My Early Xmas Gift: Dell Optiplex 990 SFF Desktop
Finally, I bought myself an early Xmas gift: Dell Optiplex 990 SFF Desktop!
This is my one and only PC upgrade after almost 13 years. In fact, believe me or not, I am still using the old PIII system (Asus P2B-D, Dual PIII850Mhz, 1GB Ram, 120GB HD, Windows Server 2003 Ent) as I am typing this blog.
There have been probably over 10 PC generations before this upgrade (ie, P4, Core, Core2 now the Sandy Bridge).
The configuration is the latest Intel desktop CPU Core 2, 2nd generation Sandy Bridge i5-2400 with vPro, 3.1Ghz, 4GB (2GB x 2) Ram, 500GB 7200RPM HD, Extra Broadcom NetXtreme gigabit NIC, 8x DVD +/- RW, Windows 7 Professional 64 Bits, MS Office 2010 Home Edition, 5 Years NBD service.
There are several points that I would like to highlight during the selection of this PC: 
- Buy Dell, I’ve compared other vendors like IBM/HP/Acer/Asus, nothing even comes close to this 990SFF, similar configuration will cost 20-30% more. Of course, I knew Dell’s inside sales and they have been serving me well over the last 10 years, that’s why I’ve got a good deal.
- i5-2400 is more than enough, don’t spent money on upgrading to i5-2500 or i7-2600 (4 cores with HT).
- Sandy Bridge i5-2400 comes with build-in GPU now, it’s 850Mhz HD2000 graphic processor, enough for watching 1080p HD MKV or BD-RMVB. Of course i5-2405S (2.5Ghz) is better as it comes with HD 3000, but Dell does’t sell any 2xx5 or 2xxxS i5 processor, those are for overclock amatures.
- Ivy Bridge is around the corner, but still have to wait till Mar/Apr 2012 which is too far for me. Besides who knows if there will be any problems in the new chipset (H/P/Q/Z) like before. Remember Sandy Bridge had a serious SATA chipset problem when they first release in Feb 2011, that most vendors needed to recall defected MBs, so I really don’t want to be that guinea pig.
- vPro, yes, I definitely want to try this Desktop equivalent of DRAC, saw the demo on Youtube, seems interesting.
- I want the Energy Efficient Option (90%) version of 990 SSF, but it’s not available locally, neither does Dell offer 16x DVD, also no low-power version of i5. If you are in US, you can order i5-2400S which is only 65W comparing with 95W of i5-2400.
- Found out the only Intel desktop chipset supports VMware ESX5 VT-D is Q67 and Z68, and there are less than 3 SFF in the market offer Q67 chipset, Optiplex 990 is one of them.
- People said default installation of ESX5 won’t work due to the on-board Intel 82579LM NIC is too new, probably ESX5 Update 1 will add this driver and solve the problem. For now just use a Boradcom NIC instead, or even a cheap Realtek will do.
- I compared the cost of DIY PC with Dell Optiplex 990 SSF, almost same price but Dell has 5 years site visit full warranty, I really don’t want to carry each failure piece to it’s corresponding distributor for repair and wait for over 1 week, I really hated that, no more!
- Dell’s Harddisk and Ram is still way expensive (100% more) than others even after huge discount, so I am going to buy from local computer shops, a 4GB 1333Mhz Ram is only USD20 or less, too cheap to be true! Just be reminded, bring the actual ram over to the computer shop as I heard the Optiplex ram is low profile type.
- Optiplex 990 SSF includes with many great software such as PowerDVD, Roxio Creator, Dell Backup and Recovery Manger (I will use Acronis still) and best of all Microsoft Office Starter (with Word and Excel only and that’s all I need really). It also includes PowerPoint Viewer 2010, to view and print PowerPoint slides and shows. In case you don’t know, there is also also a version called Office Web Apps which include online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
- Oh…I just read about the new coming desktop will have 8 ram slots (X79 MB with latest Sandy Bride E processor, supports Ivy Bridge and native USB 3.0 of course), so you can have 32GB ram for ESX for less than USD160, (still it’s only half price of a DDR3 1333MHz ECC Server Ram) which is DAMN cheap! With HA and DRS, who really care about the reliability? Well Google is a good example using cheap hardware for building their data center globally.
- The reason I choose Small Form Factor (SFF) is because it’s size of course and normally SSF has higher PSU 80 Plus efficiency and offers quieter experience.
- Remember I wrote about my USB 3.0 experience with Poweredge R610 previously? Now I can finally use all those “thought to be wasted “ goodies, such as HighPoint USB 3.0 HBA Dual Ports with 5Gb/s individual port, plus my Hitachi Touro 2.5” 7,200RPM 750GB USB 3.0 external harddisk (somehow it works really fast with USB 2.0 as well), also I will get one more Lacie 2TB Minimus 5,900RPM for backup purpose.
- I will also purchase a USB 3.0 IDE+SATA docking to transfer all my existing data over to the new PC.
- Finally I will install VMware workstation 8 and test all the great stuff on it, like nested ESX, MacOS, ESX 5.0 and more.
- For daily use, I only need Word and Excel, not even Access, so MS Office 2010 Home Edition is the perfect low cost solution for me. Even MS Office Starter should do most of the work, no worried about opening PowerPoint as Microsft has a free Powerpoint viewer.
- Same applies to selecting Win7Pro, I don’t need any of those additional features included with Ultimate, I could install Windows 2008 R2 Standard on this PC, but since the core is the same for Windows 7 and W2K8 now and Windows 7 supports more multimedia devices, so why bother.
Update Dec 13, 2011
Btw, I’ve got my Optiplex 990 for almost a week now, I love the compactness and it’s really quiet even I placed it near my bed. Somehow, the internal 7200RPM 500GB boots up Windows 7 Pro in less than 15 seconds, this really makes me wonder if I still need to add the SSD caching (e.g., OCZ Synapse SSD). Anyway, I still ordered the special 2.5″ hard disk bracket for future upgrade which can fit 2 x 2.5″ SSD or HD+SSD.
The other things is the default 4GB is enough for now, may add more later when I run VMWare Workstation 8 on top. Don’t have time to play this especially Xmas coming. 
My 2.5″ USB 3.0 external 7200RPM Hitachi Touro is lightning fast around 116MB/s when testing with HDTune, even faster than the internal 3.5″ Western Digital Blue 500GB (about 105MB/s), comparing to my existing PIII 33MB/s ATA (actually 12MB/s tested), this is almost 10 times more). Again the nice thing is I choosed that cheap Syba USB 3.0 card instead of Highpoint again because it doesn’t require external power, and 990SSF only has two SATA power cables which I will use for the above two 2.5″ disks later. Of course there is SATA split cables, as I don’t want to complicate the cables and reliability is another reason.
Last but not least, the integrated Intel HD 2000 Display Port to DVI works perfectly with my old Dell Ultrasharp 2007FP (somehow Dell still sells it even now), it can output 1600×1200dpi sharper than ever, I can finally enjoy 1080p HD MKV movie and I noticed the CPU usage is only 2%, crazy low!
Update Dec 28, 2011
Finally received my 2.5″ HD Kit from Dell after the holiday. I have to say it’s a very hard to find item, took me a few days to google and talked to my sales in order to locate this Kit set. My advice is to order the complete Kit Set, not invididual parts, as it includes many extra items such as SATA split cable, SATA cable, 4 screws (why 4 instead of 8? well, Dell expects you to use the 4 screws from original HD, that’s why this kit is called Extra Parts not Replacement Parts) and one more blue plastic HD holder, so R494D alone is not enough.
Update Jan 19, 2012
There has been a very strange problem with my Optiplex 990 SSF recently, it will simply power on itself automatically. I’ve searched around and found nothing, not even local Dell support was able to solve this myth.
Finally, I was able to locate the root of the problem, it’s related to Intel vPro or AMT (Active Management Technology) and the auto power on problem has nothing to do with BIOS setting or particular the WOL setting.
By default Intel vPro has it’s own WOL and my PC is connected to an always-on fiber modem, so probably it received a WOL packet from the Internet. You can refer to AMT mannual for more information.
The solution is simply disable AMT for the time being (btw, the default password is “admin”) and I shall study more regarding vPro and how to use it and how to avoid such thing happen later.
Update Jan 30, 2012
The PC turns itself on problem continues and I tried one more thing to disable NIC with PXE and hope this will solve the problem completely.
Update Mar 14, 2012
The previous mysterious PC automatically turn on issue has been solved for sure, now it’s time to due with overall noise reduction.
After some research, I’ve figured out the most possible noise emission is from the main system fan (8cm fan), although the 1500RPM fan itself is already a better than normal quality, it still produces a noticeable amount of noise pollution.
So what you may have already guessed, yeah! Pull it OFF! Dangerous to do? Not really! It’s because the CPU has it’s own passive heat sink with fan, power supply never really pushing to 100% as my PC is mainly used for browsing the net, daily word processing as well as watching some HD movies. The part needs the most cooling is RAM, after running for 1 hour with all sorts of activities, HWiNFO shows RAM merely went over 30C and hard disk also stays below 35C, that’s why I conclude and convinced it’s safe to do so.
If I want to reduce the noise further, the default 3.5″ 7200RPM hard disk will be my next target, simply by replacing it with a 2.5″ 5400RPM or SSD will make my Optiplex 990 SSF almost completely silent, but since my Dell carries 5 years warranty, I will probably let go on that option.
Finally, another big advantage by disconnecting the main 8cm system fan is reduction in dust pollution, my 990 SSF was like a dust sucking machine before, and it’s no longer the case, um…I wonder how come main stream Optiplex 390/990 doesn’t come with a dust filter like Optiplex XE?
Update Mar 20, 2012
I’ve decided to put back the fan as it’s not a good idea after all, as the hard disk went over 40+ degrees after running for a few hours.
Update Jun 10, 2015
The biggest problem with Optiplex SFF is dust! Searching for that official dust filter for Optiplex for years in vain, ending up doing my own, simply cut a piece of water filter material for fish tank (9.5cm x 7.5cm) and put in front of SFF’s main fan. That’s it, it does the job beautifully as I’ve been running this configuration for the past 2 months, bulletproof, it works!
990SF is a nice machine, that I order 3 of them, for my Nanjing office, on May-2011.
Do you happen to know the model name of the upcoming Dell desktops? I’m about to buy 990 to run purely as an ESXi host but the extra 4 slots in the new OptiPlex desktops got me wondering… Hmmm
What do you mean by extra 4 slots? Mid-Tower version has 4 pci-e slot? I will only use it for lab testing purpose, so I will install VMWare Workstation 8 and put ESXi 5 on top.
Oh…sorry I don’t know the naming of the upcoming OP, probably Optiplex 1000? (990+10)
Shouldn’t made myself more clear, I was on about the RAM slots… 990s have 4 for maximum of 16GB of RAM so if the “updated” version will have 8 of them the total of 32GB of RAM should be possible – sweet for a very capable ESXi host in my books!
May be, since I’ve seen the new Ivy Bridge high-end MB X79 having 8 DIMMs slots.
However, I doubt SSF or MT form factor will have 8 DIMMS, besides, I read many encountered strange things running ESX5 with desktop PC, most of them solved by adding an 3rd party Realtek or Intel NIC. It’s really trial and error, my suggestion is to wait till others tried it before you buy it, I am sure you don’t want to be the first testing guinea pig right?
Still if you are only aiming for emulating ESX environment, then better get a VMWare workstation, then you can setup say 2 ESX host with VCenter, a iSCSI target and even running MacOS all within the same PC.
Just got the confirmation that the new Optiplex will have 4 DIMM slots, they gonna call it 9010 so you got it almost right…
My desktop has 24GB of RAM and 3 different RAID arrays on three different cards so plenty of spindles and power to ryn anything I throw at it.
Integrated Intel NIC doesn’t work with ESXi, tested this myself as we get loads of them at work so had a play already.
Would you mind posting the link to the bracket that can fit 2 SSDs elbow the slim DVD drive? It would be appreciated.
I’m gonna get my SFF version of 990 very soon and turn it into the smallest and fastest ESXi 5 yet to be seen
The DELL P/N for 2.5″ bracket is R494D, cost about USD3, but shipping costs is over USD15.
Latest news about Ivy Bridge Processor coming out in April 2012. (see, I wouldn’t want to wait for another 4-6 months)
Intel may unveil its next generation of processors–nicknamed “Ivy Bridge”–in April, according to the latest reports. The Ivy Bridge chips for desktops and laptops promise a 37 percent performance increase over the current generation of Sandy Bridge processors.
The new Ivy Bridge CPUs use a 22-nanometer architecture, which makes them almost 30 percents smaller than the current chips, which use a 32nm architecture. Smaller chips mean lower power consumption (which is great for battery life) and more room for the integrated graphics chip. Ivy Bridge will support DirectX 11, Thunderbolt, and USB 3.0.
Taiwan-based trade publication DigiTimes reports that the first Ivy Bridge processors to launch will be quad-core desktop processors: the Core i7-3370 series and the Core i5-3570, 3550, and 3450. Because Ivy Bridge is backward-compatible with existing Sandy Bridge motherboards, desktop users should have an upgrade path available.
The first Ivy Bridge notebook chips to launch, according to DigiTimes, will be the Core i7 chips as well: The Core i7-3920QM, 3820QM, and 3720QM. Core i5 processors will pop up later.
Intel 新一代 Ivy Bridge 系列處理器將於明年 4 月起分批推出市場，採用 22nm 制程，分別推出 Core i7 和 Core i5 系列，最高為四核心八線程。據瞭解，首批 Ivy Bridge 系列處理器價格已經確定，其中最高規格的 Core i7-3770K 定價為每千顆 332 美元，將直接取代現有的 Core i7-2700K 。
首批 Ivy Bridge 系列處理器可分為 Core i7-3770 、 Core i5-3570 、 Core i5-3550 和 Core i5-3450 四大型號，除了標準版本以外，當中部份型號又加入了無鎖頻的 K 版本、低功耗 S 版本和超低功耗 T 版本。
其中 Core i7-3770 共推出了 Core i7-3770K 、 Core i7-3770 、 Core i7-3770S 和 Core i7-3770T 四款，時脈依次為 3.5GHz 、 3.4GHz 、 3.1GHz 和 2.5GHz ，並支援最高加速至 3.9GHz ，內建 8MB L3 Cache ，功耗則由最高 77W 至最低 45W TDP 。
價格方面，最高規格的 Core i7-3770K 每千顆定價為 332 美元，價格將直接取代現有的 Core i7-2700K ；其餘三款型號每千顆價格均為 294 美元，將分別取代現有的 Core i7-2600 和 Core i7-2600S 。
四核心四線程的 Core i5 系列方面， Core i5-3570K 時脈為 3.4GHz ，最高支援至 3.8GHz ，每千顆價格為 225 美元，將取代 i5-2500k ； Core i5-3570T 時脈為 2.3GHz ，最高支援至 3.3GHz ， Core i5-3550 和 Core i5-3550S 時脈分別為 3.3GHz 和 3GHz ，最高支援至 3.7GHz ，每千顆價格為 205 美元，將直接取代 Core i5-2500T 、 i Core i5-2500 、 Core i5-2500 和 i5-2500S ； Core i5-3450 和 Core i5-3450S 時脈分別為 3.1GHz 和 2.8GHz ，最高支援至 3.5GHz ，每千顆價格為 184 美元，將取代 i5-2400 和 Core i5-2400S 。
此外， Intel 還將於五月加推一款雙核心四線程 Ivy Bridge 低功耗處理器，型號為 Core i5-3470T ，內建 3MB L3 Cache ，核心時脈為 2.9GHz ，最高支援 3.6GHz ，功耗低至 33W TDP ，每千顆價格為 184 美元，將取代 Core i5-2390T 。
Hey, where did you get this bracket from exactly? Are you able to reveal your source?
I ordered it directly from my Dell Inside Sales, the description on the invoice:
Kit – Bracket & SATA Cable for 2.5″ HDD for MT/SFF (~ USD16)
Oh…some update about 990 SFF, I read here that someone got the default Intel 82579 working with ESXi 5.0 and he posted a simple way to install the specific driver for it as well.
For me, I will simply install VMWare Workstation 8.0 on top of my 990 SFF and try ESXi 5.0, VT-d and MacOS later.
I’ve also added extra 8GB (4GB x 2, only ~ USD40) to my 990 SFF, so total is 12GB, more than enough to do most of the things I want.
Finally, congras to your newly obtained VCP!
我找遍整個網絡，很長時間了，才發現這麽一篇很全面介紹Optiplex 990的文章，非常感謝。
其次，最重要的我在這裡找到了關於原配3.5英寸硬盤的Optiplex 990，怎麽升級成兩塊2.5英寸硬盤的相關信息。
我的問題是，你額外購買的僅僅是R494D，也就是圖片中右邊的那個藍色物體？
搭配了原來的硬盤架就可以裝兩個2.5英寸硬盤了？
不知道你更換了2.5英寸硬盤沒有？如果更換了，是否可以拍一下更換好以後的樣子。
我現在就是想原配了3.5英寸硬盤，想更換成2塊2.5英寸硬盤，SSD+普通7200硬盤，但是找了好久都沒眉目。
再次感謝博主。
不客氣。
R494D(就是右邊的藍色架子)是不夠的，需要整套如圖里所示的那全部4個配件才行。
而且那個是2.5寸的的硬盤架，不是原來3.5寸的那個。
我後來還是沒更換，因為原裝的3.5寸好好的，有5年保養，不想浪費了。
所以我現在的方法是3.5寸+SSD(用來玩VMWare Workstation)，詳情請看這裡。
謝謝你的及時答復，解決了我長久以來的一塊心病，我也可以效仿你這麽做了，我買一個鐵盒的SSD好啦，這樣剛好貼著990的外殼，散熱問題不用擔心。SSD規格應該都能塞下去吧。
另外，還請問R494D右上角那個綫是什麽作用的？這一整套要16美金呀？一點不便宜。
全名就是“Kit – Bracket & SATA Cable for 2.5″ HDD for MT/SFF”，我的意思，我找DELL的銷售說買這個，能買到吧。有可能的話，還是要效仿你，收一套以備不時之需。
那個是電源延長線，因為原規格的Power Supply只有兩個電源插頭，一個給了3.5″ Harddisk，另一個給了DVD Rom。
Kit – Bracket & SATA Cable for 2.5 HDD for MT/SFF (~ USD16)已經包括全部4件配件。
其實我那個土方法已經夠玩，如無必要，不建議買以上的配件，我也是以防不時之需才買的。
奇怪了，我的是有多餘的電源綫。
在另外一個論壇上有人告訴我，只需要R494D即可，把兩塊2.5英寸的硬盤，分別安裝到R494D的正反面，然後塞入原來的YJ221（就是原配3.5英寸的藍色塑料硬盤托架），即可放入機箱。和你這邊的説法不一致呢，疑惑。
太可惜了，因為我竟然找不到那Kit了，啊!!! 完全忘記了放在哪裡了，所以只能等
待你之後的試驗報告了。
噢，請告知令一個論壇的關於這個問題的連接，謝了。
I found my 2.5″ Kit again this morning and compared with the original 3.5″ disk holder.
I can confirm it’s the same blue plastic HD holder, so all you need is R494D plus the power split cable if you are going to put two 2.5″ in your 990 SFF.
谢谢确认！