**Dell PowerEdge T20 Mini Tower Server - Owner Thread**

Silicon Si said:
I have a few T20's they run Xeon e3 1245 v3 ( 3.40 GHz to 3.80 Ghz on boost) or the slightly faster E3 1275 v3 ( 3.50 GHz to 390 Ghz boost) both are 4 core 8 thread
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Nice... I guess depending on what your purpose is, a Xeon would be good. I just wanted to turn my T20 into a cheap gaming rig, that's why I installed the i7-4790K (4.0GHz to 4.4GHz and supports HT). I also only paid $130CAD for it, and upon inspection it looked like it was barely used. Definitely not new, but there didn't to appear much wear on the CPU.
 
Just finished upgrading the PSU in my T20 to a Seasonic Focus 650W PSU with semi-modular cables, and all went well. Had to use a 24 Pin to 8 Pin adapter to connect the PSU to the Dell motherboard. I only connected the power connecter and fan power connecter on the motherboard to the PSU. Previously, the Dell motherboard had a power cable going to the SSD and SATA drives in the bottom bay, so I just removed it. Now the PSU is powering both drives directly. Kinda silly for the motherboard to power the SSD/SATA drives, but I guess since Dell cheaped out on the stock PSU, they had to make some interesting adjustments.

I bought the following adapter to connect the PSU to the motherboard:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B06XGWRTHC/

Everything seems to be working very well so far and I haven't received any errors during boot up. I also now have the potential to upgrade my video card to something better that utilizes more power (e.g. RTX 2000/3000 series video card).
 
WeirdG said:
Just finished upgrading the PSU in my T20 to a Seasonic Focus 650W PSU with semi-modular cables, and all went well. Had to use a 24 Pin to 8 Pin adapter to connect the PSU to the Dell motherboard. I only connected the power connecter and fan power connecter on the motherboard to the PSU. Previously, the Dell motherboard had a power cable going to the SSD and SATA drives in the bottom bay, so I just removed it. Now the PSU is powering both drives directly. Kinda silly for the motherboard to power the SSD/SATA drives, but I guess since Dell cheaped out on the stock PSU, they had to make some interesting adjustments.

I bought the following adapter to connect the PSU to the motherboard:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B06XGWRTHC/

Everything seems to be working very well so far and I haven't received any errors during boot up. I also now have the potential to upgrade my video card to something better that utilizes more power (e.g. RTX 2000/3000 series video card).
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Yes one of my T20's I am modding to use with my TV I also got a Seasonic 650W gold psu SH (a year old) looks brand new with everything in the box, I installed it the other day with the adapter cable like the one you bought.

I am going to use it to watch Funimation and some other sites etc and put my music collection on it rigged up to a pair of Edifier S2000MKIII's to begin with then maybe add some movies etc, I have to get a graphics card or I may have a spare some place.
 
Silicon Si said:
Yes one of my T20's I am modding to use with my TV I also got a Seasonic 650W gold psu SH (a year old) looks brand new with everything in the box, I installed it the other day with the adapter cable like the one you bought.

I am going to use it to watch Funimation and some other sites etc and put my music collection on it rigged up to a pair of Edifier S2000MKIII's to begin with then maybe add some movies etc, I have to get a graphics card or I may have a spare some place.
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Funny enough, I upgraded my video card to a GTX 1660 Ti just this morning... lol. So far so good, and I should be good with this system or a few years now since my requirements aren't very high. I only really play the Battlefield games, and I can run all of them on Ultra High settings at 1080p now.
 
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DJMK4 said:
My T20 still running strong In 2021. The Xeon processor in this is great.
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Mine's running well too, its been a great little setup, although I've been considering an upgrade.

I've already changed the case (so I can fit more HDDs), although this does mean I get warnings for power switch etc on boot.
I've added a PCI-E SATA card (as 4 SATA ports was never going to be enough)
Added a load of SATA power cables/adaptors to allow me to have all my HDDs & additional fans connected.

I want to upgrade for a few reasons, but none of them are really enough to justify it at the moment, what with the cost of components at the moment & the amount I'd have to spend to actually get everything I want.
- Get rid of the power button/system fan warnings that require user intervention to boot
- Get a proper PSU that has a sensible number of power connections, so I can loose the load of adaptors
- Get some additional PCI-E slots, so I can add a GPU to use with a VM for a media PC (replace a media PC I have for the bedroom TV, which would allow me to move the PC to the living room)
 
Yup. Mine has been rock solid (i.e. 24/7, sat in a kitchen cupboard) since I got it over 5 years ago. 7 drives running Win 10, but used as a server. Couple of VMs.

Don't see any point in changing until it breaks.

How much were they again?! :cry:
 
robs1 said:
Yup. Mine has been rock solid (i.e. 24/7, sat in a kitchen cupboard) since I got it over 5 years ago. 7 drives running Win 10, but used as a server. Couple of VMs.

Don't see any point in changing until it breaks.

How much were they again?! :cry:
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Same :)

Far too cheap to even look at replacing!

Upgraded mine to replace 4 x 3TB and 5 x 2TB disk with 3 x 14TB and dropped ESXI for Unraid.

Still working a treat in the custom case I posted about in here ;)
 
With video cards becoming more readily available and prices starting to drop a bit, I ended up selling the GTX 1660 Ti I had in my T20 and upgraded to an RTX 3060. The price difference was about $100, so I figured it would be worth the upgrade. If I ever replace the T20, at least I'd be able to use the RTX 3060 in my next system.

Everything seems to be working well so far, and I noticed that the 3060 fans don't work as hard as the 1660 Ti fans.
 
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WeirdG said:
With video cards becoming more readily available and prices starting to drop a bit, I ended up selling the GTX 1660 Ti I had in my T20 and upgraded to an RTX 3060. The price difference was about $100, so I figured it would be worth the upgrade. If I ever replace the T20, at least I'd be able to use the RTX 3060 in my next system.

Everything seems to be working well so far, and noticed that the 3060 fans don't work as hard as the 1660 Ti fans.
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Why do you need GFX in a server?
 
My brother was finally getting rid of the system I built him back in 2011, so I snagged the Asus Xonar DX 7.1 sound card I installed in it. Fortunately I still had one free PCIe x16 slot available in the T20, so I was able to install the Xonar DX sound card (PCIe x1) in that. The EVGA RTX 3060 video card I installed a month back is blocking all of the other slots so that was my only option. It's nice little upgrade over the built-in Realtek sound. :)

XZNCs0.jpg
 
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Funny....I was just looking at bay prices with a view to upgrading/updating and flogging the old T20 off, and they seem to be selling for only a little less than I paid back in 2016.
Paid £210 after the rebate.... Might keep it for a while more.

If only there were deals like that now...
 
I've recently transplanted mine to another case. E3-1225 v3, 16GB RAM running Proxmox headless. The new case has allowed me to install a bigger PSU, DELL H310 SAS card and over 24TB storage. Didn't have room for it all in the original case.
 
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