love the new lighting

[@tryhard-vanis6653]

i’ve had this pc for years. I’m barley finding out about the logo rotation..

[@martinrandall3735]

Only thing I've found with the Micro 30'xx' series Optiplexes is getting replacement blower fans seems to be a nightmare in the UK, other than that they seem a great little unit

[@Itsallfun3000]

Yes exactly! Did you have any luck? Mine is noisy :(

[@martinrandall3735]

@@Itsallfun3000finally got one on ebay but that was just as noisy as the original

[@Itsallfun3000]

@martinrandall3735 yeah that's my worry. It's not the fan itself that's noisy, I have found it's it's surround it resonates. In a very annoying way. Very irritating. Did you keep it or get rid?

[@martinrandall3735]

@@Itsallfun3000 sadly not, but it lives in a media cabinet now so I can't hear it when the TV is on

[@markland4575]

Hi Patrick, do any of these TinyMiniMicros support thunderbolt?

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

We did not get any that do, but some have options. For example the Lenovo M720, M920, M920x or P330 Tiny have a riser card that has TB3.

[@markland4575]

@@ServeTheHomeVideo awesome, I'll look into those! Thanks for the quick reply 👍

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

@@markland4575 Do a bit of research. Sometimes extras can be expensive. I think HP and Dell have options too so you may be able to find one with it built-in which can save you a lot on this.

[@nenon809]

Wi fi and Bluetooth solution is to buy usb antenas.

[@technics6215]

Which of these Micro computers has 2 NVMe slots?

[@kiwisoup1]

Can you guys do a comparison overview video comparing the Lenovo ThinkCentre series / Dell Optiplex micro series / HP elitedesk series

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

Which generation?

[@kiwisoup1]

@@ServeTheHomeVideo any/all just a general overview of which direction may be best to go in. Or perhaps a list of the 5 best micro PCs. I think that would make for a great video. I noticed in this video you mentioned that the Dell has a cool blue disk drive tray which makes it stand out from the Lenovo and HP + the moveable dell logo on the higher end models. Noise is a big factor for me when deciding which of these micro PCs I want to go with. I've read a lot of text reviews online which seem to suggest that the HP elitedesk series is one of the loudest of the three. Apparently some of the Lenovo models have an issue where the fan runs at max even while idling. While others review the Dell as quiet. Thanks heaps for you consideration and keep up the great work.

[@kojack57]

Hey I've searched and getting mixed results. I bought a 3050 which came with an i5-7500t. I don't have the power brick yet but I know the machine works. Can these go to i7 for the extra threads and is Intel VT-x supported. I plan on a Linux install and using virt-manager. Any advice appreciated.

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

These are socketed platforms, just need to confirm that you have another supported T series part. To me, I would probably skip that upgrade and save money for a newer model down the line.

[@kojack57]

@@ServeTheHomeVideo Ouch! That's a lot of cash for an i7-7700T. Same price almost as the entire 3050.

[@CuntyMcShitballs100]

I've just bought a 3060 with no wifi card. Could I get wifi by plugging in a usb wifi dongle? Or do I need the card too?

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

Usually the WiFi card is better, but USB is easier and often cheaper. Depends on what you need

[@CuntyMcShitballs100]

@@ServeTheHomeVideo ok thanks

[@Unknow88]

Which one should I choose? Optiflex 3060 or Thinkcentre 720/920q?

[@andreass.7152]

Lenovo

[@K.J.S.S.J]

I want this motherboard

[@rupashrestha2139]

can we add graphics card on this CPU for playing games or photo editing ?

[@weekendwarrior3420]

My concern with little PCs is that the fan is very noisy. Would be good if you mentioned that.

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

In newer videos, we are doing more on power/ noise to let people hear what is going on.

[@Wasmachineman]

I have a 3040, it's VERY quiet. Quieter than my ThinkPad P50 in fact!

[@ClaytonEverett]

What's the problem with using a dongle to add wifi/bluetooth capabilities?

[@nassim99345]

no problem i think, he didnt even mention that

[@brentgreeff1115]

Where are you buying this off-lease Dell? - ebay or elsewhere?

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

Usually ebay, but sometimes from our forums or elsewhere.

[@brentgreeff1115]

@@ServeTheHomeVideo - thanks, enjoying the vids.

[@privateunkown6998]

Will an i7700 T or 6700 work in this micro PC????

[@weekendwarrior3420]

5:45 those DP->HDMI converters can be wonky, with so much garbage on amazon it's a hassle.

[@retrodoodmanx7161]

can the ram be replaced ? i saw one for 160 and it says it has 8gb ram 1tbhdd, 500ssd, wifi and has windows 10 pro inside. Its used BTW

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

Yes. Just DDR4 SODIMMs.

[@retrodoodmanx7161]

@@ServeTheHomeVideo thank you

[@maRy-zjt]

300 something dollars is insane, i got one in 2024 for 80-120 $

[@randar3]

Aaaaah, I was wondering why my 7040 had a silver logo and the 3050 was black.

[@weekendwarrior3420]

I think it might be a good idea to blow the dust off instead of magnifying it. Unless it's a PC cleaning video.... I don't like eating dinner staring at dust.

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

It turns out that dust is common in these used PCs and has a notable impact on the power consumption and noise. We used to leave it in just to show folks as a reminder that they should take a look

[@aisomusic]

So much dust inside that unit

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

Yea that is part of what we wanted to show given we are buying these used

[@dnmr]

that's what 40 bucks' worth of dust looks like 👌

[@Miles-Oldenburger]

i got one from offerup last night, buyer scammed me, no ssd (she put an enclosure in to make it look like there was), 8GB instead of 16 GB ram like the listing said and then she took out the CPU!!

[@firsttyrell6484]

This piece of hardware could use some cleaning.

[@FLOODOFSINS]

You will now get this for about $170.

[@hugevibez]

Speaking of ocd in terms of things being oriented in the right way, your desk or camera angle is crooked and it's driving me mad!

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

Saw that after the recording was wrapped. Tried fixing until I realized that the table was at the off angle.

[@hugevibez]

@@ServeTheHomeVideo maybe Nvidia could have helped you with some ML warp video editing tool🤔

[@alistairblaire6001]

Until I read the full title, I thought you were saying Project Honeybee Micro

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

Listening to Blake Shelton in the background by chance? :-)

[@raginald7mars408]

this morning: on - off on - off - on off - I had to take it completely apart, BIOS reset... then...slowly, after many neuro Surgeries it came back- resurrected. scary death Solar Eclipse not enough solar magnetic eruptions

[@Non-Fungible-Gangsta]

I can't say Tiny Mini Micro. My body won't let me.

[@ericlks13]

Doesn’t work with windows 11 sigh!

[@esteveguineueta2328]

what the hell, 300 and something dollars? not expensive? that price was even before the market explosion of components. If you spent 350 bucks for a second hand one on 2020-2021, sorry, you have been robbed. I just bought one last year for 150 with 8Gb of RAM and 120GB SSD.

[@RichardBuckerCodes]

for the price the Intel NUC (SKULL) is still the best product.... even a system76 mini is in the same price range... consider a ($1000-$1200)system76 or a inte nuc with an i7 and 64GB of ram. A dell 3050 with 4GB ram at $350... you would need 16x 3050 to get 64GB of RAM which costs $5600 not to mention the cost of the UPS and networking.

[@Saphykitten]

Wow. I’m absolutely the customer that cares about that dumb feature

[@ohmygod1986]

Ocd LuL

[@homegeographic5351]

bad lighting. can you see the shadow around the mouth?

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

Totally. Aputure Light Dome II Minis have already been replaced by the old softboxes.

[@homegeographic5351]

@@ServeTheHomeVideo yup. better before. but, remember Patrick, as much as you want to give your equipment(camera etc.) good use and value for the money, your channel will always be about high server tech stuff.

[@ygjt76v0-----]

Dell wyse pls

[@dorasmith7875]

It takes him half the video of gabbing about this and that and himself and everything else, to even talk about the computer and then he never shows us how to take off the top! But that's specifically what Google brought me here for.

[@CatatonicImperfect]

well, Google lied to you. That's not what this video is about.