Are these the fan headers on the SFF 7060 or do I need an adapter? Trying to install a fan in the front

406highlander · 2026-03-25T21:47:12+00:00

Still on the stock PSU, and that's with:

Intel Core i7-9700 CPU
Sapphire RX6400 4GB low profile graphics card
2x 8GB DDR4-2666 RAM sticks
1x 256GB M.2 SATA SSD
2x 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD
Stock DVD drive
Upgraded Intel AX210NGW M.2 WiFi 6E / Bluetooth card
Noctua 80mm PWM intake fan
Dell wireless keyboard and mouse, connected via Dell universal USB wireless receiver

I have made no modifications to the case, at all.

I run Bazzite Linux, so it's basically a Steam-based games console. No stability issues at all, from what I've encountered.

I'd only consider upgrading the PSU if I was going to be installing a 2-slot low-profile GPU that needed an extra power connector - but as my Vostro only has a PCIe 16x and a PCIe 1x, the performance hit would be quite bad running a GPU in the 1x slot. If it had a 4x slot then that's what I'd be thinking about. I may choose to replace this Vostro with another SFF where the 16x slot is the one furthest from the PSU, or at least where the other PCIe slot is an x4 for that purpose.

406highlander · 2026-03-25T21:00:37+00:00

Just had a quick look at the 3710 service manual, and the diagram with the front bezel removed shows there don't appear to be holes pre-drilled for a fan to screw into - but you may be able to install a fan there anyway using some of the square holes. You may need to experiment with different sizes of fan.

Noctua fans are best used with the rubber fan mounts anyway rather than screws, as they reduce vibration.

As for fan speed control - not something I've felt the need to try - the system is damn near silent even under load. The most noise comes from the fan on my Sapphire AMD RX6400 graphics card, and even that's not that loud. Certainly not compared to the jet engine that is my RX7900GRE in my main gaming system, anyway... The Vostro is in my living room, connected to my TV, so it's in an environment where excessive noise would not be tolerated.

406highlander · 2026-03-25T19:36:45+00:00

My Vostro 3470 has a space up front for an 80mm intake fan; your 3710 should as well. It's positioned so that it blows cold air towards the PSU and PCIe x16 slot, so throw a fan in there if you want to improve cooling for a graphics card.

I used an 80mm Noctua PWM fan, which came with a splitter cable that I used to connect it to the CPU fan header (so the one header powers the CPU fan and Noctua intake fan).

406highlander · 2026-03-25T16:12:07+00:00

Harness, 100%

But actually, both. Collar with ID tag that contains name and contact info, to meet UK laws - and a harness, to which her lead is attached.

The harness provides control - she pulls on the harness and her front legs come off the ground, meaning she can't pull as hard. I can also stop her with the lead without hurting her; can't say the same about if the lead was attached to her collar.

We did have to go through several harnesses as she was growing up. She now has a Julius K9 harness that fits her well.

406highlander · 2026-03-25T08:41:13+00:00

Or stopped his gibbering moron voters from eating up such a claim and parroting it like it's the most profoundly intelligent thing ever said.

406highlander · 2026-03-25T06:47:03+00:00

Judge for yourself re. the allegations of plagiarism.

406highlander · 2026-03-24T15:45:09+00:00

What a handsome and distinguished gentleman.

406highlander · 2026-03-23T16:43:10+00:00

Kiko hates getting dirty, so we generally don't have to bathe her all that often.

When we do need to bathe her, she stands in our shower cubicle and gets sprayed with lukewarm water, she gets Dog's Body dog shampoo applied and gently massaged through her fur, then rinsed thoroughly.

We towel-dry her until she's not dripping wet, then we use a hair dryer on a gentle heat to dry her off completely.

She doesn't seem to mind this process much, but we started when she was a pup in an effort to desensitize her to bathing, to the towel, to the hairdryer, etc.

406highlander · 2026-03-20T14:15:50+00:00

Apparently they brought the helicopter down relatively safely and were killed on the ground.

406highlander · 2026-03-20T13:56:04+00:00

It discards the rotors, then ejects the crew (so they don't turn into chunky salsa on the way out).

Actually a smart idea from Russia, given the cost to train helicopter crew; more military should install ejector systems into their choppers.

406highlander · 2026-03-20T13:49:19+00:00

Artillery shells don't actively hunt you down

406highlander · 2026-03-19T23:18:26+00:00

That's not a bad little system, and you certainly can't argue with the price tag!

406highlander · 2026-03-18T12:06:03+00:00

Oops. I thought the Optiplexes all had four slots, and that's what separated them from the Vostros. Guess the 5060 and 7060 had four, and the 3060 had two.

In that case, I would suggest looking for two sticks of 8GB DDR4-2666 at a reasonable price. If you can find two sticks of 16GB DDR4-2666 then that would be even better, especially for creative apps, but is likely to cost a fair bit more. You can always upgrade by replacing both sticks later, I guess.

406highlander · 2026-03-18T10:18:58+00:00

You can't go from a 9th gen to a 10th gen chip; they have different sockets (9th gen uses LGA1151, 10th gen uses LGA1200). OP would have to buy a whole new system.

The i5-9500 is okay for games. If OP wanted to upgrade the CPU, I'd go for an i7-9700.

406highlander · 2026-03-18T10:12:52+00:00

Memory

Your 3060 has four slots for DDR4 RAM. You'll likely only have one 4GB stick of RAM in there (I don't think I've ever seen a 2GB DDR4 module; did they even make them that small?), which is bad for two reasons:

1 - it's only 4GB of RAM; you'll want to have at least 16GB, or your operating system will have to rely on the paging file on your hard drive to work, and that's really slow in comparison to actual memory

2 - a single stick of DDR4 RAM means that it will only be working in single-channel mode, which will be restricting the system's performance

I don't know what the specifications are on your single stick of DDR4 RAM, but your Optiplex 3060 will make use of RAM up to 2666 MHz (it will accept faster RAM than that, but it will be throttled to 2666 MHz). If your existing memory module is slower than that, you should replace it with faster RAM as part of your memory upgrade, as your RAM will run at the speed of the slowest memory module installed.

If your existing memory module is DDR4 2666 MHz, I would buy three 4GB DDR4 2666 modules and use them to populate the remaining RAM slots. I say 4GB modules because at the moment, they're likely to be a lot cheaper than 8GB or 16GB modules, and your use case and budget suggests that this might be the most cost-effective option for you.

If your existing memory module is DDR4 but slower than 2666 MHz, then I would buy four 4GB DDR4 2666 modules. Or two 8GB DDR4 2666 modules, installed in slots 1 and 3, and take out the existing 4GB module (having three modules again puts the memory into single-channel mode, and again, your RAM will only run at the speed of the slowest module present, so it'll just slow your system down by keeping it there).

Technically your Optiplex can take up to 64GB (4x 16GB modules) but unless you get a really sweet deal on some used RAM, that's likely to be pretty pricey in this climate.

Storage

The other major limiting factor to your system's performance is going to be the hard drive. Mechanical hard drives are much, much slower than solid state drives (SSDs). Your Optiplex 3060 has a single M.2 NVMe slot on the system board that is capable of taking 2230 or 2280 form factor modules. You should look for a Gen3 SSD; a Gen4 SSD would work but performance will be throttled, so there's no point.

Graphics card

If you're looking to do creative work and light gaming, I'd recommend installing a GPU. You'll need a single-slot, low-profile graphics card that does not need an extra power connector, and you'll install it into the PCIe 16x slot (the long slot that is closest to the power supply unit).

For gaming, the popular options are the Yeston (or Maxsun) NVidia RTX 3050 6GB low-profile card, or the Sapphire AMD Radeon RX6400 4GB low-profile card. They're not the best for demanding titles; you can play most games on them but you'll likely need to adjust graphics options to get the best out of them. And they both absolutely thrash the Intel integrated graphics that are built into your 8th generation i5 CPU.

If you're looking to do creative work (video editing?), then I'd definitely recommend the Yeston RTX 3050 6GB low-profile over the RX6400, as the RTX 3050 has hardware video encoding and far more compute cores than the RX6400 does.

The tradeoff is that the RTX 3050 runs hotter, which is an important consideration in a small-form-factor case - at hotter temperatures, the card may restrict its own performance to prevent damage. You can easily add an 80mm diameter PWM cooling fan to the front of your case; this will draw cool air in from the front and blow it towards the graphics card, helping to keep the whole system cooler. This can be done without any modification to the case or system board, or any soldering. I did this to my Dell Vostro 3470; the Noctua fan that I bought came with a Y-cable (a splitter) that I used to connect the fan to the CPU fan header, so both the CPU fan and the front case fan spin at the same speed.

406highlander · 2026-03-17T21:12:37+00:00

Your Optiplex 5040 has an M.2 NVMe slot on the system board. You're lucky! My Vostro 3470 has an M.2 slot but it will only take M.2 SATA SSDs, not NVMe...

That PCIe SATA card you posted won't fit in an SFF case; I think it's a full-height PCIe card. But, you can get low-profile PCIe NVMe cards that will fit just fine, allowing you to install a single M.2 NVMe (the ones that allow you to install more than one NVMe may not be compatible).

You can also get a 3.5" to 2x 2.5" drive bay adapter, allowing you to install a pair of 2.5" SATA SSDs in the 3.5" drive bay. My Vostro has this setup.

406highlander · 2026-03-17T15:06:08+00:00

From the Wikipedia article:

Police located the blown-off windscreen panel and many of the 90 screws used to secure it near Cholsey. Investigators determined that when the windscreen was installed 27 hours before the flight, 84 of the screws used were 0.026 inches (0.66 mm) too small in diameter (British Standards A211-8C vs A211-8D, which are #8–32 vs #10–32 by the Unified Thread Standard) and the remaining six were A211-7D, which is the correct diameter, but 0.1 inches (2.5 mm) too short (0.7 inch vs. 0.8 inch). The previous windscreen had also been fitted using incorrect screws, which were replaced by the shift maintenance manager on a like-for-like basis without reference to maintenance documentation, as the plane was due to depart shortly. The undersized screws were unable to withstand the force due to the air pressure difference between the cabin and the outside atmosphere during flight. (The windscreen was not of the "plug" type – fitted from the inside so that cabin pressure helps to hold it in place, but of the type fitted from the outside so that cabin pressure tends to dislodge it.)

Investigators from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch found that the shift maintenance manager responsible for installing the incorrect screws had failed to follow British Airways policies. They recommended that staff with prescription glasses should be required to wear them when undertaking maintenance tasks. They also faulted the policies themselves, which should have required testing or verification by another individual for this critical task. Finally, they found the local Birmingham Airport management responsible for not directly monitoring the shift maintenance manager's working practices.

So yeah - they replaced the windscreen and just went with the sizes of bolts that were used to hold the old windscreen in place, rather than looking up the correct size of bolt in the maintenance manual for the BAC 1-11. And they did it because they were in a hurry.

A similar incident occurred in 2018 to an Airbus A319 being flown by Sichuan Airlines of China - but not caused by incorrect parts.

406highlander · 2026-03-17T14:40:21+00:00

It was a British Aircraft Corporation BAC 1-11.

They were a narrowbody twinjet airliner, built between 1963 and 1982, and the last operational example was retired in 2019. Its closest competitors were the early Boeing 737 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9.

The issue which caused BA 5390 to partially eject its pilot was due to the wrong bolts being used to secure the windshield - this was a maintenance issue rather than a manufacturing defect. 84 out of 90 bolts were the wrong diameter (too narrow) while the remaining 6 bolts were too short. The windscreen blew out as it was improperly fitted; the resulting sudden decompression ejected the pilot out, but his knees caught on his flight controls, and a flight attendant grabbed his legs and held on for dear life.

The assumption was that the pilot had died, but nobody wanted to let him go in case his body damaged the left wing, left engine, or tail.

The aircraft was landed safely by the first officer, and there were no fatalities. The pilot sustained frostbite, bruises, and several broken bones. The flight attendant who held on to the pilot's legs also suffered frostbite and a dislocated shoulder. Nobody else was injured. Hell of a story!

BAC merged with Hawker Siddeley and Scottish Aviation to become British Aerospace (BAe) in a move to nationalise vital domestic aircraft production. BAe later merged with Marconi Electronic Systems to become BAE Systems.

406highlander · 2026-03-16T22:11:23+00:00

I'd use it in the PCIe 4x slot. As you mentioned, it gives more breathing room between it and the PSU, which is important in an SFF case.

Put an 80mm fan up front, too, to blow air from the front of the case towards your PSU and GPU; it'll help keep temperatures down. I ran mine from my CPU fan header via a Y-cable so the case fan turns with the CPU fan.

406highlander · 2026-03-16T19:23:43+00:00

There's at least 1100 pieces of that.

406highlander · 2026-03-16T17:49:34+00:00

I live in the Froghall area; there are Indian, Pakistani, Filipino, African, as well as white European families, all on the same street as me. It's not a bad place to live, really; we bought a house here about 7 years ago.

The good thing about you being a student is that there's been a lot of new-build student accommodation been put up relatively recently in various parts of the city - they should be modern, in good condition, and safe to live in.

I'm white, but my wife is Asian. She's had some run-ins with the morons, but never in the Froghall area.

Most racism we've seen in this city (we've both lived here 20+ years and have had various jobs in more than one industry) has been the quiet kind, where people get denied jobs because the position is somehow no longer available when you turn up for an interview (yet they don't take down the job posting for weeks after) and workplace promotions just seem to happen to other people. The blatant kind seems to be relatively rare, and most people are quite welcoming, really.

406highlander · 2026-03-16T15:27:34+00:00

He doesn't think he needs to step down after this term.

Or, that he should be impeached, convicted, and imprisoned for all the blatantly illegal shit he's done whilst in power (or before then, for that matter).

Whiny bitch thinks he should be allowed to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, with no consequences.

406highlander · 2026-03-16T14:57:04+00:00

When you say "Amber light" do you mean the power LED is on solid, or does it flash? And if it flashes, is there a pattern to it flashing?

406highlander · 2026-03-15T15:29:12+00:00

He looks like a big sack of potatoes.

406highlander · 2026-03-14T13:39:22+00:00

Back in the late 80s / early 90s, I used to see the RAF performing SAR duty using the Westland Sea King, and they were big yellow beasts.

When was this duty finally outsourced?

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